Okemo 4/2/2010

[severine]

Date(s) Skied: 4/2/2010

Resort or Ski Area: Okemo, Ludlow, VT

Conditions: 45 degrees around 9:30AM, bluebird, soft...corn, slush, rivers on the slopes, thin cover in many areas with also a lot of mashed potatoes. 79 degrees when I left!

Trip Report: On a whim, I made the last minute decision after class last night to go skiing today. Considered a few of Southern Vermont's options before settling on Okemo because of the half-price deal from my Sundown pass and the fact that I had a gift certificate--in other words, the lift ticket was free.

I don't remember what I skied... I am glad, however, that I brought the Rossi S6 Koopmans out for the first time. Who said you don't need a 110mm waist ski on the East Coast??? :lol: I struggle in these conditions and they definitely helped. What I did today wasn't exactly a prime example of form...not even an example. :lol: But it was fun to get out in the sun, the crowds were light, and the day was warm. Glad to see they opened the South Face area since it was closed yesterday. After 2.5 hours, my toes were numb--bad form, remember. Settled down at the lodge and met up with THE Ski Diva herself for a chat for a couple hours, before heading home (and getting stuck in traffic 25 miles north of the CT border :angry.

Just the kind of day that makes you smile, even if your skiing sucked. Oh yeah! I did see 2knees on his way out. Did not run into gmcunni, though. Lots of photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrievibert/sets/72157623633573747/

I followed 2 Waldos around for a while...

A little sparse under some of the lifts

 

[severine]

Eventually, it got too warm for the hoodie...

(BTW, must remember sunscreen in the future. Never used to burn... well, now I do. Ouch!)

Rivers started to sprout...

Bigger bare spots...

This is my definition of slush:

But it was a great day, nonetheless!

 

[Newpylong]

Wow, they really lost a lot of snow already...

 

[severine]

I don't see how they can stay open until next week. They could have done pond skimming at the top! There was a massive puddle up there!

 

[Ski Diva]

Great to see you, Sev! Come back and ski with me next winter!

 

[severine]

Great to see you, Sev! Come back and ski with me next winter!

So nice having a chance to talk with you today! And ABSOLUTELY! I think that's the 3rd time now that I've seen you there and we haven't really skied together yet!

 

[2knees]

bump review

ledges, boo.

sels i'll give it a c+

big bang a b

blackout an A, great lines

only problem was the pitch, i could've used more on such a warm day. and could've done without the sick ass traffic going into northampton. i went 2 miles in 45 minutes.

 

[drjeff]

Wow, they really lost a lot of snow already...

Thinking the same thing after seeing those pics!

 

[DoubleEject]

Thanks for the pics Severine. They really show the conditions of the trails.

 

[gmcunni]

was there today also. had a great time. a little disappointed in the open trials (or rather lifts) but weather and conditions were amazing. spent the day with kids and skied most of the hill from south face to jackson gore.

great pictures Carrie, i'm just going to make copies of your for my collection.

 

[RootDKJ]

Nice pics.

 

[Ski Diva]

So nice having a chance to talk with you today! And ABSOLUTELY! I think that's the 3rd time now that I've seen you there and we haven't really skied together yet!

LOL! One of these days we'll get it right!

 

[kingslug]

Trying to make the S3's my everyday ski...going to try the 7's out west next year.

 

[newskier]

I was there too. Really lost quite a bit of snow from a couple weeks ago. Fun day though--but you could really see the snow disappearing before your eyes. There were water puddles even at the top of the mountain. Normally, I hate skiing in spring conditions as I get tossed around a lot. So I decided to take advantage of the soft snow to try snowboarding. I found that in wet spring conditions I actually may prefer it to skiing. Felt like I could keep my balance better and the board cut right through the slush and water.

 

[gmcunni]

I don't know what it is about skiing with my kids.. no matter what we do i can' t seem to get them on a mountain before 10 AM!

