Great forecast, snowmakers are ready!

Greetings,

Some rain this week will bring out the fall colors, no doubt. Columbus Day is 3 short weeks away!

Have you seen the latest Farmer’s Almanac forecast map? Now this is showing us the way winter should be!

I use this with props given to the 2012 Farmers Almanac to emphasize that this coming winter will be one to remember. We have all heard the old timers' signs of a tough impending winter coming; lots of acorns, bees sectioning off the hive early, squirrels gathering nuts early and wooly caterpillars being brown, black or all brown or all black!

Here are a few you probably haven’t heard of: woodpeckers sharing a tree, thick hair on back of a cow’s neck, early arrival of crickets on the hearth, spiders entering the house in great numbers, and my all time favorite... "See how high the hornet’s nest, ‘twill tell how high the snow will rest".

So what does it mean? Probably very little, but we do like to talk about it. I can tell you that all of us here at Okemo are confident in a great winter, and we are even willing to bet this winter will be one of the best in recent memory.

So when will the snowguns start blowing? As soon as the temperatures drop! This summer there has been a considerable amount of work done on our snowmaking infrastructure, with pumps rebuilt at the mid-mountain pump station and motors upgraded in the base pump station. We also added $150,000 of new snow guns to our arsenal of heavy duty snow guns. Throw in a couple new snow cats (one specific to maintaining our terrain parks) and things are looking really good!

If you are in town, take a drive up the Mountain road, check out the foliage and great views and envision all the snow that will be on the trails soon enough! Calvin the Catamount is predicting 176 inches for the season...

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM

Irene - One Year Later

Greetings,

This week there has been many reminders about the anniversary of Hurricane Irene.  Today, August 28 is the actual day of this historical event in Vermont and Okemo history.  To say this was unexpected would be true.  I recall that day as being one to waking up to some rain and being mindful that we were expecting 3-4 inches of rain. What we got was closer to 8 inches of rain. 

There was so much that was happening that Sunday.  Getting to Okemo in the morning, it was obvious that there were problems developing and things were happening quickly.  Roads were washing out, water was going through buildings in the base area, pumps stations were being inundated and we were witnessing a crumbling of roads and bridges.  There were many Okemo staff that came into to help the situation and others would have if they could get in. By the time the seriousness of the situation was evident, many roads were washed out and travel was virtually impossible.

 

Okemo was lucky. By the time the water had receded, we were looking at damage of between $300 - $400,000.  Our marketing and lodging offices had been flood damaged and we also received some damage to roads, parking lots, some golf course bridges as well as other drainage culverts.  Many in Vermont suffered far worse. Some of our staff lost their homes, many had flooded basements or roads and still others were without power or access for over a week. 

They say during this type of life challenges, the good always come out in humans. This was so evident after Irene.  Neighbor helped neighbor, those who could donated money, food and equipment. Roads were made passable, culverts repaired and hugs were given.  Okemo staff rallied around each other to help those who were left with so little.  Okemo held the next Jackson Gore Music Series and over $15,000 was raised in donations and supplies. Okemo guests were calling asking where they could donate clothing or food as they had seen the photos of water charging down Main Street.

 

On this one year anniversary of Hurricane Irene, I wanted to take the time to thank all of you who stepped up to help those Vermonters in need.  Your support was greatly appreciated. I also want to thank the entire Okemo staff.  What you all did to help others and put Okemo back together after Irene was notable and so very much appreciated. The long hours and extra effort as we headed into the winter season were tough on everyone, but the work was done and when winter came, Okemo was ready. Thank you very much.

Bruce Schmidt

Okemo GM

Two New Attractions in Summer; Three New Trails for Winter!

I hope you have been enjoying your summer. It sure has been a busy one here at Okemo! While our fearless leader is away for some much deserved time off, I thought I would fill you in on what's happening around the resort.

Our Adventure Zone is in full-swing with the addition of two brand-new attractions this summer. Our Segway ® PT Tours entered the lineup in late June, with the Sawyer’s Sweep Zipline Tour soon thereafter in early July. I had the pleasure of taking the off-road Segway® Tour last week with Okemo’s very own Chris Carner. He is just as outstanding on the Segways as he is on the snow! In fact, in so many ways, those Segways operate in a way that makes you feel like you ARE on the snow. If you have never experienced them, it is a definite must-do before the snow flies.

