Zand
Well-known member
Date(s) Skied: 3/20-3/21/05
Resort or Ski Area: Okemo Mountain, VT
Conditions: LSGR, Mashed Potatoes
Trip Report:
Decided to take a late season trip to Okemo as their snow reports were promising and the weather looked great. On Sunday, there were bluebird skies and temps of around 45. On Monday, there were a few clouds in the morning, but they cleared by 11 and the temps skyrocketed to 55(!). The conditions were spectacular both days. The coverage is a bit thin on the natural trails with a few dirt patches and rocks here and there, but the coverage was great otherwise.
Sunday: Parked over at Jackson Gore a little after 12:30 and warmed up on Tuckered Out and Quantum Leap. There were quite a few people out enjoying the weather and conditions, but few lines and no crowded slopes. Tuckered Out is a long, winding green and Quantum Leap is a nice steep black groomer. It's my favorite trail at Okemo.
After 2 runs at Jackson Gore, we headed over to the Okemo side with a trip down Mountain Road to Screamin' Demon. Most of Mountain Road is flat and may require a bit of poling, but this particular section had some pitch and required no poling. Screamin Demon is a relatively steep blue groomer that goes down to Solitude Base.
Up the Solitude Express, we took a left down Express Lane, Route 103, Upper Arrow, and Double Dipper. Only Okemo can turn 1 run into 4. Those lead to the Green Ridge Triple, which we took to the summit.
From the summit, a run down Challenger was in hand. Challenger is a natural trail with no snowmaking or grooming. The coverage was great and the bumps were fun. From there, I blasted down Sprint and came out on Flatnap, as I call it. Have your poles ready.
I took 4 runs on South Face, including Off the Rim, Stump Jumper, Wild Thing, and Rimrock. Wild Thing is very interesting at the top and Off the Rim is one of my personal favorites.
A run down Rimrock dumped me out at the base of the Glades Peak Quad, so I took that to the true summit and skiied Buckhorn to Okemo summit. Buckhorn has amazing views of Killington and Sugarbush.
From the summit, I took Jolly Green Giant, a long blue cruiser, to Sel's Choice, a man-made bump run. The bumps are really nice and because of the weather, soft. I think Okemo is one of the best places to learn how to ski the bumps.
From Sel's Choice, I took Village Run into Solitude Village. That led me to Southern Crossing which dumps you out at Jackson Gore base. That ended my first day at Okemo. I stayed at Jackson Gore Inn overnight.
Monday: I woke up at 8 and dressed quickly to get out for first runs on Jackson Gore. I was out by 8:15. They tested the lifts for a little while and let us board at 8:30. I got up to Quantum and got first tracks. I also hit Limelight twice as well as Quantum 6 times in a little over an hour.
After an incredible 1 hour, I took a run on the Okemo side. I took Mountain Road down to Northstar Express. I then took Northstar Express (summit lift) to Jolly Green Giant, Sel's Choice, Village Run, and Southern Crossing. That's a pretty good loop around the east side of Okemo.
I ate breakfast at the roundhouse before heading up Jackson Gore for another run down Quantum. By now, it had softened up nicely which slowed me down a bit, but made for some good snow.
After that run, I took Sidewinder, Exhibition/Boomerang, and Heaven's Gate/Screamin' Demon from SOlitude Express. All 3 were in good shape.
Following those, I hit the summit via Northstar and hit Tomahawk, Sapphire, Timberline, and Jolly Green Giant/Sel's Choice. Tomahawk was scratchy on upper and nicely bumped up on lower. Sapphire and Timberline were nice. Jolly Gren Giant was like Sunday, nice and soft as was Sel's Choice.
After the Sel's Choice run, I skiied down to Northstar to see a big crowd gathered around it. As I aproached, some people started to hike out. That was when I found out they had a power outage. Actually, the whole town of Ludlow was out so there was no way out besides the shuttle bus. I decided to stick around as there was nothing better to do. At first, all of the maintenance guys came buzzing down on snowmobiles and went inside the room on top of the station. They started a really horrible sounding and smelly diesel motor. That ran the lift slowly and got all of the stuck people off. They shut it down and everything went eerily quiet. After about 5 minutes, there was communication over the maintenance guys' walkie talkies that the power was back at Solitude. 2 minutes later, the power came back to Northstar and the lift started. Everyone cheered and 5 chairs later, we boarded after the 30 minute break.
After the trip up, I took Searle's Way to Sel's Choice. Searle's looked like no one had been down it as there were few tracks. Sel's was good old Sel's. The good thing about the outage was that tons of people left.
Next were runs down World Cup and Defiance/Ledges. I didn't really like World Cup and Defiance for some reason. I just didn't have good runs. Ledges was nicely bumped on a semi-steep run under the lift. Fun.
Next, I took a really wierd run. I went up Northstar, down Turkey Shoot/Countdown/Sprint/Flatnap. From there, I went up South Face Express, hiked up Glades Peak (about 50 vertical feet above South Face Peak) and skiied Buckhorn to Okemo summit. From that, I took Sunburst to Whistler. Whistler is a tree trail, but still groomed. Only at Okemo. From there, I took Escape to Mountain Road to Sugar House lodge. I had a great cheeseburger there.
I took one more run from the summit- Tomahawk to Plunge. That's one long run as it's all bumps except for the top of Upper Tomahawk. Plunge dumps you out at Solitude Base. I took a run down Line Drive and back up the Morning Star Triple. From that, I took Southern Crossing to Jackson Gore.
At Jackson Gore, I closed out the day with 2 runs on Tuckered Out and 1 run on Quantum.
