Pro-Okemo Comment Thread

[ALLSKIING]

Originally Posted by Greg

• Great bump runs.
• Agressive early season snowmaking.
• The South Face had more challenge and character (Outrage and Double Diamond) than I was expecting. Nothing crazy, but still fun.
• The Narrows is a fun, intermediate trail.
• Accessible - less than 30 minutes off 91.

Since I skied the same trails as you did, I agree. I was surprised to find trails like Outrage and Double Diamond at Okemo...Fun trails.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Originally Posted by ALLSKIING

Since I skied the same trails as you did, I agree. I was surprised to find trails like Outrage and Double Diamond at Okemo...Fun trails.

My Dad who no longer skis but was a terminal intermediate cursed me for taking him down Double Diamonds..the combination of small moguls and widely spaced trees was way too much for him to handle..he still mentions that run and I have a picture of a yardsale of his..

[Talisman]

Originally Posted by WWF-VT

Closest ski area in VT to Harry's Cafe in Mount Holley

Hush! Like it isn't hard enough to get a table at Harry's now?

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Their marketing campaign is a thing of brilliance..

Bro-kemo
Sno-kemo

and a steezy press release from last season predicting a mad steezy winter..and they were right..

http://news.alpinezone.com/17795/

[skizoo]

There's a lot of reasons folks ski Okemo and I can tell you that not everyone that skis there is a gaper, a newb or afraid of skiing 'a real mountain'. Okemo is what it is, a cruising mountain, actually as cruising mountains go, it's an easy cruising mountain..

The vast majority of people here are probably younger than I am, though I'm far from ancient (51), I've got almost 1400 days skiing in the last 35 years.. Have skied probably about 75% of what North America has to offer.. Helied at Whistler before Blackcomb was even open.... spent a LOT of days at Mansfield ripping the front 4 on 190's+ long before they ever thought of grooming out any of the front 4..

But I've had back surgeries, I have a wife who has had 2 knee operations and has only been skiing 4 full years, Life changes.. I ski as much now as I ever did, and in some ways ski better than I ever did.. but the way you ski, and what you ski changes some over the years for a variety of reasons.... I still like steeps, some trees, and once in a while I'll still do some bumps, but I doubt that a lot of folks here will be skiing the same terrain you do now, 25 years from now. Some might.. and that's great if you can.. but time does take a toll..

We ski Okemo a lot now, my wife loves it there, she can ski the entire mountain and not hurt herself .. While not my first choice, it's still skiing, and it can be a fun mountain, it's all what you make it..We only ski weekdays so crowds are not an issue for us.. We still hit Stowe, Wildcat, the Loaf, if possible once or twice a year.. and spend a lot of time out west.. but Okemo suits us pretty well at this stage of our lives..

I've had great days, good days and crappy days at almost every place I've ever skied. but never once, was any of those days on any hill worse than not skiing..

I hope everyone here can spend an entire lifetime skiing, it's an amazing sport, but at some point in time, a place like Okemo will seem like a more viable option than it does at the moment to a lot of people. It's all what you make it.

[Geoff]

I think Okemo is outstanding at serving their target market. If you're looking for groomed blue cruisers and family skiing, it's the best in the east. They do a very good job with their skiing surface. Their trail system is homogeneous enough that trails get a fairly even amount of traffic so the skiing surface holds up pretty well all day. Given their financial success, it's pretty clear that this is what the mass market is looking for. The vast majority of skiers and snowboarders are not advanced and are not typically in very good physical shape.

I've only skied there once since it got all the lifts, trail widening, and snowmaking. A friend of mine used to manage the rental shop back in the early 1980's so I got to experience it when it was surface lifts, minimal snowmaking, and fun tree skiing. My return to try what the Muellers had created was probably 6 years ago. I'm not their target market and I used the place up in an hour or two.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Snowlerbladers like Okemo..

[Philpug]

Okemo is my guilty pleasure. Not a hard mountain by any means, but it is very fun. Snow making quality is second to none in the east. They have great tree skiing in Forrest Bump and Super Nova. Outrage is fun, not long, but fun.

For me, it is my home mountain, I will always run into someone to ski with there.

Their $99.00 frequent skier card is a great deal. 50% of the 75% off all your skiing and 25% off the rest.

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by skizoo

There's a lot of reasons folks ski Okemo and I can tell you that not everyone that skis there is a gaper, a newb or afraid of skiing 'a real mountain'. Okemo is what it is, a cruising mountain, actually as cruising mountains go, it's an easy cruising mountain..

The vast majority of people here are probably younger than I am, though I'm far from ancient (51), I've got almost 1400 days skiing in the last 35 years.. Have skied probably about 75% of what North America has to offer.. Helied at Whistler before Blackcomb was even open.... spent a LOT of days at Mansfield ripping the front 4 on 190's+ long before they ever thought of grooming out any of the front 4..

But I've had back surgeries, I have a wife who has had 2 knee operations and has only been skiing 4 full years, Life changes.. I ski as much now as I ever did, and in some ways ski better than I ever did.. but the way you ski, and what you ski changes some over the years for a variety of reasons.... I still like steeps, some trees, and once in a while I'll still do some bumps, but I doubt that a lot of folks here will be skiing the same terrain you do now, 25 years from now. Some might.. and that's great if you can.. but time does take a toll..

We ski Okemo a lot now, my wife loves it there, she can ski the entire mountain and not hurt herself .. While not my first choice, it's still skiing, and it can be a fun mountain, it's all what you make it..We only ski weekdays so crowds are not an issue for us.. We still hit Stowe, Wildcat, the Loaf, if possible once or twice a year.. and spend a lot of time out west.. but Okemo suits us pretty well at this stage of our lives..

I've had great days, good days and crappy days at almost every place I've ever skied. but never once, was any of those days on any hill worse than not skiing..

I hope everyone here can spend an entire lifetime skiing, it's an amazing sport, but at some point in time, a place like Okemo will seem like a more viable option than it does at the moment to a lot of people. It's all what you make it.

Jeez. Back issues suck. A friend of mine just went through his second disk fusion last fall. His neurosurgeon told him his first procedure was the worst herniated disk he'd ever seen in his career. I visited him in the hospital and it was touch & go whether he'd ever walk again. He's back to climbing the Presidential Range but he's dialed back his skiing to stay off the bumps.

My mom is 76 and skis Okemo as her eastern mountain. I'm 50. I don't have anything debilitating other than two blown ACLs but I've been dealing with that for decades. I'm hoping to avoid life on the groomers for another couple of decades but it's going to happen eventually unless there's a dramatic improvement with knee replacement technology. I guess there are worse things than fake knees and The Burn at Snowmass or all those groomers at Deer Valley.

[gus]

Okemo is Hannah Teter's (Halfpipe Gold Medal in 2006) home mountain and she still rides there.

Ross Powers (Halfpipe Gold Medal in 2002) is Okemo's ambassador and holds clinics for kids.