And the Zipline Tour… well you know what they say about a picture being worth a 1,000 words right? I’ll skip the words (lucky you) and go with this:

Book your tour today by calling (802) 228-1600.

And, of course the COUNTDOWN to winter… which is just 108 days but who’s counting? We have some exciting news about THREE brand-new gladed areas, which will add 16 acres of tree skiing and riding to our lineup! These new gladed trails run from the top of Upper Mountain Road to Easy Rider; from the top of the Coleman Brook Trail to Mountain Road; and from Mountain Road to Village Run. Stay tuned for updates from the hill, and of course, trail names!

We have also added TWO new grooming machines to the fleet including another Prinoth 500 horsepower Beast and an agile Prinoth Bison Park Cat. While these machines are “behind the scenes”, you will certainly enjoy the fresh corduroy they’ll add on a nightly basis!

Finally, we’ll be adding ONE additional Waffle Cabin at Jackson Gore! This is BIG TIME as that sweet, siren smell of those beguiling Belgian waffles will now tempt skiers and riders at both base areas. How’s that for some good news?

See you on the hill soon, Jenn

Not Just for Winter Anymore!

Greetings,

First day of Summer has arrived! Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on June 20, 2012, at 7:09 P.M. (EDT).

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, each year the timing of the solstice depends on when the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator. This occurs annually on June 20 or June 21 in North America, depending on your time zone. The word solstice is from the Latin solstitium, from sol (sun) and stitium (to stop), reflecting the fact that the sun appears to stop at this time. In our region, we notice that the sun is higher in the sky throughout the day, and its rays strike Earth at a more direct angle, causing the efficient warming we call summer. In the winter, just the opposite occurs: the sun is directly overhead at its most northern point at "high-noon" on the summer solstice, creating more sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere on this day then any other. So what are you going to do on the longest day of the year?

CampGokemo has opened up at Okemo and anyone who visits the Jackson Gore area Monday thru Saturday will see lots going on at camp. Plenty of activities happen during the day ranging from swimming, to hikes, team sports to rock climbing. There are also visits to Plymouth State Park on some days and field trips to area attractions.

In speaking with the "golf guys", things are going well at both Okemo Valley Golf Course and Tater Hill Golf Club. The greens are in great shape, the grass is growing quickly and the irrigation systems are going full swing during this hot weather. Did you know some of those guys begin mowing greens at 5 am? It is a lot like the winter operations guys, except it is much warmer! Rodney, who is the course superintendent at Okemo Valley and Eric at Tater Hill work hard to keep their courses looking good and it shows.

The biggest question I am getting asked..."how is the zip line coming?" Well, things are looking good. The name is Sawyer’s Sweep Zip line, and the lower two sections are complete. Work is progressing nicely on the upper sections. We are anticipating an early July opening and guests can begin inquiring about reservations at Okemo.com. We will have a more firm opening date to share soon.

The Adventure Zone begins 7-day a week operation beginning on Friday June 29th, so be sure to check it out!

Enjoy the sun and have some fun... Okemo, not just for Winter anymore!!

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM

Summer Fun is Underway!

Greetings,

It is time to begin some weekly blog posts to talk about what is going on during the summer. I’ll try to not do some shameless advertising, but some of my descriptors may come out of the marketing vocabulary! Either way, I’ll keep you informed as to what is going on.

There is going to be many new things to do this summer in the Adventure Zone. The largest and most expensive addition is the new Sawyer’s Sweep Zip line tour. The new high-flying, treetop tour located on the mountain behind the Resort’s Jackson Gore Inn will feature a rope ladder, suspended bridges, tree platforms and seven zip lines that rise 40 to 50 feet above the ground - the longest of which is 900 feet. Okemo’s zip line tour will operate year round with a different experience in every season, and the tour will take approximately 2 hours.

