The 411 on Okemo Grooming

For this week’s post we reached into our mail bag. The topic? Grooming. We get questions about our grooming often, so we turned to Eb Kinney, our mountain manager of 21 years to fill us in on Okemo’s grooming philosophy. Here is what he had to say:

After last season we took a hard look at our grooming and snowmaking techniques. Making changes in the way you have done something for years is never easy, but we knew it had to be done. To give you a little background, we run two shifts of 7 snowcats from 3:45 pm – 9 am and we groom roughly 500+ acres a night, most of which is groomed twice. We have changed 3 major components in our grooming and snowmaking philosophy. What we have learned is that timing is everything, when dealing with snow.

The first thing we changed in grooming is our mountain tilling program. A mountain tiller is a drag behind cultivator or as we like to call it an aerator. It breaks up the hard surface into chunks and will cultivate to 4-6” in depth. The reason for doing this is to keep the surface from getting hard and eventually icy. Even with as much natural snow as we’ve been getting, without doing this, the surface would get hard as a rock. The next step is to run a power tiller over this, grinding up the snow and leaving the corduroy finish. The timing of this is very important. In the past we did the entire mountain tilling on first shift, from 3:45- midnight. What we found was that this allowed the mountain tilling to set up hard, not allowing the power tillers to grind it up. This also seemed to leave the small ice balls that all skiers dislike. So, this season we never let our mountain tillers get more than 2-3 hours ahead of the power tillers. This seems to have made a noticeable difference to the surface and our guests.

The second change we made was in the timing of opening the snowmaking trails. Whenever possible we let our heavy snowmaking trails leach out for 24 hours before pushing them out and opening them to the public. What I mean by leach out is let the excess water drain out from the snowmaking piles. By doing this the snow is less dense, drier and makes for a better product on the first day we re-open the trail. The first runs will be a little rough, but will typically ski in very quickly. This in turn makes for a great surface the second day after we’ve mountain tilled and power tilled. This again has been well received by our guests.

The last thing we’ve changed in snowmaking is our re-surfacing program. Our snowmaking manager has been experimenting with different nozzles in our snow guns. When re-surfacing we install smaller nozzles making a finer crystal and a nice light surface that our skiers can enjoy right away. This also allows us to move faster across the mountain. This also has been well received. Although you don’t feel our grooming has improved, we have gotten many compliments on the noticeable changes. By no means do I think we can’t become better. You have my word that we will continue to make improvements and push hard to re gain our guest’s confidence.

I hope that helps explain our grooming strategies at Okemo. As always I look forward to and appreciate all comments - both good and bad – so keep them coming!

Best regards,

Eb Kinney
Mountain Manager
Okemo Mountain Resort

Everything but the kitchen sink...

The past 24 hours have been interesting here at Okemo. At Noon on Saturday Feb 5, the weather forecast was for 6 – 12 inches of snow. At 5pm the forecast was changed to 3 – 5 inches of snow with some possible icing, at 8pm the forecast was for sleet, 1-2 inches of snow and a potential thunderstorm.

Well the weatherman got the snow accumulation and the thunderstorm correct. Snow thunder is an anomaly and not something that happens very often. I’ve only seen it once in my life and I’ve never seen the type of thunderstorm that was experienced during last evening. So what did that mean for the morning opening?? Well it was interesting to say the least.

What began as dealing with some snow, soon turned into an ice problem. The Mountain Ops staff got the Base Quad, Sachem and Glades peak lifts open so we had access to the summit. The Black Ridge & Morning star as well as the carpet lifts were all good to go. The guys then went to Northstar lift and ran into some ice, some hard ice..

The decision was made to try and get the Coleman Brook Express and Jackson Gore Express up and going before the Northstar. Keep in mind, it takes anywhere from 7-11 guys to get these lifts going. The towers have to be checked to make sure the wheels (sheaves) are turning. (When they aren’t, you climb the tower with your climbing harness and beat the ice off the sheave). After the line is cleared, the chairs need to be put on the lift. This takes pushing them on with a couple guys and then getting them "spaced" for the day. As you can see it takes some time.

While some of the guys are getting the lifts going, there are several others who are going around the mountain looking at trails to make sure they are groomed and skiable. When it is decided they are not, a groomer is called over to take his machine either down or up the trail. Of course throw in that the crust that was evident on the snow was not skiable and thus the mogul trails needed to be groomed. So a groomer goes down slowly over each mogul to break things up and make it skiable. If this wasn’t done, then the rope would have to be pulled.

Now we throw in the Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster. The Ripper had some ice problems on the rails. Another group of guys was working on de-icing the Timber Ripper. Hitting the rail and removing the ice. We are learning on the Ripper and we learned that it takes time, more time than we thought...