I'll have a Wachusett report Friday.
Resort or Ski Area: Okemo Mountain, VT
Conditions: LSGR, Mashed Potatoes
Trip Report:
Decided to take a late season trip to Okemo as their snow reports were promising and the weather looked great. On Sunday, there were bluebird skies and temps of around 45. On Monday, there were a few clouds in the morning, but they cleared by 11 and the temps skyrocketed to 55(!). The conditions were spectacular both days. The coverage is a bit thin on the natural trails with a few dirt patches and rocks here and there, but the coverage was great otherwise.
Sunday: Parked over at Jackson Gore a little after 12:30 and warmed up on Tuckered Out and Quantum Leap. There were quite a few people out enjoying the weather and conditions, but few lines and no crowded slopes. Tuckered Out is a long, winding green and Quantum Leap is a nice steep black groomer. It's my favorite trail at Okemo.
After 2 runs at Jackson Gore, we headed over to the Okemo side with a trip down Mountain Road to Screamin' Demon. Most of Mountain Road is flat and may require a bit of poling, but this particular section had some pitch and required no poling. Screamin Demon is a relatively steep blue groomer that goes down to Solitude Base.
Up the Solitude Express, we took a left down Express Lane, Route 103, Upper Arrow, and Double Dipper. Only Okemo can turn 1 run into 4. Those lead to the Green Ridge Triple, which we took to the summit.
From the summit, a run down Challenger was in hand. Challenger is a natural trail with no snowmaking or grooming. The coverage was great and the bumps were fun. From there, I blasted down Sprint and came out on Flatnap, as I call it. Have your poles ready.
I took 4 runs on South Face, including Off the Rim, Stump Jumper, Wild Thing, and Rimrock. Wild Thing is very interesting at the top and Off the Rim is one of my personal favorites.
A run down Rimrock dumped me out at the base of the Glades Peak Quad, so I took that to the true summit and skiied Buckhorn to Okemo summit. Buckhorn has amazing views of Killington and Sugarbush.
From the summit, I took Jolly Green Giant, a long blue cruiser, to Sel's Choice, a man-made bump run. The bumps are really nice and because of the weather, soft. I think Okemo is one of the best places to learn how to ski the bumps.
From Sel's Choice, I took Village Run into Solitude Village. That led me to Southern Crossing which dumps you out at Jackson Gore base. That ended my first day at Okemo. I stayed at Jackson Gore Inn overnight.
Monday: I woke up at 8 and dressed quickly to get out for first runs on Jackson Gore. I was out by 8:15. They tested the lifts for a little while and let us board at 8:30. I got up to Quantum and got first tracks. I also hit Limelight twice as well as Quantum 6 times in a little over an hour.
After an incredible 1 hour, I took a run on the Okemo side. I took Mountain Road down to Northstar Express. I then took Northstar Express (summit lift) to Jolly Green Giant, Sel's Choice, Village Run, and Southern Crossing. That's a pretty good loop around the east side of Okemo.
I ate breakfast at the roundhouse before heading up Jackson Gore for another run down Quantum. By now, it had softened up nicely which slowed me down a bit, but made for some good snow.
After that run, I took Sidewinder, Exhibition/Boomerang, and Heaven's Gate/Screamin' Demon from SOlitude Express. All 3 were in good shape.
Following those, I hit the summit via Northstar and hit Tomahawk, Sapphire, Timberline, and Jolly Green Giant/Sel's Choice. Tomahawk was scratchy on upper and nicely bumped up on lower. Sapphire and Timberline were nice. Jolly Gren Giant was like Sunday, nice and soft as was Sel's Choice.
After the Sel's Choice run, I skiied down to Northstar to see a big crowd gathered around it. As I aproached, some people started to hike out. That was when I found out they had a power outage. Actually, the whole town of Ludlow was out so there was no way out besides the shuttle bus. I decided to stick around as there was nothing better to do. At first, all of the maintenance guys came buzzing down on snowmobiles and went inside the room on top of the station. They started a really horrible sounding and smelly diesel motor. That ran the lift slowly and got all of the stuck people off. They shut it down and everything went eerily quiet. After about 5 minutes, there was communication over the maintenance guys' walkie talkies that the power was back at Solitude. 2 minutes later, the power came back to Northstar and the lift started. Everyone cheered and 5 chairs later, we boarded after the 30 minute break.
After the trip up, I took Searle's Way to Sel's Choice. Searle's looked like no one had been down it as there were few tracks. Sel's was good old Sel's. The good thing about the outage was that tons of people left.
Next were runs down World Cup and Defiance/Ledges. I didn't really like World Cup and Defiance for some reason. I just didn't have good runs. Ledges was nicely bumped on a semi-steep run under the lift. Fun.
Next, I took a really wierd run. I went up Northstar, down Turkey Shoot/Countdown/Sprint/Flatnap. From there, I went up South Face Express, hiked up Glades Peak (about 50 vertical feet above South Face Peak) and skiied Buckhorn to Okemo summit. From that, I took Sunburst to Whistler. Whistler is a tree trail, but still groomed. Only at Okemo. From there, I took Escape to Mountain Road to Sugar House lodge. I had a great cheeseburger there.
I took one more run from the summit- Tomahawk to Plunge. That's one long run as it's all bumps except for the top of Upper Tomahawk. Plunge dumps you out at Solitude Base. I took a run down Line Drive and back up the Morning Star Triple. From that, I took Southern Crossing to Jackson Gore.
At Jackson Gore, I closed out the day with 2 runs on Tuckered Out and 1 run on Quantum.
I'll have a Wachusett report Friday.