We have also added a new rock climbing wall. Actually new to us... as we purchased it from Killington. Our very own Diane Mueller did some authentic painting so it looks like a real wall, well almost! The Amp Energy Big Air Bag is also going to be set up for the summer. Purchase a ticket and then climb up the stairs in the staging set up and jump 30 feet into the bag. This should be lots of fun. The last new addition is Segway tours - those two-wheeled, always balanced vehicles. We plan to have tours around the resort area in Jackson Gore.

The mountain operations staff has been helping the zip line contractor set up their poles and string some cables. There are two large 50 foot poles that will be the finish of the zip line and they have already been erected. They have moved on to completing some of the others, with a real tough one near the Moonshadow trail. For this installation, they've had to drag the pole about 300 feet into the woods before being able to stand it up.

Of course all the other mountain work is moving along. All the chairs are now off of Quad A as lift maintenance is doing a normal x-ray inspection of the main haul cable and the grips are being inspected. Work is ongoing in the maintenance shop with the groomer tracks having their belting replaced and the groomers are getting an overhaul.

So that brings you up to date on some things happening around the resort.

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM

Closing Up Winter, Looking Ahead to Summer

Greetings,

As fate would have it, as soon as Okemo runs out of snow and we close for the season, the warm weather disappears and cooler and more seasonable temperatures return. The mountain operations team (back in their winter gear!) have been busy cleaning things up, preparing the lifts for summer maintenance and putting things away. Today we even had some snow at the summit!

Lots of time and effort goes into opening and operating Okemo Mountain Resort, but a significant amount goes into closing things up too. State law dictates that we remove 10% of the chairs from each lift for a thorough inspection. The lift maintenance team removes them and scatters them around the base of the chairlifts to make this inspection easier. The lift shacks are boarded up to protect the glass. The summit lodge is boarded up for the same reason.

The snowmakers have been putting guns away and bringing in snowmaking hose. Inevitably they miss one and the groomers encounter it in the spring. Of course you know they find it with the mountain tiller and then all heck breaks loose... kind of like running over some wire with your lawn mower blade! The groomer mechanics really love when a hose gets wrapped in a power tiller attachment. Needless to say the next few hours are filled with all kinds of fun removing the tangled hose.

The groomers have been putting attachments away, clearing up some of the snow on the mountain road and bringing the mountain tillers to the upper mountain. We put them there now so they can be easily accessed in the fall. The mountain road will be opened probably sometime in May.

Looking ahead to the weekend, remember that Okemo Valley Golf Course will be opening for the season on Saturday 4/7. Tater Hill to follow in late April. I will continue to write on the blog periodically to keep you all informed as to what is going on. Work on the Canopy tour will begin in early May and we are hopeful for a July 4th weekend opening.

Thanks for your support this past winter and we are hoping to see you all this summer taking advantage of all we have to offer.

Bruce Schmidt
Okemo GM

Closing Day Announced

As the warm weather is making the days enjoyable, it is also melting away the snow that our Snowmakers worked so hard to make all season. The groomers and Mountain operations staff have done a remarkable job keeping the skiing and riding going.

The time has come to put the 2011-12 ski season into the history books. Okemo Mountain Resort will be closing for the season at the end of the ski day on Sunday March 25th. It will be day 123 for this season. While we gave a gallant fight, the warming sun has been too much for even our large snowmaking effort and too many open spots have been developing. The Okemo Slush Cup has also been cancelled for this year.

I want to thank everyone for choosing to ski & ride at Okemo this past season, and appreciate all the guests that have read my blog and submitted their feedback. I consider each and every comment I receive - and frankly rely on them to help shape the future of Okemo. If you ever have thoughts or questions, I would invite you to share them.

Okemo Valley Golf Course and Tater Hill will both be opening soon, so get your clubs ready! And, we are excited to share that coming this summer to the Adventure Zone will a new Zipline Canopy Tour adventure. We are expecting a July 2012 opening, so stay tuned. The Canopy Tour will join the Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster, Lumberin Cal’s Mini Golf, The Maples Disc Golf and The Stump Jumper Bungee Trampoline for loads of family fun.

Thanks again, and enjoy the summer.

Bruce