Glades Peak Sneak

Something dawned on me this morning while going through my normal snow reporting routine -- I've never been down Triplesec! Well, I shouldn't say never. I've been riding at Okemo for nearly 15 years, so chances are I flew down it at some point. But, to my recollection I had no memory of it. So, today I set out on a mission to ride Triplesec -- the trail I often hear about from the General Manager every morning because it is typically on the "ungroomed" list.



Here we are, dead-center in the middle of the February vacation week, and as I hobble around in my snowboard boots at the top of Triplesec not a single passerby comes through. The Glades Peak area is one of the less traveled sections of the mountain. Perhaps because it isn't accessed by a high-speed lift, just a trusty quad chair. As I found out, sometimes it's nice to take it slow.

There are a few things I like about the Glades Peak area. First, as previously mentioned, it's borderline desolate. Second, the area is loaded with pines. On a warm day the smell is invigorating and the aesthetics are quintessential Green Mountain. Third, it catches a lot of sun almost any time of day -- perfect for goggle-tan hunters.


Although not the longest trail on the map, the black-diamond Triplesec proved to be a hidden gem. The photo above was taken today (2/18) at the top of the trail. That's the day after a 6'' powder day in the middle of a holiday week, and there's still untouched snow! After a gradual pitch at the beginning, the slope drops off nicely as it hooks a right towards the Glades Peak Chair. The next time you're daily routine is feeling a little stale, try sneaking over to the Glades Peak area for some peace, quiet, and powder. See you on the slopes!

It's an Over Snow!

We picked up two more inches of snow last night than even our most generous meteorologists were predicting -- 8-10 inches in all! If you can't get out of work or school today though, then don't go into a frenzy. The mountain is in great shape for this weekend and we should be skiing and riding on all 119 trails (or very close to it) with some superb packed powder conditions! There's no doubt in my mind that the skiing and riding will be gangbusters. But wait, there's more!


We have some great events planned for this weekend including our 7th Annual Comedy Night on Saturday, 2/21 with comedian Rusty DeWees, also known as "The Logger." The Vermont-raised DeWees perfected his comedic attack in New York City, and now he's here at Okemo. Co-sponsored by Vermont Properties and Development, the doors at ePIC open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8. Call (802) 228-8877 to purchase your tickets in advance, or pay at the door for slightly more while seats last.

From Wolaver's Organic Apres at Siena to Moonlit Snowshoe Tours, there's much more happening around the resort this weekend. Stop on by the events calendar to check it all out.

Six Feet of Snow

Isn't it funny how a turn of phrase can trigger memories? Reading Tom's snow report yesterday brought me back to those road trip selects tapes we always made. Little Feat always made the cut and there was nothing like harmonizing to Lowell George singing Six Feet of Snow.

That's a lot of snow! When you consider how early in the season it is, that's pretty impressive. Despite all that natural snowfall, Okemo's VP of Operations Barry Tucker assured me that his crew is "continuing to make snow aggressively." Successful resurfacing efforts brought a number of trails back online for this weekend and it looks like there's more snowfall on the way. I'm hearing 6-10 inches! Fingers crossed.

Back to Lowell ... "Don`t you know the ice and snow is sneaking in through my windows ..." Cheers!

Hot Dog Hill is Open for the Season!

Ketchup, mustard, and relish, may be the more common hot dog toppings, but at Okemo we like to put a little butter on our dogs. Our Hot Dog Hill beginner-level terrain park opened for the season this past Saturday, ushering in another winter of freestyle ski and snowboard progression. From the greats like Ross Powers to your average Joe-y, they all have to start somewhere. The pint-sized park features small jumps and plenty of butters for up-and-coming X-Games medalists to get their start on. After busting your buns in this park for a little while, you'll be ready to move on to one of Okemo's other parks, including our SoBe Super Park on Nor'Easter.

(Interestingly enough, the gateway to Hot Dog Hill was built by a family of beavers, not Dachshunds. I only kid.)

Just because our Pipes and Parks crew is a top-rated team of feature-building experts doesn't mean they forgot about those of us who don't throw down backside 900s on our way to lunch. The history of terrain park building is one which can be characterized by many bucks and trends, but two things have remained constant: safety and progression. Hot Dog Hill is the type of park you can feel comfortable dropping the kids off at, or dropping into. So whether you're young or old, it's never too late to put a little air and butter beneath your feet.

