• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

I need a reason NOT to ski at Okemo

billski

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
16,207
Points
38
Location
North Reading, Mass.
Website
ski.iabsi.com
I'm really talking about skiing challenge.

I've stayed away from Okemo since the 90's when the whole place was boulevard-ed and flattened out. I went last year and simply could not find a challenging thing except for perhaps some 20 second chutes. Now I've a friend in my club who is adamant that I would have a great time. I might blow off her opinion, if she wasn't such a damned fine, smokin fast skier. That said, she's not interested in off-piste or bumps. She said someone would need "to show me". I understand the show-don't-tell rule, but at Okemo? So what's to love for an "advanced" (never an "expert") skier? That is, enough to keep me entertained for an entire day? I went last season one time and was bored to tears. Do I really want to drop change and a precious ski day there?

Maybe the best way to convince me is to do a comparison to something that has some serious challenges. Let's say, like Sugarbush, Stowe, Jay. I don't ski Kmart, so that wouldn't help.

Thoughts?
 

HowieT2

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
1,626
Points
63
overview800.jpg
 

ss20

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
3,919
Points
113
Location
A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
I ski one or two days a year there, did a full 3-day weekend a few years back. My day is Jackson Gore from 9am-11am, cross over the main face during the lunch break, and lap the woods off of South Face and Glades from noon on till the end of the day. Lot's and lot's to explore over there. Some steep and tight, some wide-open with a little less pitch. And when I say visible I mean VERY visible trees... never gets skied because that's the clientele.
 

billski

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
16,207
Points
38
Location
North Reading, Mass.
Website
ski.iabsi.com
I usually ski with abandon and generally have no clue what trail I'm on. I might have skied it, I honestly don't know. Can you compare Jackson Gore area trail double blacks with another ski area's trails?


What I don't like about what I see, in general is that most trails including Jackson Gore are a straight shot boulevard. I'd much prefer a surprise around every trail bend.
 
Last edited:

billski

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
16,207
Points
38
Location
North Reading, Mass.
Website
ski.iabsi.com
I ski one or two days a year there, did a full 3-day weekend a few years back. My day is Jackson Gore from 9am-11am, cross over the main face during the lunch break, and lap the woods off of South Face and Glades from noon on till the end of the day. Lot's and lot's to explore over there. Some steep and tight, some wide-open with a little less pitch. And when I say visible I mean VERY visible trees... never gets skied because that's the clientele.
And you repeat that every day?

Not following you on the "visible trees" thing...
 

darent

Active member
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
1,548
Points
38
Location
nantucket ma
what's not to like skiing with a damn fine ,smokin hot, fast skiing lady, shut up and ski.try and keep up then Apre'
 

JamaicaMan

New member
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Messages
279
Points
0
BillSki. C'mon man! Say it together "Slokemo". Flatter than "flatton". Boooooooooring. This is where my Dad skied when he retired (from skiing!) But, people do like it. An F-load of them. So they wait around in boring lift lines to be bored skiing. But they don't like to be out in the elements so O built their well-heeled customers two bubblechairs to protect their sorry asses. There are plenty of areas that offer challenge as you go further north and one just south. But if somehow you end up in Ludlow, have a beer, get a nice pair of boots fitted and then get the hell out of Dodge!
 

KD7000

New member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
332
Points
0
Location
Central MA
I skied Okemo once. It was on a free pass, so I didn't mind the blandness. Trails were nice, snow cover was good, it wasn't the worst day ever. Would I go back at walkup rate? No way.

That 3D map above sure does make the place look boring.
 

KevinF

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
Messages
568
Points
18
Location
Marlborough, Massachusetts
If you're able to load up a carving ski so that it slingshots you across the trail, then Okemo can be fun. I haven't been there since I started getting a season pass to Stowe, but laying down tracks into groomers was fun when everything ungroomed was frozen up crap.

Challenge is what you make of it... How many turns can you bang out down a trail? How few can you get away with? Can you lay 'em over so far that you can drag your inside hand in the snow?

Mikaela Shiffrin spent day after day after day doing laps on Storrs Hill because she always found something that she couldn't do. If she could find a challenge at Storrs Hill, I'm pretty sure you can find a challenge at Okemo.
 

WWF-VT

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
2,598
Points
48
Location
MA & Fayston, VT
I usually ski with abandon and generally have no clue what trail I'm on. I might have skied it, I honestly don't know. Can you compare Jackson Gore area trail double blacks with another ski area's trails?

Jackson Gore double blacks would be rated blues at Sugarbush, Stowe or Jay.
 

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,921
Points
113
Location
Southeast NH
They would.

Kevin F is right. Best way to enjoy skiing Okemo is to get into carving. The other thing is Okemo routinely has decent low angle zipper line bumps.

Character trails would include Upper World Cup, Challenger, Searles Way. Some okay glades here and there. Many of those straight boulevards have nice rollers for catching air. Sapphire, Timberline, Heavens gate
 

HowieT2

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
1,626
Points
63
Jackson Gore double blacks would be rated blues at Sugarbush, Stowe or Jay.

Funny, we had a family up from there, they said they did blacks. So I took them on paradise and the mom bailed and hiked back up before the turn.
 

Jully

Active member
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
2,487
Points
38
Location
Boston, MA
They would.

Kevin F is right. Best way to enjoy skiing Okemo is to get into carving. The other thing is Okemo routinely has decent low angle zipper line bumps.

Character trails would include Upper World Cup, Challenger, Searles Way. Some okay glades here and there. Many of those straight boulevards have nice rollers for catching air. Sapphire, Timberline, Heavens gate

Those rollers, only time I went there with some family, had big signs posted that said "DON'T JUMP OFF THE LIP."
 
Top