We'd driven up the night before and stayed @ http://www.cavendishpointe.com/. Got a room for 6 of us for a very reasonable price.

Got up there around 7:30 PM and after checking in we headed to town for dinner. Ended up at Pot Belly Pub and enjoyed a nice dinner and some good beer. Back to the hotel and the kids hit the pool and hot tub. They begged to stay a 2nd night so they could swim more and talked about swimming on friday rather than skiing! :-o They were having so much fun we had to remind them we were on a SKI trip, not a POOL trip.

Grabbed breakfast @ Trappers and then hit the mountain. We scored some vouchers in the parking lot from a motivated seller, plus my sun down pass discount + some spring fling bucks we ended up paying about $25 each for the day.

Even at 10 AM the sun was strong and the snow was soft. We headed to the top and hit Mountain Road as the girls were all intimidated by being at the top of a VT mountain :roll: I knew it wasn't going to be fun but the girls insisted. As expected the spring snow made for slow skiing on the flats.

Sun was strong and the snow soften as the day went on. We skied where the girls wanted to go with a little guidance from the adults to make sure we didn't waste time traversing. Snow conditions were pretty much the same all over the mountain but i guess i liked the south face the most. We avoided the lowest part of the mountain all day.

Loved the way my Noridcas handled the soft snow, very glad we did the rub on wax thing the night before. my only regret about skiing with the kids was didn't hit any bumps. had hoped to pull a "you go that way and i'll go this way" but it never worked out.

Skied right up to the last chair on the HSQ. Temp was 76 when we got back to the car.

 

[severine]

Awesome, Gary! And then you came back last night to see Twisted Nut? South Face is my favorite part of Okemo--I was so happy they opened it up because I thought for sure it would be closed (it was on Thursday). Seemed to be less slush over on that part of the mountain. I bet with a crew of AZ bumpers, you guys could have turned some of that soft snow into a bump field! Nice that you got away with your kids though.

 

[2knees]

by 2:00, my legs were quivering so i waited by the quad for a good 20 minutes or so to see if anyone was around. guess i missed you gary.

you would've loved blackout and big bang. nice soft rippable bumps.

 

[gmcunni]

Awesome, Gary! And then you came back last night to see Twisted Nut? South Face is my favorite part of Okemo--I was so happy they opened it up because I thought for sure it would be closed (it was on Thursday). Seemed to be less slush over on that part of the mountain. I bet with a crew of AZ bumpers, you guys could have turned some of that soft snow into a bump field! Nice that you got away with your kids though.

saw both you and pat at different points. Saw you from the quad, you were at the top of a few different trails. by the time we got off and swung around you had gone and didn't see which way you'd went. during our waffle cabin break i saw pat fly past us.

 

[deadheadskier]

Ended up at Pot Belly Pub and enjoyed a nice dinner and some good beer.

Not sure if it's the same owner, but the guy who owned that place in the 90s was the biggest jerk I've ever worked for in my life. I bartended there for about a month during the fall of 97 and no where that I have ever worked did the entire staff despise the owner like they did at the Pot Belly. MISERABLE work environment. Only job that I not only didn't give a two week notice, but walked out mid-shift.

I had a couple of guys at the bar and the owner acted like a total jerk to me twice right in front of them. Both guys said there was no way they'd stand for that. I agreed and said if he was a prick again, I was walking out. Sure enough, 5 minutes later he was, so I told the guys their beers were on the house and walked out. :lol:

Funny thing was that 3 years later I was having beers with my parents at the summit lodge at Okemo. I don't know what brought it up, but I was telling them the story of how I walked out of that place. There's 5, maybe 6 chairs at that bar. The only other two people there? The two guys who were at the Pot Belly bar the day I quit. :lol: weird coincidence

 

[gmcunni]

by 2:00, my legs were quivering so i waited by the quad for a good 20 minutes or so to see if anyone was around. guess i missed you gary.

sorry i missed you Pat. was over in Jackson Gore around 2.