Deck the Bus with Boards of Holly (title © Gravity Hound)

Wow, it's been a while since the last post in here. I guess everyone (including myself) has been a little preoccupied with all the great skiing and riding we've had lately and all the events happening. With today's little coating on top of the 4-6'' from yesterday, Okemo is prime right now and looking great going into the holidays.

Last weekend, we unveiled the new Pepsi Amp Bus at the base of Nor'Easter. It's amazing that what began as someone's delusional nightmare is now a feature in our SoBe Superpark, but I guess that's innovation for ya. I've gotta hand it to them though, they did a great job with it and now it looks all dreamy sitting there burried in the snow.


Speaking of being burried in the snow, have you seen the weather forecast lately?! Al Roker and friends have us expecting several inches of snow tomorrow (Friday) with a chance of snow almost every day after that. A coworker and I were just saying the other day that we could't wait until you know what was out of the question. Well, I think we made it to that point! Winter is definitely here! Happy Holidays everyone!

Okemo sold...True. Tim & Diane lease it back...

True… there’s been many rumors flying around the mountain. True… Okemo has been sold. BUT this is not your traditional sale of a ski resort. This a sale-leaseback which means that The Muellers remain owners of the companies that operate Okemo and Mount Sunapee and Crested Butte Mountain Resort. CNL Lifestyle Properties owns just the underlying resort assets.

CNL Lifestyle Properties, the purchaser, is what is known as a real estate investment trust, or REIT. By law, a REIT cannot be involved in the operation of their holdings, or in this case the ski resorts.

In a recent letter, Tim and Diane wrote: “everything will stay the same from the guest’s perspective and the employee’s perspective. CNL cannot get involved in the operations of the resorts. They are strictly a landlord and financing entity. This is a great move for us and our resorts. In this time of economic instability, for CNL to commit sizable dollars to our resorts is a testament to their confidence in us and our entire Team. As you know, Triple Peaks’ resorts are recognized for operational excellence and success within the ski industry. In today’s environment, there are not a lot of companies able to complete transactions of this nature. This is also indicative of CNL’s financial strength and confidence in our management team and in the ski industry. They are a well capitalized, stable company and we are pleased to be associated with them.”

The three resorts of Triple Peaks are each growing companies that require sustained capital infusion. As you can imagine in this financial environment, short-term loans are very risky, and there’s not a lot of funding available. A sale-leaseback partnership with CNL allows for stable, long-term capital. This is a creative way to finance this growth without taking on operating partners or attempting to finance through banks at this challenging time. Only because of The Mueller’s vision, and Okemo's strong operating history and reputation is this arrangement with CNL even possible today.

As for the past 26 years, Tim & Diane remain committed to the future success of each resort and their surrounding communities.

Taking a Load Off, One Chair at a Time

Our new unloading carpet on the South Ridge Quad B is under construction and will begin carrying skiers and boarders off the lift shortly. Working in unison with the loading carpet at the base, the unloading carpet will improve the lift's efficiency and be a welcome sight to inexperienced chairlift riders. Our staff is doing a great job of putting all the pieces together and will have us riding the wave of the future in just a couple more days. Okemo is proud to be the first ski resort in the United States to utilize this lift-unloading technology.

Simply keep the base of your skis or snowboard down when your chair reaches the conveyor belt and you'll be whisked away effortlessly onto the top of the trail. No more riding your buddy's coattail off the chair or waiting helplessly on your rump like a set of bowling pins at the bottom of the unloading ramp. Just think of all the catastrophes (and laughs) that will be avoided. Here's a short video of the carpet in action from the manufacturer. We'll be sure to give you our own take once the carpet is up and running, but in the meantime enjoy the photos.

Update:
I swung by the scene of the new unloading carpet today to find the second set of rollers installed and the belts tightly wound. Hey, if you still fall getting off the lift you can't say you didn't see the unloading carpet coming.

Show Us Whatcha Learned

I just walked up with Jeff from events to scope out the setup for tomorrow's "What I Learned This Summer Rail Jam." Skiers and riders will be faced with a box so long they could eat a ham sandwich while sliding it. According to the Okemo Parks facebook page, the box is 115 feet long! There could even be a surprise feature at the end. The Parks and Pipes crew is still stirring their cauldron coming up with new concoctions, and we don't bother them when they're doing their mad scientist thing. Doesn't it look like that snowmobile is sliding the box? That would be pretty gnarly.

A live DJ will keep the energy level up all day with fresh tracks to get your shred on to. There's up to $500 in cash prizes to be awarded to the winners and a t-shirt toss at the end of the day. This is serious business. Not too serious though, because we like to keep it fun. If you're competing, good luck. If you're not, bring a camera! It's gonna be fun!

Opening-Day Jitters

I don't know about you, but every year when I'm heading up the lift for my first run of the season I'm a little bit nervous. Maybe it's a combination of being anxious to take my first run and worrying that over the summer my body somehow forgot how to snowboard. But sure enough, every year when I strap in and get going it all comes back to me and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Muscle memory is an amazing thing. It's funny because I'm usually pretty confident in my abilities, but for that brief few minutes when I'm riding the first chair of the season to the top of the run, I have doubts whether I'll be able to pickup where I left off the previous season.

(No opening-weekend worries here. For this ripper, the rails on Sapphire were a welcome sight after a long off season.)

So all this got me thinking yesterday while I was riding the Sachem chair up to the top for my inaugural run. Do the first-day jitters ever go away? At a certain age and after decades of skiing or snowboarding does the year's first run become no big deal? Maybe after experiencing opening-day anxiety enough times and subsequently overcoming it, you realize that it's not worth harping on. I'm not sure though, because I still get it. Maybe after another decade or two I'll see the other side. It's kind of nice though when you take that first run and after just a few yards down the trail, all your worries wash away -- both the first-day jitters and all the rest too.

Can you believe it?!

This is it...the eve of opening day for the '08-'09 season! Our snowmakers have done an outstanding job of covering the entire mountain in a way that will have us skiing and riding from top to bottom tomorrow. The Northstar Express high-speed quad will be spinning us back up to the peak so we can get in as many runs as possible from open to close. Although this is my first season working at Okemo, it's been said that this may be the best opening day ever (or at least in recent history). The weather couldn't be better right now -- sunny with base temps in the upper 20s. It's expected to be much the same tomorrow and for the weekend, so dress accordingly, and not in your typical opening day shells and lightweight baselayers. In my opinion, temps in the mid 20s are ideal for riding; the conditions stay good all day and you don't overheat at the end of each run.(This was taken today from across the valley. If you look closely (or click the pic to enlarge), you can see snowmaking on the far right side. Also, the cats were already out smoothing the surface for us. )

Give yourselves a pat on the back for making it to this moment. I know, it hasn't been easy. Tonight, skiers and snowboarders everywhere will be putting the final tunes on their equipment and laying out all their gear so it's good to go in the morning. I know I will. Put some coffee in me and a little food for fuel and I am out the door. I look forward to seeing you all out on the slopes tomorrow.

10 Days: It's a love hate thing

It’s funny how excited I am about next week’s weather forecast and it doesn’t even include a hurricane or a major snowstorm. As an avid surfer and snowboarder, the weather has become a regular friend and foe in my daily life and plays a pretty big role in deciding what I’ll be doing with my time. I always tell myself not to trust any weather forecasts beyond four days, but when the Weather Channel’s magical 10-day forecast is exactly what I want to see, as if I am Father Nature myself, I forget all about the numerous letdowns of past forecasts and put complete faith in it. I don’t recommend the Weather Channel as the most accurate weather source, and I’m not saying it’s bad either, but when it comes to providing fantasy forecasts they’re like J.K. Rowling. In my opinion, the 10 day forecast borders on scientific storytelling, but maybe less and less with new technology. When the call was made yesterday to delay our opening day by one week, I cried and cried like a little baby, and then I tuned to weatherchannel.com and it was as if someone had given me a giant lollipop and a sang me a lullaby—all was well in my little snowboard-obsessed world.

The thing is, the extended forecast for next week looks so promising, that even if it's wrong it will still be good. Right now we’re looking at high temperatures in the lower 30s next week, which means mountain temps will be in the high 20s during the daytime. All of this results in snowmaking coming out of our ears during the days leading up to our opening day on November 22. Might I add opening day is expected to be sunny and around 30 degrees, as if things could be any better.

Adding to yesterday’s turn of events, we took a little trip out to the work site of our new SoBe bus. It’s coming along nicely and should be ready to go in a few weeks. The wallride portion of the bus will be covered in clear plastic, so you’ll actually be able to see the look on the bus driver’s face while you do things that would normally get you weeks of detention. Alright, there won’t actually be a bus driver inside, but there may be a DJ. Bottom line, there’s a million and one ways to jib this thing, so start planning your attack now. In between sessions of brain shredding the new SoBe bus, I’ll be looking at the extended forecast a few hundred more times. Have I mentioned it's good?

New Carpet is Ready to Go and so am I !

