Our busy summer is underway!

Greetings,

I wanted to take the opportunity to bring you up to speed on what is going on here at Okemo this summer. The July 4th weekend is upon us here at Okemo and it is safe to say it has been busy and will continue to be busy.  The great news is that the Evolution Bike Park at Okemo will be opening this weekend.  Work is continuing on the South Ridge A Quad chairlift to have uphill and downhill passengers, as well as installing the bike racks. We will be load testing on Thursday to get our certification.  The rainy weather has not been helpful, but the Mountain Operations guys and Sean and the Bike Park staff are eager to get things up and going.  It is looking like we will begin with a couple miles of trails to start off with and more added during the month of July.  The trails will be fun. Lots of twists and turns, rolling terrain and some bridges to cross.

The other projects we are doing are equally as fun and exciting.  We are putting bubbles on the Jackson Gore Express lift.  We are changing the name to the Quantum Four, to go along with Quantum Leap, and to be the perfect sidekick to the Sunburst Six.  The bubbles are POMA Leitner products and should be here in late summer.  We will be building a storage area, but it won’t be a barn. It will be open on all sides, but have a roof to cover the bubbles.  These chairs won’t be heated, but the bubbles will keep the elements out.

Another addition over in the Jackson Gore area is putting snowmaking pipe on White Lightning and Rolling Thunder.  We did this to make the area more enticing and more skiing terrain.  We know it can be somewhat limited over there so hopefully this helps.

Of course work on the South Face Village is moving along. Okemo is building the new lift and trails. There are a couple bridges over the ski trails we will need to build also. The new lift will be named the Sunshine Quad and it is a POMA Leitner fixed grip.  The new trail will be named Suncatcher.  Work is going well over there, but it could be a little dryer!

The facilities staff is working on some renovation projects in the Sitting Bull, the Clock Tower base daycare, the men’s room in the Summit Lodge and ladies’ room in the Sugar House.  The mountain operations staff is doing grip work on the chairlifts, as well as tower work. We have a legitimate company on site cleaning the Sunburst Six bubbles, and they are looking good. Who would have thought someone would have started a bubble cleaning company?  We are hopeful that we can keep them looking that way all winter. 

Make sure to check out the Adventure Zone this summer. We have a new mining sluice, called the Coleman Brook Mining Company, which will have some gems to mine, and we have moved the bungee jumping setup near the air bag, as we installed some bouncy houses for our younger guests.

So it will be busy with lots going on.  Photos will follow, and I will keep you up to speed.

Enjoy the July 4th weekend and many thanks for those who have helped preserve our freedom for 239 years….

Hope to see you sometime this summer around the resort or a Friday Night concert!

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM