Rich
New member
Early Friday evening, I posted a request for suggestions - where to ski for the weekend. I knew that the best bet would be an area with a lot of snowmaking, grooming and cruiser runs. I had hopes of leaving Friday night for Vermont, but it was just too late and I didn't want to get to a motel well after midnight. Here's how it played out.......
My buddy and I started off the weekend with the plan of driving up to Hunter on Saturday, then Saturday night, after skiing, staying in Rutland and skiing Okemo on Sunday.
Saturday morning, when we left Katonah, NY, there was a little mist in the air, but the temp was cold enough that we thought it would turn to snow on our drive up north. It did get colder but the precip stayed rain. The roads were freezing up and there were a few cars off the road on I84. (How do they do that?) :?
Unfortunately, it kept raining all the way to the mountain, with a steady rain fall when we arrived at 8:30. If we were 30 years younger, we would have gladly bought a ticket and continued on with the day. We did stick around for a while, waiting to see if it would switch to snow, but it didn't. We were out of there by 9:30 and on our way to VT.
When we hit Albany, it was snowing pretty hard and the driving was down to a crawl in spots. It continued to snow all the way to Rutland, which got us excited about skiing the next day at Okemo, an area that we both had never sampled.
We had a great lunch in downtown Rutland at Tapas, caught a movie, relaxed in our room (Holiday Inn for $89.95 with a roomsavers.com coupon), then went to an excellent place for dinner, Little Harry's. I'd never had such good luck with "walk in" restaurant choices. (I just did an internet search and found excellent reviews for both.)
Sunday morning had us up, packed, fed and in the car on the way to Okemo at 6:45. We wanted to make first chair at 8:00.
It was a very easy drive down RT103, directly to the resort entrance road. We arrived about 7:20, did the "drop off gear" thing, parked the car and was into the main lodge by 7:30. Plenty of time to change, buy a lift ticket and make first chair.
It's always exciting going to a new area, but today was even better, because there was 4-6" of fresh, temp in the mid 20's, and a bluebird sky!
We hit the "A" lift at 8:05, getting a jump on what we would have expected to be a very crowded day. Okemo has an interesting set up. There are many ski-in/ski-out condos and private houses in several neighborhoods all over the mountain, at different elevations. We found it interesting that a ride on the side-by-side "A" & "B" lifts, which run from the base lodge, is necessary to access the lifts to the rest of the mountain. There is only beginner terrain off the "A" & "B" lifts.
So we did the A lift to the F lift and sampled the runs on the main front part of the mountain. We were very impressed with the terrain, screaming down the cruisers, which were fresh corduroy. Our plan was to head right to Jackson Gore and work the resort right to left. On our first trip up the F lift, a nice man suggested that we stay with the F for a few runs because it gets crowded. That's what we did, doing all the runs from the top to the bottom of the F lift. Noreaster had nice powder covered bumps, but underneath was some pretty nasty ice. Not fun.
Next up was Jackson Gore. Very nice runs and no lift line, in fact, the longest wait all day anywhere was maybe 3 minutes. (Where was everyone on the best day of the season?) Black Hole was closed due to thin coverage. I was somewhat disappointed, after getting spoiled by the Jay Peak glades on Dec. 27. Really nice bumps on Upper Limelight, which were less icy than Noreaster. Even the green dot Tuckered Out was fun. This would easily be a blue square at most other areas because of the several steep pitches. (In general, I was very impressed with the beginner terrain. They were interesting, even for expert skiers.)
On to the Solitude area. More excellent cruisers, FAST chair lift and no line. The Plunge had very nice bumps, like the other ungroomed black diamond runs. As the day wore on, the powder wore off the bump runs, leaving very scratchy ice. It was impossible to hold an edge between the bumps. You had to use the front side of the bump to steer and control your speed.
We did a bunch of runs off the other lifts on the front of the mountain, H and G. By Noon, we did a full day of vertical and were pooped. No lift lines, screaming down cruisers and detachable quads will do that to you. On some of the shorter lifts, they were so quick that we felt we didn't have enough rest time!
The main lodge was not packed when we went in at 12:15. We found a pair of seats in no time. I love when ski areas have hooks on the walls and cubby holes to store your boot bag. I always feel comfortable leaving my bag unlockered when I see this, something I never do at Hunter. I always put my bag in a locker at Hunter.
We were back on the slopes at about 1:00 and made our way to the South Face by way of the D and E lifts, skiing the trails off these lifts, enroute. Our goal was to ski every blue and black run in the whole resort, and I think we did it.
We were somewhat surprised to find the glade, Double Diamond, open and couldn't resist a run through the trees. There was a "THIN COVER" sign at the entrance and they weren't kidding! Most of the snow had been skied off, leaving huge bare spots. This glade is ranked as a double diamond, but it is much easier to ski than any black glade at Jay Peak. They really thinned out the trees, so much so that in spots, it was almost like a "slope with trees." Little of the back country feel you get at Jay.
Punch Line was bumped up and it was more of the same ice/powder fare as the rest of the bump runs.
By 3:30, we had about all we could handle. Fog/clouds started rolling in, leaving very flat light conditions and it was getting difficult to see the snow surface. Most of the snow on the trails was in piles, leaving large ice patches. Not to mention that our legs were begging for mercy (we easily did a double day of vertical.) That all adds up to quitting time. We still had a 3.5 hour ride home, too.
