When are we opening Sachem, and other snowmaking objectives

People ask me if I get out skiing at all. The answer is somewhat. I try to get out on the slopes 2-3 times a week, but unfortunately it doesn’t always happen. Tim and Diane [Mueller] encourage managers to get out and experience the snow so we can better answer guest’s questions and concerns. Barry Tucker and Eb Kinney, our VP of Mountain Ops and Mountain Manager also try to get out the same each week so they know what is going on. I haven’t gotten out this year yet, but plan to this weekend.

Besides "when will Sachem open", the most frequently asked question I get right now is what is the snowmaking plan?. Our goal right now is to get as many different types of terrain open as we can before December 26th. That means beginner, intermediate and expert trails. How we make that happen is essentially based on the weather forecast.

The forecast for the next 48-72 hours is usually the most accurate forecast, and the one we look to constantly. If the forecast is showing winter temperatures in the teens or below, the tendency is to go after the larger trails with more acreage that require more snow. If the temps are not as cold, we may look towards the shorter trails. At any one time, we have trail objectives for the lower mountain, mid-mountain and upper mountain so when the temperature is right, we are ready to move.

By this weekend we are hopeful to have Upper and Lower Chief open as well as Sidewinder. Nor’easter will be very close behind (BTW don't forget to get your P.S.P Pass, now required for entry into Nor'easter). Being 16 days from Christmas, we are also making sure that some of our snowmaking fire power is directed toward maintenance of trails that have already opened. Maintaining the surface on those trails, while at times challenging, is very important.

Another important objective is to make sure we get snow made on the trails with slopeside homes. Sachem will definitely be the one we head to as our mid mountain objective with the Kettle Brook and Ledgwood areas being our lower mountain objective. We complete the loop by heading over to the trails in the Morningstar/Solitude area.

Bottom line is that every single trail is important to us as well as you. We do our best to prioritize and balance what we feel will make the best skiing and riding experience possible. Please continue to let us know about your skiing and riding experiences and Happy Holiday’s.

Bruce Schmidt
VP and GM
Okemo Mountain Resort

8,000-9,000 gallons per minute!

Okemo uses a weather service, called Northwinds Weather. This weather service is used by many resorts in New England and does a really good job of forecasting hourly temperatures as well as elevation weather. Tony, the meteorologist, even visits Okemo to get to know the terrain so he can predict with more precision. Of course that means we blame him when we don’t have good, cold weather! His forecast for the next week? "Partly Cloudy with Flurries" and temps good for snowmaking.

At our morning snowmaking meeting, Barry Tucker VP of Mountain Ops, Eb Kinney, Mountain Manager, and Ray Kennedy, Snowmaking Manager, were all talking about how good things looked out on the mountain. Ray spoke of the fact that he has been able to max the system. That means we are pumping any where between 8000 – 9000 gallons a minute!


Eb spoke of how good the snowmaking was on Upper and Lower World Cup, but he was not happy with how firm things were on Saturday. Barry went out on a limb and said Solitude lifts and trails will be open by this coming midweek, with Jackson Gore by the weekend. Somewhat different than last week and for that matter last year. (If you don't recall, we opened for the season on this day, Dec 5th of 2009.)

Our plan continues to head towards Jackson Gore and add new terrain. We fired up guns on Lower Chief, and Heaven’s Gate and Screamin Demon are almost done so Solitude can open. Over in Jackson Gore, snow has been made to the base of the Jackson Gore Express and we are now headed down towards Fast Track and Inn Bound. Our plan is to work on Quantum Leap and Vortex and open them right along with the Jackson Gore lift and trail pod -- it is just so much efficient to make snow under a lift when its not operating.

These temperatures will also allow us to work in the Clock Tower base area. We expect to have the Basin Carpet and teaching area ready for the weekend as well as expand terrain around the bottom of the lifts, Open Slope and Bull Run. That will go a long way into making this place look more like a ski resort! Work will also began on the mid-mountain trails such as Wardance & Sel’s choice.

At the same time, we are going to keep some guns on existing terrain to make sure surfaces stay in top shape. Lifts operating this week will include Quad B, The Northstar, F-10 Carpet and the Glades Peak. On the weekend, we will add the lifts in Jackson Gore, Solitude and Green Ridge. For those wondering about the slopeside trails, we will be heading to them as we get closer to Christmas... we never forget them. :)

Grooming continues every night. In fact, it's time to take some of the guys off the Mountain Coaster project and get them started on their "winter" job of grooming. Lets all hope Winter is here to stay.

Bruce Schmidt
VP & GM
Okemo Mountain Resort

'Bridging' the gap

Another major step towards finishing the Mountain Coaster was completed today. This morning at 8:30, the Mountain Ops team craned the bridge to the Jackson Gore base into position. Your loyal Okemo Mountain snow reporters got to witness this spectacle first-hand and let me say, the evidence of careful planning and solid teamwork was clear. The bridge was positioned on the concrete blocks in only 30 minutes!

The bridge contains two levels of track. The lower will connect to the 1600' uphill climb, and the top will carry you back across the river on the way down to the Jackson Gore base at up to 25 mph! This is going to be such a great ride, we can't wait to see it completed!

Stay tuned and think snow!

