Monday, November 23, 2015



Greetings,

The day is here! Okemo will be opening for skiing and riding on Tuesday November 24. I wanted to give you all some ideas on what the plan is as we get the ski season up and going.

Top-to-bottom skiing and riding is the plan. Guests will ride the F-10 carpet up to the base of the Sachem Quad. From there they will ride the Sachem and then ski down Link and Lower World Cup to the Sunburst Quad.  From there, Sunburst Six will be the lift to the summit. In looking at things, I would say that we will open on Tuesday with skiing and riding on Upper and Lower World Cup with Nor’easter opening on Wednesday. 

The snowmaking plan is to get all we can, laid down before the warmer weather arrives toward the end of the week.  We will continue to make snow tonight on Upper World Cup, Count Down, Lower World Cup, Link and Nor’easter, as well as around the Mountain Road area over toward Open Slope down toward the Sachem quad.  With the temperatures that are forecasted, I also feel there will be some capacity for the snowmakers to run some guns on Sapphire and Jolly Green Giant.

As we are heading down toward the base of Sachem, we try to get over onto the grass slopes, as those are normally colder than the paved Mountain Road. We are hopeful that we can also get to the bottom of the F-10 carpet/Open Slope area so that no walking down will be required. We are not planning to use any of our snowmaking capacity from the top of the Base Quads during this short period of cold temperatures. We just don’t foresee any benefit of trying to make snow from the top of the quads yet and then not be able to complete the link. 

On day one we will have the Base 68 CafĂ©, Summit Lodge and Sitting Bull Lounge open as well as the Clock Tower Snowsports Shop. Lift access RFID cards will be sold at the Resort Services desk.  Seasons pass holders can pick up their passes at the Resort Services desk too.

The RFID ticketing system is going through the final testing and looks to be working well. There no-doubt will be some challenges, but we feel very confident that this new system will be a great step forward for our skiers and riders.

We are looking forward to getting day one under our belt and starting Okemo's sixtieth ski season.  Thanks for your support and loyalty.

Enjoy the snow.

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM