The Sunburst Six begins operation today!!

Greetings,

Today is the day we have been all waiting for, the Sunburst Six will begin operation to our skiers and riders.  

This preview of the Sunburst Six will be happening today, beginning at 9am.  As the Okemo team has been so aggressive, we made the decision to open the Sunburst Six without the seat heaters.  There is still some work to be done to get the electrical brushes attached to the chair, as well as the electrical collector plate in the terminal in place.  We weighed the options and decided that it was going to be best to get the lift going and work on the seat heaters at night.

Words can’t describe how proud all of us here at Okemo are of the new Sunburst Six.  Our staff has been so committed to making this lift project their #1 commitment this past summer.  To give you a feel for the time frame, consider this:

• Some tree cutting on the line began on July 1
• Concrete forms were begun to be made on July 7th
• Work began in earnest on the project on July 14th.

If you do the math, July 14 to November 29 is 139 days!  That means the Northstar Express was removed, shipped to Mount Sunapee, and then all new towers and terminals were installed for the Sunburst Six.  A 60' x 120’ building was built and new electrical lines were installed on the summit.

During this time, there were over 50 Okemo employees who worked on the project, along with numerous contractors who worked on different phases of the project.  Okemo also had a very close working relationship with the lift manufacturer.  Leitner-POMA of America has been a real partner with Okemo on this project and has met many obstacles and challenges with a can-do attitude.

All of us here at Okemo are very proud of this newest addition to our lift system, and we cannot thank enough the hard work of all the Mountain Operations staff and Okemo Team members, as well as the unwavering support from all of our dedicated and loyal Okemo skiers and riders.  Enjoy the ride, and we will get those seat heaters going soon enough!

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM