Outlook on the Holiday Week

I can hear the noise………..sounds like the snow guns are blasting away.  The snowmakers got some time off this week and now it looks like some cold weather is on the way.  It is probably easier for me to list out what we are planning:

• Snowmaking Friday night is going to concentrate on some resurfacing of existing terrain, and also head towards some new terrain. Depending on the temperatures, this may include Sunburst, Escape, Mountain Road, Coleman Brook, Rimrock, and the rest of Count Down, Sprint, Moments rest and perhaps others.  We will plan to run as many guns as we can and have water for.
• Galaxy Bowl in the Clock Tower base will be worked on this weekend as well as widening the beginner areas in the base.
• Jackson Gore continues to be a goal of ours for the middle of next week. We remain confident we can get there.
• This weekend the plan is to have 5 lifts and 15 trails.
• Looking out towards Christmas, the estimate for trails is that we anticipate expanding our terrain to between 25 – 30 trails for around Christmas and we are hopeful that this number increases up to 40 during Christmas week.  Obviously there is a lot that has to come together for this to happen, but we are optimistic.
• Right now we have open 6.3 miles of terrain or 88 acres.
• Many people are inquiring about the ski in/ski out trails. They are a priority for us and we understand their importance. We will be heading towards many of them as we can prior to Christmas.
• The Sugar house lodge will be opening on Saturday with the cafeteria opening.  Smokey Joe’s and Carvers will be open during the mid-week.
• Snowmaking will be on-going during the day and it is quite likely that there will be some skiing under the snow guns.

They say patience is a virtue and we all need that right now.  The good news is that the staff here at Okemo is optimistic about a great ski season and ready to provide the Okemo Difference for all our skiers and riders. There are still some “rooms at the Inn or condos”, but they are filling up quick.  Also, check out the new Sno-Cat excursions that are happening as well as 4 limited seating dates during the season for the Sno-Cat dinners.

Happy Holidays and see you on the slopes……….

Bruce Schmidt

Okemo GM

Winter Shall Prevail - guaranteed!

Rumor #1. There will be no winter. FALSE: Winter will arrive at some point. Guaranteed. It is just a little late.

Rumor #2. Christmas is being moved to January 25th to account for Winter being late. FALSE.

So there you have it. Winter will arrive and so will Christmas, although Winter may be a little off schedule!!!

I gathered my team this morning. Using the combined wisdom of Ray (Snowmaking Manager), Barry (VP of Mountain Operations), Eb (Mountain Manager) and myself-- here is the very latest:

• Jackson Gore will not open this weekend. The earliest prediction is middle of next week. Sunburst, Escape and Mountain Road all have a good start on them (with snow).  Snowmaking on Jackson Gore trails will commence tonight.


• And when that cold air settles in… things will go very quickly.


• Solitude lift and trails, including epic restaurant will not open this weekend. Earliest prediction is towards the end of next week.


• The Sugar House will open this weekend.


• The Superpipe will not be open for the Christmas Holidays.


• We will get as many of the slope side lodging trails open as quickly as we can. We all understand and realize their importance, especially to those who have homes located in these areas.


• The galaxy bowl will be worked on beginning Friday – guns are already locked and loaded in that area.


• Wardance is important for racing and all of us would like to have them on their own trail. That will be one of our mid-mountain objectives beginning next week.


• There is a desire to get one of the larger trails off of the summit open. It will most likely be Upper Chief.


• It is highly unlikely that we will have the Nor’easter Terrain Park open. Our plan will be to have some features, rails and other items on different trails if the park is not open. There will be gated entrances to these areas.


• Snowmaking will continue around the free learning carpets in both base areas as we head into the Christmas week.

The weather has surely been chasing us up to higher elevations for snowmaking. The bottom line is that we just make snow where it is the coldest… and we can achieve the best production. 

Christmas week is just 10 days away, and the excitement is building.  Despite the weather not being great, reports from our guests on the hill are very positive. Hope you have plans to join us!  (And if you don’t, lodging tells me there are still a few openings here and there, but not many.)

Bruce Schmidt

Vice-President & General Manager

Okemo Mountain Resort

Snowmaking, Choices and Thanks

Cold weather returned last night. The snowguns were blasting on the upper mountain as well as some terrain on the lower mountain. Choices had to be made last night, so it was decided that we would concentrate on the upper terrain, Lower World Cup and a few guns in the base area to make sure that we kept the conditions on the existing terrain the best. We also wanted to be sure to be able to give some other skiing and riding options off of the summit. While it is not ideal to access the mountain off of the F-10 carpet and Sachem, at least we are not running shuttle buses.

We realize that Saturday was a busy day. There is so much pent up demand to get skiing. In hindsight, we should have made sure that the entire length of Upper World Cup was open and not sent skiers and riders over to Drop Off. There were a few things that forced this to happen, but we learned to do all we can to not have that happen again.

Okemo also was not giving any reduced rates for ski racing teams. It became evident that ski teams were purchasing full rate tickets in order to get on the slopes. I want to thank our ski patrol, safety ambassadors and other staff for working hard to stay on top of any issues and also thanks to our guests for their patience as Okemo adds more terrain and works hard to get the ski and ride season going.

Bruce Schmidt
General Manager

Top-to-bottom Skiing & Riding!

Good morning,

Interesting night of snowmaking for Friday night 12/11 into Saturday. Temperatures did not get as cold as was forecasted, so snowmaking was concentrated on the upper mountain trails. Wet Bulb at 3am at Mid Mountain was only 27. That was on the high end of the forecasted temperatures. The good news is that we are going to be able to open up trails so we have skiing top to bottom. Today we are going to open Link, Lower World Cup and Fairway. Guests will ride the F-10 carpet to the Sachem quad and then either take the Glades Peak to the summit or ski down to the base of the Northstar Express. There will be no downloading and no shuttle buses. Guest can ski right back to the base lodge. Due to the warmer than forecasted temperatures, we will plan to open on Sunday the base quads and lower mountain road, Green Ridge Triple lift and Jolly Green Giant and Double Dipper. The F-10 carpet will remain open, but not the Sachem quad, on Sunday.

Saturday nights temperatures look colder which will be a good start as we head into the final two weeks before Christmas. More terrain will be added as we head into next week. Temps look good into next week. Our goal is to head into Jackson Gore as quickly as possible as well as head towards other priorities such as Wardance and the lodging trails. We will keep everyone informed as things change.

Happy Holidays

Bruce Schmidt
Vice-President & General Manager
Okemo Mountain Resort

Another great night of snowmaking!

The crew made snow on several trails including the lower half of Upper World Cup, Lower World Cup, Drop off and Link. It was also the beginning of snowmaking on Timberline and Jolly Green.

The thermometer was moving around all night with some real fluctuations. With the sky as clear as it was last night, we were hoping for a little colder temperatures. In talking with our weather forecaster, Tony, it looks like this unseasonable weather pattern should be ending this week. He thinks this unseasonable pattern we are stuck in should break by Wednesday and we should begin to see some more normal winter weather. Let’s hope he is correct.

Sunny skies today with temps in the 40’s. Snowmaking will end up shutting down today and the guys will get a couple warm days off. We anticipate being able to make snow again beginning Tuesday night. We are as aggressive as we can with the temperatures that we have. Our goal is to get top to bottom skiing and get out of the shuttling business as soon as possible. At the same time we will be heading towards Jackson Gore and Solitude to begin to spread out the traffic.

Enjoy the sun today!

Bruce
General Manager

Planning for the Holidays

This way to great snow!

As December 1st arrives, one thing that seems to be on everyone’s mind is the weather.  I think we are all amazed at how unseasonably warm it has been.  No doubt our entire staff has done a great job in getting Okemo open for skiing and riding, even if the terrain has been limited.  It takes all of us to provide the Okemo experience and for that effort we are all thankful.

I get asked a lot, are we going to stay open? What happens as we head into Christmas for slopes and trails?.  My normal answer is we will try to stay open at all costs and we’ll make decisions as we get closer to Christmas on trails etc.  There is no real science into planning for our busy holiday season and where we make snow.  Our goal is to have as much as much terrain as possible open for the holiday’s as temperatures permit.  No doubt there will be some challenges as each day we don’t have the good snowmaking temperatures is one less day we can prepare.  No doubt tougher decisions need to be made as Christmas looms and the weather stays mild. 

One thing can be assured and that is that we will be as aggressive as we can be to get trails open and we will use all our resources available.  Staff will work the hours that they need to and machines will be run.  Our goal will be to have several different pods of the mountain open for skiing and riding, although there may be less trails in that pod open.  It is important to get spread out and use our lift system in the best possible way.  Of course we have other demands from slope side trails and racing, to our ski and ride programs that need terrain too.  There are many requests and we will work hard to satisfy as much as we can.

It is safe to say that when it gets cold, it won’t take long for our snowmaking and grooming team to get the trails open and looking good.  Our snowmaking capacity and staff are second to none when it comes to making it happen with the right conditions. 

Bruce Schmidt

General Manager

Thankful to be Open

Opening day has arrived.  I wasn’t as optimistic as to whether we would be open on Thanksgiving  last Saturday, but with some good temperatures, hard work, a little luck and a foot of snow, ta da, we are open.  It is quite a business we are in, one day we are planning to open our Mini Golf and adventure zone because we don’t have any snow, and then we are skiing and riding with some great conditions.

The snowmaking forecast will be a challenge this coming week no doubt.  It does look like we are in a quick warm spell through this weekend and into early next week. As we get through the week, the temperatures begin dropping with what looks like some much colder weather arriving the first week in December.

So where do we go from here?  When we can make snow, the crew will begin branching out on some of the upper mountain trails where the temperatures are colder as well as those that get us some movement off the summit. Defiance will be worked on as it is close to Upper World Cup and takes some pressure off of World Cup, Sapphire and Sunburst will be made on as Sunburst gets us towards Escape and into Jackson Gore and Sapphire is a good trail to work on as we head towards the Green Ridge and Route 103, Upper Arrow down to Lower Arrow.  Sapphire also gets us to Solitude and Heaven’s Gate. It is important during the early season to get spread out with skiing and riding so we can make the experience better for everyone and get terrain open as we head to the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. All of us can find something to be thankful for.  Keep your eye on the web site and you will find the latest news and updates…….

Think snow and some cold weather…….

Bruce Schmidt

VP & GM