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Can Okemo overcome 30inches+to open more then 1 lift???

Zermatt

Active member
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Mar 13, 2016
Messages
688
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43
Location
Connecticut
Yo let’s be real. Vail sucks a fat one and we all know this.

I’m off to ski Alta and I’m not a Natzi or a Hipster. Just happy to go ski with my 10,000 closest Cali friends.

If Alta got 40” they would open depending on Avy Mitigation.

Trump skis and Jeans and Fuck Vail. Looks for the stickers.
Simply not true. 40" in under 24 hours would cripple Alta. Full interlodge, illegal to go outside, road and mountain closed. 40" over two or three days is a totally different story.
 

jg17

Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2018
Messages
73
Points
6
Location
Seattle via NJ
Look at the PNW today. New snow. Saturday.

Crystal (Alterra), 9:05 am: all lifts open. 2,600 acres open.

Stevens (Vail), 9:40 am: 3 of 14 lifts open. 300 acres open.
Yup. I was at Crystal 11/21 and 11/27, everything open but Gold Hills. Forest Queen and Green Valley busy (per usual) but no lines at 6 or Northway. Stevens 12/5 (2nd day open for them), backside closed and 15-20 minute lines at all lifts. Yes, there was no snow for a bit and Crystal did end up closing 6 and North by then, but everything open at Stevens had plenty of coverage since it had just opened, so I would be surprised if the backside had low snow. In just about every aspect, I was much more impressed with Crystal's operating plan.
 

abc

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Joined
Mar 2, 2008
Messages
5,862
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113
Location
Lower Hudson Valley
Karma is a bitch.

All those Vail owned mountains outside of Colorado running so poorly will come back to haunt Vail Corp.

Sure, there're some people who had no choice because their property is stuck with Vail. Or their home is next door to a Vail owned mountain. But those are after all a minority of skiers who USED TO ski the mountains Vail now own.

Majority of skiers who bought Epic pass don't have to buy it. They bought it because they used it to visit Vail's Colorado flagship mountains. But this year, they're stuck skiing their local "feeder hills" exclusively. They discovered what a terrible corporation Vail is. Those who could may very well gone over to IKON, which pretty much offer the same benefit of skiing mountains out west and a local feeder hill back home.

(ok, I'm one of those "switchers". I don't care very much how well or poorly the Vail owned mountains in northeast ran last year because I didn't really ski that many days back east. The difference between Vail owned mountains and others weren't big enough to sway my decisions. Besides, I was going to switch anyway, except for the 20/21 season, there's a nice little credit from the truncated season before. But now I get to see clearly how terribly Vail run their eastern mountains. I'm not locked into Epic in any shapes or forms. So I'm pretty glad I have better options. Vail aren't going to get more pass money out of me for quite some time in the future)
 

ScottySkis

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2011
Messages
12,294
Points
48
Location
Middletown NY
Karma is a bitch.

All those Vail owned mountains outside of Colorado running so poorly will come back to haunt Vail Corp.

Sure, there're some people who had no choice because their property is stuck with Vail. Or their home is next door to a Vail owned mountain. But those are after all a minority of skiers who USED TO ski the mountains Vail now own.

Majority of skiers who bought Epic pass don't have to buy it. They bought it because they used it to visit Vail's Colorado flagship mountains. But this year, they're stuck skiing their local "feeder hills" exclusively. They discovered what a terrible corporation Vail is. Those who could may very well gone over to IKON, which pretty much offer the same benefit of skiing mountains out west and a local feeder hill back home.

(ok, I'm one of those "switchers". I don't care very much how well or poorly the Vail owned mountains in northeast ran last year because I didn't really ski that many days back east. The difference between Vail owned mountains and others weren't big enough to sway my decisions. Besides, I was going to switch anyway, except for the 20/21 season, there's a nice little credit from the truncated season before. But now I get to see clearly how terribly Vail run their eastern mountains. I'm not locked into Epic in any shapes or forms. So I'm pretty glad I have better options. Vail aren't going to get more pass money out of me for quite some time in the future)
U should look into buying a state gold pass
 

Blowhard

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2018
Messages
34
Points
8
I left my house 4 miles away with about 16" on the deck at 645AM - I skinned to top of Okemo.
met up with others who did the same. We could not ski/board down.. snow was to thick. We ended up bootbacking through chest high snow to get to a trail that had been groomed a few hours earlier, that we were able to ski.
got back to my car and had over 2' more than when I left and deck on return at noon was up to the 40" railing. Few places could handle that East or West. btw, jeep slid down the access road.
Deck1.jpg
Deck2.jpg

Jeep.jpg
 

NYDB

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Joined
Jan 13, 2016
Messages
1,715
Points
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Location
Southeast NY /Southern VT
Why did you bootpack? Why not just keep the skins on until you found something steep enough to slide down on?

Oh right, you were at Okemo.

Anyway, I dont know which story in this thread is sadder. Yours or the guy who had to lap the beginner lift 30x instead of having what could have been the best powder day of his life.
 

Blowhard

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Joined
Apr 4, 2018
Messages
34
Points
8
Why did you bootpack? Why not just keep the skins on until you found something steep enough to slide down on?

Oh right, you were at Okemo.

Anyway, I dont know which story in this thread is sadder. Yours or the guy who had to lap the beginner lift 30x instead of having what could have been the best powder day of his life.
IMO - okemo sucks. I ski it as our house is between Killington & there.. the kids have an easier time at Okemo. the original forecast for this storm had more snow south, and only 4-8" at okemo and less at killington. regardless of okemo's faults and flatness, the trail we were attempting to ski should have been fine..
killington with only 24" of snow (or magic, or stratton) would have been better choices...

It's easy to laugh at Okemo (too easy) but seriously, how many 40+ pow dumps have any of us been in? even out west?
 

raisingarizona

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Simply not true. 40" in under 24 hours would cripple Alta. Full interlodge, illegal to go outside, road and mountain closed. 40" over two or three days is a totally different story.
That’s not true at all. If the snow pack is extremely delicate then maybe but there’s plenty of 40 inches in 24 hour storms where they get opened up just fine.

a few years back we got 100 inches in 36 hours at Snowbowl. Most of the mountain was open both days by 9.
 

raisingarizona

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If you want to ski untracked snow after a 40 inch dump Okemo is obviously not the place to be. If anyone did they are probably better off on that fresh cord anyways.

Plattekill was probably the best spot for that storm I imagine.
 

JimG.

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If you want to ski untracked snow after a 40 inch dump Okemo is obviously not the place to be. If anyone did they are probably better off on that fresh cord anyways.

Plattekill was probably the best spot for that storm I imagine.
Plat1.jpg
Platty was awesome but could have used another 6-8" to get the headwalls on the double side better covered.
 

raisingarizona

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My first year as a passholder. That was opening day too.
Plattekill and Mad River Glen were my two favorite ski areas during my last two seasons out east, 92/93 and 93/94. There was a lot of snow those years.

good purchase choice. Supporting a business like that is a cool thing to do and it’s a mountain I’d much rather be at than Mount Snow or Hunter for example.
 
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