In conclusion, I had a "top 10" day. I know I will go back to Okemo. It's a great mountain.
Rich
My buddy and I started off the weekend with the plan of driving up to Hunter on Saturday, then Saturday night, after skiing, staying in Rutland and skiing Okemo on Sunday.
Saturday morning, when we left Katonah, NY, there was a little mist in the air, but the temp was cold enough that we thought it would turn to snow on our drive up north. It did get colder but the precip stayed rain. The roads were freezing up and there were a few cars off the road on I84. (How do they do that?) :?
Unfortunately, it kept raining all the way to the mountain, with a steady rain fall when we arrived at 8:30. If we were 30 years younger, we would have gladly bought a ticket and continued on with the day. We did stick around for a while, waiting to see if it would switch to snow, but it didn't. We were out of there by 9:30 and on our way to VT.
When we hit Albany, it was snowing pretty hard and the driving was down to a crawl in spots. It continued to snow all the way to Rutland, which got us excited about skiing the next day at Okemo, an area that we both had never sampled.
We had a great lunch in downtown Rutland at Tapas, caught a movie, relaxed in our room (Holiday Inn for $89.95 with a roomsavers.com coupon), then went to an excellent place for dinner, Little Harry's. I'd never had such good luck with "walk in" restaurant choices. (I just did an internet search and found excellent reviews for both.)
Sunday morning had us up, packed, fed and in the car on the way to Okemo at 6:45. We wanted to make first chair at 8:00.
It was a very easy drive down RT103, directly to the resort entrance road. We arrived about 7:20, did the "drop off gear" thing, parked the car and was into the main lodge by 7:30. Plenty of time to change, buy a lift ticket and make first chair.
It's always exciting going to a new area, but today was even better, because there was 4-6" of fresh, temp in the mid 20's, and a bluebird sky!
We hit the "A" lift at 8:05, getting a jump on what we would have expected to be a very crowded day. Okemo has an interesting set up. There are many ski-in/ski-out condos and private houses in several neighborhoods all over the mountain, at different elevations. We found it interesting that a ride on the side-by-side "A" & "B" lifts, which run from the base lodge, is necessary to access the lifts to the rest of the mountain. There is only beginner terrain off the "A" & "B" lifts.
So we did the A lift to the F lift and sampled the runs on the main front part of the mountain. We were very impressed with the terrain, screaming down the cruisers, which were fresh corduroy. Our plan was to head right to Jackson Gore and work the resort right to left. On our first trip up the F lift, a nice man suggested that we stay with the F for a few runs because it gets crowded. That's what we did, doing all the runs from the top to the bottom of the F lift. Noreaster had nice powder covered bumps, but underneath was some pretty nasty ice. Not fun.
Next up was Jackson Gore. Very nice runs and no lift line, in fact, the longest wait all day anywhere was maybe 3 minutes. (Where was everyone on the best day of the season?) Black Hole was closed due to thin coverage. I was somewhat disappointed, after getting spoiled by the Jay Peak glades on Dec. 27. Really nice bumps on Upper Limelight, which were less icy than Noreaster. Even the green dot Tuckered Out was fun. This would easily be a blue square at most other areas because of the several steep pitches. (In general, I was very impressed with the beginner terrain. They were interesting, even for expert skiers.)
On to the Solitude area. More excellent cruisers, FAST chair lift and no line. The Plunge had very nice bumps, like the other ungroomed black diamond runs. As the day wore on, the powder wore off the bump runs, leaving very scratchy ice. It was impossible to hold an edge between the bumps. You had to use the front side of the bump to steer and control your speed.
We did a bunch of runs off the other lifts on the front of the mountain, H and G. By Noon, we did a full day of vertical and were pooped. No lift lines, screaming down cruisers and detachable quads will do that to you. On some of the shorter lifts, they were so quick that we felt we didn't have enough rest time!
The main lodge was not packed when we went in at 12:15. We found a pair of seats in no time. I love when ski areas have hooks on the walls and cubby holes to store your boot bag. I always feel comfortable leaving my bag unlockered when I see this, something I never do at Hunter. I always put my bag in a locker at Hunter.
We were back on the slopes at about 1:00 and made our way to the South Face by way of the D and E lifts, skiing the trails off these lifts, enroute. Our goal was to ski every blue and black run in the whole resort, and I think we did it.
We were somewhat surprised to find the glade, Double Diamond, open and couldn't resist a run through the trees. There was a "THIN COVER" sign at the entrance and they weren't kidding! Most of the snow had been skied off, leaving huge bare spots. This glade is ranked as a double diamond, but it is much easier to ski than any black glade at Jay Peak. They really thinned out the trees, so much so that in spots, it was almost like a "slope with trees." Little of the back country feel you get at Jay.
Punch Line was bumped up and it was more of the same ice/powder fare as the rest of the bump runs.
By 3:30, we had about all we could handle. Fog/clouds started rolling in, leaving very flat light conditions and it was getting difficult to see the snow surface. Most of the snow on the trails was in piles, leaving large ice patches. Not to mention that our legs were begging for mercy (we easily did a double day of vertical.) That all adds up to quitting time. We still had a 3.5 hour ride home, too.
In conclusion, I had a "top 10" day. I know I will go back to Okemo. It's a great mountain.
Rich