So I’m here to thank you for your patience. I know we could do a better job communicating with our guests on what is happening. We apologize if one of your favorite trails wasn’t opened, we apologize that we had to groom the moguls, and we apologize if the skiing wasn’t the Okemo experience. I do know that things will get better and today was one of those weather days. We will work hard to improve and learn from every one of these, but safety is paramount in our decision making and there are times when things just take time.

Thanks for your support and for skiing and riding here at Okemo Mountain Resort

Bruce Schmidt
Vice-President and General Manager

More Snowmaking? You bet!

The end of January is upon us and that means we are heading into the exciting months of February and March. February, while the shortest month in number of days, has some of the most exciting times with normally more snow, some great weather, excellent skiing and good business. March has the weather, more sun and some excellent spring skiing.

Snowmaking is continuing here at Okemo. No doubt it is on an as-needed basis, but we have made snow every week through January and plan to continue making. Normally, snowmaking temperatures end in early March, but we have made snow in March before……

The decisions on where to make snow is made collectively with input from mountain operations, ski patrol and myself. There may be a need to make snow to freshen up the moguls, high traffic areas, or to just make the skiing better. The intent is to pick specific areas and work on them and not get spread out so much on the mountain. With the fresh powder, the need for snowmaking becomes somewhat diminished, but we are ready to make when needed.

Grooming this season has continued with an aggressive schedule. The groomers have kept some of our trails ungroomed, but the others are being done each night. Eb Kinney, Okemo's mountain manager, changes the routine of grooming during the month so the groomers don’t always begin in the same area. This helps change things up and allows different trails to set up in different ways. The mogul trails have been groomed and snow made as needed to try and keep them in top shape.

The latest addition to the groomers' responsibility is the Superpipe. This is groomed several times a week and done with the winch cat and with the laser guided Zaugg pipe cutter. From what I hear, the pipe is in great shape.

Here's hoping for some fresh powder and great weather as February is upon us ...

Bruce Schmidt

VP & GM

What a ski operator lives for

This season has been playing out to be one of our better ones in terms of number of snow storms, amount of snowfall, and overall winter weather. At the risk of sounding greedy, here are a few things I live for:

• Ideal snowmaking temperatures between 0 – 15 degrees. Above 15 is OK, but not as efficient. Below 0, while we do make snow, there is a much higher alert for frozen pipes, staff frostbite and overall problems.


• Snowstorms on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays. Other days can affect travel for guests, perception of travel problems and clean up issues. We like to clean up midweek when it is not as busy.


• Snowstorms in Southern New England. SIMB...(Snow in my backyard) is great. It gets people thinking about skiing. And, they know Okemo will have great skiing. It also helps when the Weather Channel plays up every storm like it is the "storm of the year". We like when snow is on everyone’s mind!


• Dry Powder Snow. Snow that is sticky can be tricky. Snow with a crust can be trickier. Trails that can be groomed aren’t the issue, trails that are gladed can’t be groomed and therein lies a problem. Sometimes it is a waiting game, other times we send in staff to break up the snow, sometimes we try to sneak a groomer on some of the trail. (Note to self: The Narrows is named that because it is narrow... too narrow for a groomer. And believe me we have tried!)


• Sunny skies on Weekends. Self explanatory.

The most recent storm was an example of nice dry snow with a thin mix of sleet at the end. Thus, we got some crust. It has really affected the glades and moguls. The Mountain Operations staff had to "run over" the moguls so they became "beginner" moguls. The plan is to re-seed and make snow on Black Out and Sel’s Choice before the weekend so we can get them back up to snuff.

So while I'd prefer my perfect world as outlined above, there are also realities about what happens in a Mountain environment. The best thing we can do is try to communicate what we know at the time to our guests and work our hardest to try and provide the best skiing and riding possible.

In other news - the Bigloo is being built today in the courtyard at Jackson Gore. Check it out on the live web cam.

It looks like an amazing day today, hope you can get out skiing. It is Day 59 of operations. How many times have you been on the slopes???

Bruce Schmidt
VP & GM

So you want to build a superpipe?

Okemo's Superpipe is slated to open this Saturday, January 15th. This will be great news for skiers and riders and the completion of a big project by Mountain Operations. Believe it or not, this project got underway about 21 days ago!

A lot of people don't realize that the pipe gets it basic shape from the ground below. The earth is actually dug out to form the basic template of a half pipe. Snow is then used to build up the walls and create the bottom of the pipe.