Where we go from here

So we survived the "Noricane" of December 1st in pretty good shape... the trails held up pretty well, the skiing surface was firm, and on the plus side the snowmaking pond is now full!

The wet weather began to subside around 10pm on Wednesday night and the groomers went out around 3am - which is about the same time that snowmaking operations resumed. I am confident that the skiing, while firm on Thursday, will become better with each day of grooming.

The guns will continue to blow snow on existing terrain, but we are moving towards some new trails as well. Our #1 priority is to finish Lower Arrow so we can have two ways down from the summit. We know it has been tiresome to only have Upper and Lower World Cup to get back to the base.

Other priorities will be heading towards Jackson Gore and Solitude. We began this today by making snow on Sunburst. We will then head down Coleman Brook and Escape and onto Mountain Road and Limelight - eventually reaching the base of Jackson Gore. Both of these areas should be open by Saturday 12/11, weather permitting.

At the same time, when the temperatures allow, we will be heading down the Rimrock trail, heading towards the mid-mountain trails of Sel’s Choice and Wardance. The plan is to get spread out and some snow laid down as we head towards the Christmas Holidays.

By the way, do you know our sister resort Crested Butte has had almost 75 inches of snow this year already?

Have a good night, and thanks for choosing to ski and ride at Okemo Mountain Resort

Bruce
GM

Two Trails Diverged in a wood

If you’ve been following our blog you probably already read about how we tweaked our trail opening process on Defiance this past Saturday. In fact, we heard from a lot of guests about how nice that skiing surface was when we opened it. (Keep the comments coming!)

We took a different approach on Jolly Green Giant – and the result was very different. Guests encountered a much firmer surface.

The difference? On Defiance we made enough snow to cover the trail and let it sit for one full day so that the water could leach out, then groomed it out and opened it. On Jolly Green we made snow, immediately groomed it out and opened it the next day.

As I said, guests loved the opening surface on Defiance. It was essentially what you’d find a day after a nice snowstorm! However, because a hard-packed base had not been developed we found that ruts were forming on the trail by mid-afternoon. On Jolly Green, the immediate grooming and skiing of the snow had packed the base; so while it was not as smooth a ride on opening day, the base of that trail is now ready for a season of skiing and riding (and more snowmaking of course!).

The task at hand is to find a good balance. Here’s the current plan: make snow to cover a trail, groom it out and ski it. This sets the base. Then, take a second pass at snowmaking but this time let it sit overnight to leach (this means closing the trail for one day), then groom and ski it.

So… which trail did you take?

A message from our GM

The 2010 ski season is beginning with a bang... 4th day of operation and the Mountain Op’s guys had to bang off ice to get the Northstar lift running. As we all woke up this morning to the freezing rain, the thought was "what is the mountain going to be like"? The good news was that the freezing rain had not set real hard on the summit and thus, the banging of the sheaves and grips, while needed, wasn’t as bad as it could have been.


Saturday we plan to add Defiance, the upper half of Sapphire, Upper Arrow and Double Dipper along with the Glades Peak and the Green Ridge Triple. Check out Defiance and let us know how it was on Saturday. We let the trail sit another day after snowmaking to hopefully improve the skiing and riding. By letting more water leach out, we feel the snow will lay out better. Kind of like the theory of rush to eat at Thanksgiving and get too full, or take your time to savour the meal and the experience... something like that! Oh and by the way, once we open up Sapphire, the rails will be moved over to that trail from World Cup.

While each season has it’s quirks, this one is proving to be an interesting one. When the snowmakers can’t make snow, they go and work on the Timber Ripper. When the groomers, electricians and lift mechanics have a free moment, they go and work on the Timber Ripper. When Barry and Eb have got the mountain open for the day, they go and work on the Timber Ripper. You get the idea.

Without their dedication and extra effort we wouldn’t be riding the Timber Ripper as soon as we are. We hope to have a better feel for the opening of the Timber Ripper within the next 10 days or so. I’m telling everyone right now that it will be before Christmas.

In the meantime, let us know how we are doing and thanks for skiing and riding with us.

Bruce Schmidt
General Manager, Okemo

200 Snow Guns - wow!

From Barry, VP of Okemo Mountain Operations:

Our core philosophy of always being ready paid off last Saturday night. The temps that were predicted were nothing great, however they did drop considerably more throughout the night. We were able to light approximately 200 snow guns and reached a maximum pumping rate of 8,000 GPM. The majority of the snow that we opened with yesterday was made in a 12 hour period!

Ray Kennedy (Snowmaking Manager) and his crew never missed a minute of opportunity.

We had snowmaking temps on the upper 25% of the mountain starting around 2 AM this morning. They are predicted to hold during the day with a potential inversion throughout the evening. If that happens we are going to push very hard to reach the base area tonight. In fact, Ray and his men are reconfiguring the snow gun placements to take maximum advantage of the brief time frame that we are going to be working with.

It all comes down to using the proper snow gun for the temps and time frame that we are dealing with in this "early season game".

On the grooming side of the house...

On the fly grooming has been the status quo for our first few days. On opening day we regroomed due to "shrinkage" during the night. Some of the warm weather had left pock marks and we felt another grooming would improve things dramatically. This morning we again chose to regroom just before opening, but this time for the opposite reason. Temperatures had dropped considerably and we didn't want the surface too firm. At this point, we'll see what tomorrow brings!