Sharon
New member
The original plan was to ski in the Catskills on our way home from Thanksgiving in NJ. We have free lift tix to Windham and Belleayre that are only good before Xmas, so we thought we?d take advantage of our geography and use them up and see what the Catskills had online for the early season. With all the rain that fell on weds, those plans got washed down the rain gutter and we figured the best skiing would be found in Vermont.
Our dear friend and musician Rick Redington was playing at the Outback at Killington, so we went up there to see his show with his band The Luv Machine. The band totally rocked. On our way down the Access Rd we noticed most of the lodges and watering holes had many cars. It looked like a lot of people had come up to ski, which is pretty typical for Thanksgiving weekend at Killington.
After many years as Mtn Ambassadors at Killington, we were not interested in subjecting ourselves to the madness at that mountain, which we had experienced first hand many times. Over the last few years we?ve learned that right down the road, Okemo offers excellent early season skiing without the crowds or the chaos. Since we knew we could ski the first hour for free, we figured we?d try it out and see if it was worth staying.
We parked our motorhome in the bus lot at Okemo at 3am after driving back from the late night show at the Outback. Four hours isn?t a lot of sleep, but I still managed to get up at 7am with the sun beaming through the trees, blue skies over head. The dogs needed to be walked so I put the coffee on the stove and my sunglasses on my face and took the furry four-leggers out for a walk. My better half was not feeling much like getting up early to ski, so I did my morning rituals grabbed my ski gear and hoofed up to the lift by 7:45 without him. I had hoped to get there early enough to hike up to the Northstar Quad, but I was not moving as swiftly as I had hoped. Thankfully, the South Ridge quad was running and I was on the first chair at 8am. The slope from the South Ridge lift to the Northstar lift was very firm and somewhat lumpy corduroy. This is typical for a cool morning on manmade snow. This is what I?d expect on the mountain. I was on the first chair on the Northstar quad just a few minutes after 8am.
Since I was skiing alone I was able to cruise at high speed without stopping, top to bottom. World Cup, Defiance, World Cup, Timberline. Conditions were pretty good. Firm and fast, yet certainly carveable. At 9:05 I went into the Summit Lodge. I had a breakfast burrito and a cup of coffee with the sun beaming in on my face through the window. At 10am I took my last run of the morning down Defiance. This time I took my time and stopped at a few places to soak in the sunshine which was nicely softening the snow. The conditions were improving with the traffic and sunshine. There were more and more people showing up, but the trails didn?t seem crowded. When I got to the bottom of the Northstar quad, to my surprise the lift corrals were full. The holiday crowds had arrived. It was time for me to take a break, so I shot down the white ribbon that lead to the base lodge.
Back at 'camp', someone was waking up and sipping coffee. We took the dogs out and hiked up the trails under the South Ridge lift to the Sugar House. It was a gorgeous day, though some clouds were beginning to stream in.
He was feeling good and he wanted to ski. I told him that the conditions were pretty good considering all the rain Wednesday. There were 5 ways down and it was varied and interesting enough to warrant a full-day lift ticket. By 11:30, we were riding the lift together enjoying the cool air and intermittent sunshine. The crowds had all gone in for lunch and we did not have to wait to get on the lift for the rest of the day.
From the top we started with Sapphire. Afterall, it was his first run of the season. Generally this is a pretty easy run, but it had been terribly skied off making it a bit more challenging than usual. The good skiing was on the residual snow that was pushed up on the sides with the traffic. The entire mid-section of this trail was an ice rink. It was essential to find the residual snow trailside and stay on it as much as possible. Overall it was not worth repeating as more than 70% of that run was unedgeable ice. So we moved on to Timberline. This is a nice narrow trail with varied pitch. There were some bare spots and rocks showing in places. It was fun navigating through the tight spots and searching for the soft snow lurking on slope edge, separating the skiable terrain from the brown earth, grass and rock. Lower Arrow was getting really nice and soft. Springlike hero snow. This was the best snow on the mountain.
Next run was World Cup. This is always a good run, and with the warmer afternoon temps, it was softening up nicely and offered all kinds of terrain from smooth cruising to soft bumps. There was plenty of soft snow to be enjoyed though there were some icy patches from all the traffic. Overall, this was the best trail going.
East facing Defiance was also softening. It was skied off in some places with nice piles of snow to rip in others. World Cup was by far the best run going, so we repeated it a few more times before calling it a day. There was plenty of skier-swept snow on the sides to carve into and spring-like conditions on the lower section. The ?terrain features? on the sides of the trails were ?guarded? with bamboo. The ?boo made for nice ?slalom gates?. The snow between the terrain features and the high traffic area was soft and fun, and bump lines began to form in these places. This trail had a little of everything and it was nice and long top to bottom.
There was plenty of skiing for all abilities. Even the novices had terrain to get started on, and there were a lot of people learning to ski. Race programs and training were in session for many young people and even the littlest kids in the Snow Stars program were getting in on the fun. This is a kick-off weekend for many people, from season?s pass holders to racers, as well as the others who are just looking for a few good runs to get their legs in shape for the ski season. But as usual, most people were from Connecticut, the typical Okemo crowd. 8 out of 10 lift rides, I shared a chair with Connecticutters. It was a nice suburban crowd, well-mannered, neat, friendly and safe. For urban skiing, with brawny crowds, lift lines, traffic, near misses and obsenities, go to Killington.
Okemo does a great job with early season skiing, and it is a nice escape from the chaos at Killiington. It also holds up better with traffic. Okemo does not make snow during the day on the open trails, so the trails that were open did not have any fresh new snow on them, but still had good skiing. The guns were blowing on Rim Rock in the South Face area and a few other places towards Solitude, as they hope to expand their terrain as soon as possible. I did miss the man-made snowstorm that you might find at other resorts this time of year...but not that much.