Once the snow is made up to the sides of the earthen pipe, the guns are shut down and work begins on phase one to "push in the pipe". The walls begin to take shape and snow is moved from top to bottom and bottom to top, as the basic structure comes together. Barry Tucker (VP Mountain Operations) and Eb Kinney (Mountain Manager) then take some readings with a laser level to determine the line and get a feel for where the walls will eventually be. After this first session of pushing and measuring, then it is back to snowmaking. Okemo works to maintain 18 foot walls with a 17 degree pitch on our Superpipe, and that takes a lot of snow!

After another round of pushing and shaping with groomers, the "cutting of the wall" begins. This work begins with an excavator for basic shape and is finished with the precision of a Zaugg pipe cutter. The Zaugg is kept in line with a laser level and a winch cat to help the machine travel up the pipe. Normally it takes a couple of passes to get it "race ready".

At this point it becomes all about letting riders take their turns so we can dial in the fine tuning of the walls. The grooming team gets on a schedule of cutting the pipe and touching up the walls a few times during the week. It is important to not cut the pipe too much - as every time it is cut we are a few inches closer to the earthen walls. As the season progresses, this can also cause the transition to become too far between the walls.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped get the pipe up and running this year. It has taken a little longer than we had expected, but we feel the final product will be well worth the wait...


Ride on,
Bruce
V.P. & G.M.

Snowmaker to the Rescue

Okemo Mountain Resort operates on a 24/7 schedule 365 days a year. Sure, during the winter months we open a ski area during the daylight hours, but there is so much more that happens throughout the night. In fact, most times our guests are not even aware - but there is always something going on.

On the day of the big snow storm last week (Dec 26-27th) a guest who was staying at Trailside had her two beagles escape from their unit. Of course the wind was howling and the snow blowing, making it nearly impossible to find them. She called Okemo and the word went out to the night staff to be on the look out for these two dogs. Unfortunately those little characters weren’t seen at all that night... they must have had their nose to the ground looking for rabbits!

Well on the evening of January 2nd Jason Burton (who was the snowmaker on the noon to midnight shift) spotted them on the Buckhorn trail. He immediately called Brian Boudrou, our Night Operations Manager and he came and picked the dogs up and took them down into his office for the night. He laid some jackets on the floor and turned the heat up. Except for a few porcupine quills from an encounter in the woods, they weren’t too worse for the wear - just two very tired pups.

Brian called the owner the next morning, who was ecstatic to learn they had been found. He then arranged them to be transported to the local animal clinic where they could be looked over while awaiting their "people".

Many thanks to Brian, Jason and the entire Night Operations crew - you went above and beyond in making this happy ending.

Bruce

Weather, Wind and What's Ahead

The year 2011 began with our first January thaw. I guess we should have expected such a "gift" since the weather has been ever changing for the past 6 weeks. One major snow storm, some mixed precipitation and a very cold December. Typical weather in Vermont. But a quick turnaround is the name of the game here, and snowmaking was back on as of last night. Our focus will be on both re-surfacing and patching existing terrain and working on new terrain.

Trails that have been open the longest will get first priority. These include Upper and Lower World Cup, Sapphire, Defiance as well as Upper and Lower Arrow and the base area. Some trails will get the full treatment and others will receive attention in certain sections, depending upon need. The weekend's warm weather opened up some thin spots on heavy traffic areas, so it will be obvious as to were we need to make snow.

New terrain to focus on will include the Pipe, Dream Weaver and the lift line trails. We will also revisit our slopeside lodging trails and do what we can to keep them open.

Now to wind. It goes without saying that our thoughts are with those who were injured in the Sugarloaf ski lift accident. Since that accident many of our guests have asked us what the wind procedures are at Okemo.

First, our Lift Maintenance department is staffed with top notch, experienced lift mechanics. Our Head Mechanic has been with Okemo for 20 years. His longevity is a strength not to be underestimated. He and his staff ride each lift everyday and focus on preventative maintenance all year long. Okemo's commitment to safety is both well-documented and respected in the industry.



Ski lifts are affected both by direction and speed of wind. Whenever there is a potential for a lift to be shutdown due to wind, our lift mechanics and mountain operations staff team up to constantly monitor the situation. Mechanics are vigilant to watch changing weather, operations staff ride the lift line on snowmobile to constantly assess conditions, and our ski patrol (riding the lifts) maintain a direct line of communication with mechanics. At any point any member of the team feels that wind is causing dangerous conditions they have full support to cease lift operations. Constant vigilance is not only very important, it is a priority.

This past week was very busy and hopefully you were able to enjoy some great skiing and riding. Receiving a snowstorm around Christmas is always a blessing and helped enhance the holiday week. The Okemo staff will now be working on making things better as we head into January. Thanks for your support and feel free to drop a note on how we are doing.

Bruce