Hopefully you all got out and enjoyed the wretchedly warm weather this weekend because it won’t last long. It better not, or else we’re all going to need to find new wintertime hobbies. Luckily for us though, we shouldn’t have to resort to picking up knitting or painting with Bob Ross because Okemo has some of the world’s best snowmaking. There’s some wet snow falling today and winter is definitely making a push for us. Tonight, temperatures should be plenty cold for our snowmakers to begin blanketing the top of the mountain so we have plenty of snow for opening day this Saturday. It feels weird to even say that, but it’s true. Just five more days!

The loading carpet at the base of the South Ridge Quad B is all set up and ready to roll. Personally, I think making the chairlift experience more fun and exciting is the next great phase in ski resort evolution. Don’t be surprised if you see flat-screen TVs and heated, messaging recliner seats on chairlifts in the near future. You heard it here first. There’s only so much we can do to make snow, and we’re doing it all. But the possibilities for chair lifts are endless.

Almost Time for a Magic Carpet Ride

Fresh off the boat from Europe, it’s hard to imagine why this bright orange container would get stuck at Customs, but at last the final pieces of our new loading and unloading carpets for the South Ridge Quad B have made their way to the mountain. Our operations crew is hard at work putting the jigsaw puzzle together and assembling the carpets so they’ll be ready just in time to shoot you onto the lift like you’re a piece of produce at the grocery store. Whether you’re a delicate little tomato who’s just getting acquainted with the whole skiing or snowboarding thing or a hot shot jalapeno, the carpet will take you to the top of the lift with ease and efficiency.

All vegetable metaphors aside, this technology is the hottest thing to hit the slopes since ‘80s day-glo, and it’s European, so you know it’s good. The buzz has reached as far as my home state of New Jersey, where we especially love all things imported from Europe, like pizza and french fries.

If you haven’t noticed, we’re goin’ bananas here at the mountain in anticipation of opening day and we hope you are too. We'll have to wait a little while until we have snow at the base to ride the new rugs, but the upper part of the mountain is set to open November 15. We're all really anxious to get our magic genie on, but please do not try to ride your grocery store’s checkout counter. Trust me, it won’t be the same.

Afternoon Update:

The cement void beneath our South Ridge Quad B has been filled with the frame for our new loading carpet this afternoon. Next, our mountain operations staff will mount the rubbery tread on the frame, plug it in, and scour the resort to find a willing test pilot. Weeeeee!

You can see a teaser vid of the loading and unloading carpets in action here. Enjoy.

Put Yer Dukes Up Fall

We all make mistakes, and so it turns out I was wrong when I said Halloween marked the end of warm weather. The forecast for this week is far from wintry, but with every last warm day I know it’s only a matter of time until they’re a thing of the past and it’s all-out wintertime. Our thermometers have been shooting up and down like those strong man games at carnivals guys hit with the giant sledgehammer to win their girlfriends cheap stuffed animals, and it appears that the battle is on. Fall and winter are in a game of tug of war, and I think we all know who’s going to come out the victor.

With Okemo’s state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment and our team of snowgun slingin’ outlaws, I highly doubt fall will rear its rain-favorin’ head around here for much longer. Our guys got the snowmaking underway this weekend up on Buckhorn and Countdown, but they’ve had to holster their snowguns for just a little bit until the temps dip back down. I took a trip up earlier to check out their handiwork and couldn’t help but let out a big yeehaw!

The "Okemo Difference" Defined

The marketing types around here talk about "The Okemo Difference" all the time, but what, exactly, is "The Okemo Difference?" Those very marketing types sent their ace snow report squad out and about to ask real skiers and riders why they continue to choose Okemo over other resorts. I must say, for completely off-the-cuff, spontaneous interviews, the responses are 110% on point! The fact that they tracked down DEE SNIDER (the lead singer of Twisted Sister - if you have to ask, it's too loud!) and managed to get him to give up the goods on this "Okemo Difference" definitely doesn't hurt! Check out all the responses, as well as some footage of skiers and riders having a blast at Okemo over the past few weeks, here: The Okemo Difference

President's Week is less than seven days away, and the entire Northeast is experiencing ePic conditions. The question is, why choose Okemo over other resorts? The answer? Superior grooming, attention to detail (Without that attention to detail, Dee wouldn't take it!), employees that are generally happy to help, one of the best ski schools in the industry, and much, much more! If you need more convincing, check out Okemo's YouTube Channel Here, and remember: We wanna rock, but we don't want to Feel the Noise past a reasonable hour...that's what downtown is for!