Okemo was more than OK, and was well worth spending a nice sunny Saturday getting our ski legs and enjoying being on the mountain.
Our dear friend and musician Rick Redington was playing at the Outback at Killington, so we went up there to see his show with his band The Luv Machine. The band totally rocked. On our way down the Access Rd we noticed most of the lodges and watering holes had many cars. It looked like a lot of people had come up to ski, which is pretty typical for Thanksgiving weekend at Killington.
After many years as Mtn Ambassadors at Killington, we were not interested in subjecting ourselves to the madness at that mountain, which we had experienced first hand many times. Over the last few years we?ve learned that right down the road, Okemo offers excellent early season skiing without the crowds or the chaos. Since we knew we could ski the first hour for free, we figured we?d try it out and see if it was worth staying.
We parked our motorhome in the bus lot at Okemo at 3am after driving back from the late night show at the Outback. Four hours isn?t a lot of sleep, but I still managed to get up at 7am with the sun beaming through the trees, blue skies over head. The dogs needed to be walked so I put the coffee on the stove and my sunglasses on my face and took the furry four-leggers out for a walk. My better half was not feeling much like getting up early to ski, so I did my morning rituals grabbed my ski gear and hoofed up to the lift by 7:45 without him. I had hoped to get there early enough to hike up to the Northstar Quad, but I was not moving as swiftly as I had hoped. Thankfully, the South Ridge quad was running and I was on the first chair at 8am. The slope from the South Ridge lift to the Northstar lift was very firm and somewhat lumpy corduroy. This is typical for a cool morning on manmade snow. This is what I?d expect on the mountain. I was on the first chair on the Northstar quad just a few minutes after 8am.
Since I was skiing alone I was able to cruise at high speed without stopping, top to bottom. World Cup, Defiance, World Cup, Timberline. Conditions were pretty good. Firm and fast, yet certainly carveable. At 9:05 I went into the Summit Lodge. I had a breakfast burrito and a cup of coffee with the sun beaming in on my face through the window. At 10am I took my last run of the morning down Defiance. This time I took my time and stopped at a few places to soak in the sunshine which was nicely softening the snow. The conditions were improving with the traffic and sunshine. There were more and more people showing up, but the trails didn?t seem crowded. When I got to the bottom of the Northstar quad, to my surprise the lift corrals were full. The holiday crowds had arrived. It was time for me to take a break, so I shot down the white ribbon that lead to the base lodge.
Back at 'camp', someone was waking up and sipping coffee. We took the dogs out and hiked up the trails under the South Ridge lift to the Sugar House. It was a gorgeous day, though some clouds were beginning to stream in.
He was feeling good and he wanted to ski. I told him that the conditions were pretty good considering all the rain Wednesday. There were 5 ways down and it was varied and interesting enough to warrant a full-day lift ticket. By 11:30, we were riding the lift together enjoying the cool air and intermittent sunshine. The crowds had all gone in for lunch and we did not have to wait to get on the lift for the rest of the day.
From the top we started with Sapphire. Afterall, it was his first run of the season. Generally this is a pretty easy run, but it had been terribly skied off making it a bit more challenging than usual. The good skiing was on the residual snow that was pushed up on the sides with the traffic. The entire mid-section of this trail was an ice rink. It was essential to find the residual snow trailside and stay on it as much as possible. Overall it was not worth repeating as more than 70% of that run was unedgeable ice. So we moved on to Timberline. This is a nice narrow trail with varied pitch. There were some bare spots and rocks showing in places. It was fun navigating through the tight spots and searching for the soft snow lurking on slope edge, separating the skiable terrain from the brown earth, grass and rock. Lower Arrow was getting really nice and soft. Springlike hero snow. This was the best snow on the mountain.
Next run was World Cup. This is always a good run, and with the warmer afternoon temps, it was softening up nicely and offered all kinds of terrain from smooth cruising to soft bumps. There was plenty of soft snow to be enjoyed though there were some icy patches from all the traffic. Overall, this was the best trail going.
East facing Defiance was also softening. It was skied off in some places with nice piles of snow to rip in others. World Cup was by far the best run going, so we repeated it a few more times before calling it a day. There was plenty of skier-swept snow on the sides to carve into and spring-like conditions on the lower section. The ?terrain features? on the sides of the trails were ?guarded? with bamboo. The ?boo made for nice ?slalom gates?. The snow between the terrain features and the high traffic area was soft and fun, and bump lines began to form in these places. This trail had a little of everything and it was nice and long top to bottom.
There was plenty of skiing for all abilities. Even the novices had terrain to get started on, and there were a lot of people learning to ski. Race programs and training were in session for many young people and even the littlest kids in the Snow Stars program were getting in on the fun. This is a kick-off weekend for many people, from season?s pass holders to racers, as well as the others who are just looking for a few good runs to get their legs in shape for the ski season. But as usual, most people were from Connecticut, the typical Okemo crowd. 8 out of 10 lift rides, I shared a chair with Connecticutters. It was a nice suburban crowd, well-mannered, neat, friendly and safe. For urban skiing, with brawny crowds, lift lines, traffic, near misses and obsenities, go to Killington.
Okemo does a great job with early season skiing, and it is a nice escape from the chaos at Killiington. It also holds up better with traffic. Okemo does not make snow during the day on the open trails, so the trails that were open did not have any fresh new snow on them, but still had good skiing. The guns were blowing on Rim Rock in the South Face area and a few other places towards Solitude, as they hope to expand their terrain as soon as possible. I did miss the man-made snowstorm that you might find at other resorts this time of year...but not that much.
Okemo was more than OK, and was well worth spending a nice sunny Saturday getting our ski legs and enjoying being on the mountain.
