Date(s) Skied: Sunday January 9th, 2011
Resort or Ski Area: Okemo
Conditions: A bit cold, very windy. Groomed Hardpack
Trip Report:
Pretty good day today at Okemo. They reported receiving 4-6 inches of new snow on Saturday and that appeared about right. Spent the majority of my day on the groomers as the friends I was with do not care for bumps. No natural trails or woods open. The groomers skied great most of the day. Some skied off areas by mid-afternoon, but not too bad. Most of the day the groomers skied fantastic, so it was a fun day of just letting em' fly. Really not crowded at all. We even hit the Northstar Quad at 11AM and were on the lift in under 10 minutes without the singles line. It was the busiest I saw it all day with 4 lines per side open and about 4 rows of waiting skiers. The rest of the lifts were ski on all day. Northstar was as well at 1:30 when we took it again.
I did get into the bumps a little bit; Plunge x2, Sel's Choice and the Big Bang. While they weren't quite strip club bumps, what I skied wasn't very good. Completely skied off in the troughs. There were some decent lines, except most would end up with a wall bump after 5 or 6 moguls. They really need some more snow or to top dress them with snowmaking to get back to 'ripping shape'.
Started our day parking at Jackson Gore. I think this is the way to go for a day trip. Much less of a cluster booting up in that lodge as opposed to the main base.
view up from Jackson Gore
The Plunge
Looking up Sels. Good challenging icy trough conditions for the ski patrol to work on sled drills. They were the only others on the trail
I had never skied Big Bang before and thought it was a pretty cool trail. The bumps up top weren't bad, but much of the botton half were GS bumps. Not sure why they don't just mow those down. Then again, I give Okemo a lot of credit for having several bump trail selections. Back in High School we got Sel's Choice and that was it for 95% of the year.
View of crappy GS bumps. Photo doesn't really do it justice, they got worse over the crest
Overall a highly satisfying day at Okemo. Not too crowded and great fast groomers. As always it would be great to have had a great bump run or some nice trees to ski, but even minus that, I still had a lot of fun. People rag on Okemo all the time. I think it's a great hill personally
Resort or Ski Area: Okemo
Conditions: A bit cold, very windy. Groomed Hardpack
Trip Report:
Pretty good day today at Okemo. They reported receiving 4-6 inches of new snow on Saturday and that appeared about right. Spent the majority of my day on the groomers as the friends I was with do not care for bumps. No natural trails or woods open. The groomers skied great most of the day. Some skied off areas by mid-afternoon, but not too bad. Most of the day the groomers skied fantastic, so it was a fun day of just letting em' fly. Really not crowded at all. We even hit the Northstar Quad at 11AM and were on the lift in under 10 minutes without the singles line. It was the busiest I saw it all day with 4 lines per side open and about 4 rows of waiting skiers. The rest of the lifts were ski on all day. Northstar was as well at 1:30 when we took it again.
I did get into the bumps a little bit; Plunge x2, Sel's Choice and the Big Bang. While they weren't quite strip club bumps, what I skied wasn't very good. Completely skied off in the troughs. There were some decent lines, except most would end up with a wall bump after 5 or 6 moguls. They really need some more snow or to top dress them with snowmaking to get back to 'ripping shape'.
Started our day parking at Jackson Gore. I think this is the way to go for a day trip. Much less of a cluster booting up in that lodge as opposed to the main base.
view up from Jackson Gore
The Plunge
Looking up Sels. Good challenging icy trough conditions for the ski patrol to work on sled drills. They were the only others on the trail
I had never skied Big Bang before and thought it was a pretty cool trail. The bumps up top weren't bad, but much of the botton half were GS bumps. Not sure why they don't just mow those down. Then again, I give Okemo a lot of credit for having several bump trail selections. Back in High School we got Sel's Choice and that was it for 95% of the year.
View of crappy GS bumps. Photo doesn't really do it justice, they got worse over the crest
Overall a highly satisfying day at Okemo. Not too crowded and great fast groomers. As always it would be great to have had a great bump run or some nice trees to ski, but even minus that, I still had a lot of fun. People rag on Okemo all the time. I think it's a great hill personally
