Okemo Mountain

Okemo Mountain
File:Okemo.jpg
Okemo as seen from Mount Ascutney
Location	Ludlow, Vermont, USA
Nearest major city	Londonderry, Vermont 12 miles (19 km) south, Rutland, Vermont 25 miles (40 km) southeast, Boston, Massachusetts 120 miles (190 km) southeast
Vertical	2,200 feet (670 m)
Top elevation	3,344 feet (1,019 m)
Base elevation	1,134 feet (346 m)
Skiable area	624 acres (253 ha)
Trails	117
Longest run	4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Lift system	12 chairs, 6 surface lifts
Terrain parks	5
Snowfall	16.6 feet (5.1 m)
Website	Okemo Mountain Resort

Okemo Mountain Resort is a ski resort located in Ludlow, Vermont. It is one of the few remaining family-owned ski areas. Before becoming a popular ski resort destination, Ludlow was originally a mill town, and was the home of a General Electric plant until 1977.

History

Okemo was founded in 1955 by a small group of local businessmen. Operations officially began January 31, 1956 with four inches of snow, two Poma surface lifts, and lift tickets for 20 cents apiece. The early 1960s saw the introduction of four more Pomas, and the first chairlift was introduced in 1965. Snowmaking was first installed that year as well. Along with all of these improvements, Okemo began to offer slopeside lodging starting in 1961.

The 1970s brought tough times for Okemo. There were fires, floods, and competition from the West. In 1982, the owners decided to sell the resort rather than go into bankruptcy. Tim and Dianne Mueller purchased the resort on August 2, 1982. While the resort was in danger of going bankrupt and the facilities were outdated, the Muellers wanted to preserve the historic feeling. They kept the name Okemo, which is Native American for "All Come Home." Certain trail names also continue to preserve this sentiment, such as Chief, Tomahawk, Wardance, Sachem, and Arrow, all of which are present on today's trail map.

Since 1982, Okemo has grown in many different ways. The facilities have been expanded in every aspect, including new chairlifts, trails, lodges, and snowmaking. Since purchasing Okemo, the Muellers have also acquired Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, New Hampshire and Mount Crested Butte in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Mountain statistics

Elevation

• Base: 1,144 feet

• Summit: 3,344 feet

• Vertical drop: 2,200 feet (most vertical in southern Vermont)

Trails

• Skiable area: 624 acres (2.52 km²)
• 117 trails
  • novice - 31%
  • intermediate - 38%
  • advanced and expert - 31%
• Longest trail - 4.5 miles (Mountain Road)

97% (605 acres) of the trail area is covered by snowmaking, more than some other Eastern resorts (except for Killington), with Stratton Mountain third at 90%. The snowmaking pond was just expanded by 85 million gallons to a total water capacity of 155 million gallons. In addition, the quality of the grooming has been ranked number one in the East by SKI Magazine for the past ten years straight.

The trails built as each new part of the mountain have had some sort of theme, such as the Native American names on the main mountain and the astronomy-related names at the top of Jackson Gore. The following lists all of the trails by rating and name, alphabetically:

Easier	More Difficult	Most Difficult	Most Difficult (Use Extreme Caution)
Bright Star Basin	Beeline	Black Out (m)	Big Bang
Buckhorn	Blue Moon	Blind Faith (t)	Black Hole (g)
Bull Run	Boomerang	Challenger (n)	Double Diamond (g)
Coleman Brook	Catnap (n)	Defiance	Forrest Bump (g)
Day Break	Chute	Eclipse	Loose Spruce (g)
Dream Weaver	Countdown	Exhibition	Nor'Easter Terrain Park (t)
Easy Rider	Cut Off	Fast Lane (n) (m)	Outrage (g)
Easy Street	Cutter's Folly	Ledges (m)	SoBe Super Pipe (t)
Escape	Double Dipper	Nor'Easter (m)	Supernova (g)
Expresso	Drop Off	Punch Line (m)	The Dew Zone (t)
Fairway	Express Lane	Quantum Leap
Galaxy Bowl	French Connection (n)	Searle's Way
Home Stretch	Heaven's Gate	Sel's Choice (m)
Homeward Bound	Jolly Green Giant	Side Kick (n)
Hot Dog Hill (t)	Line Drive	Stump Jumper
Inn Bound	Link	The Plunge (m)
Jack-A-Lope	Lower Arrow	Triplesec (m)
Kettle Brook Trail	Lower Chief	Turkey Shoot (n)
Ledgewood Trail	Lower Fall Line	Upper Chief
Lift Line	Lower Limelight	Upper Fall Line
Lower Mountain Road	Lower Tomahawk	Upper Limelight (m)
Mountain Road	Lower World Cup	Upper Wild Thing (n) (m)
Open Slope	Moment's Rest	Upper World Cup
Promenade	Moonshadow	Vortex
Rising Star	Off The Rim (n)	Wild Thing
Sachem	Ridge Runner
Ski School Slope	Rimrock
Snowtrak	Route 103
Southern Crossing	Rum Run (n)
Spur Line	Sapphire
Sun Dog	Scooter
Sunburst	Screamin' Demon
Sunset Strip	Side Out
Switchback	Sidewinder
Upper Mountain Road (n)	Sprint
Village Run	Sprout
Zip	The Bends
	The Narrows (g)
	Timberline
	Tuckered Out
	Upper Arrow
	Upper Tomahawk
	Wardance
	Whistler (g)

• (g) - gladed trail with trees
• (n) - natural trail without snowmaking (not including glades), although many of these are groomed after a snowfall to have a solid base
• (m) - trail with moguls regularly when conditions provide
• (t) - terrain park with various jumps and features including rails and halfpipes

See also: Okemo Trail Map

Lifts

• 19 total
  • 9 quad chairs
    • 5 highspeed detachable quads
  • 3 triple chairs
  • 7 surface lifts
• Uphill capacity - 33,450 people per hour

Surface Lifts	Fixed Grip Triples	Fixed Grip Quads	High-Speed Quads
F-10 Carpet	Black Ridge Triple	Glades Peak Quad	Coleman Brook Express Quad
Orion's Belt Carpet	Green Ridge Triple	Sachem Quad	Jackson Gore Express
Skywalker Carpet	Morning Star Triple	South Ridge Quad A	Northstar Express Quad
Snow Stars Poma		South Ridge Quad B	Solitude Express Quad
Stargazer Carpet			South Face Express Quad
Starlight Carpet
The Pull

Lodges

• Main Base Lodge: located at the base of South Ridge Quads A & B at the main entrance of the mountain, with daycare, ski shop, rentals, tickets, and food from the cafeteria, Caffé Origins, and the Sitting Bull Restaurant & Bar
• Jackson Gore Base Lodge: located at the base of the Jackson Gore area and Coleman Brook Express Quad, with daycare, ski shop, rentals, tickets, and food from the cafeteria, selling more specialties than the other lodges, and Siena restaurant on the second floor; also attached is hotel-like lodging and Coleman Brook Tavern restaurant
• Sugar House: located near the base of Northstar Express Quad, with many unique dining opportunities, including a deli, a grille, pizza, and a café
• Summit Lodge: located at the top of the main mountain, accessible from Northstar Express Quad, Green Ridge Triple, and Glades Peak Quad, with a cafeteria, bar, and Asian cuisine
• ePIC: located at the base of the Solitude area and Solitude Express Quad, with a full-service restaurant and a small snack area

Skiing the mountain

Many find that Okemo is a pleasant mountain to ski because of the 97% snowmaking coverage and nightly grooming of most trails. It is particularly well-suited for intermediate skiers because there are a lot of cruising trails. Expert skiers may feel limited when the resort is compared to other Vermont resorts like Killington, Sugarbush, or Stowe; however, there is plenty of mogul and glade terrain and terrain parks to keep advanced skiers and riders interested.

There are four main areas at Okemo, each with at least one high speed detachable quad. The main mountain is serviced primarily by the Northstar Express Quad and two older fixed grip triples. The 1700 vertical foot cruisers, such as Chief, World Cup, and Jolly Green Giant are accessed from the Northstar Express. Lines accumulate often, starting early in the morning, on weekends and holidays in this area; the Green Ridge Triple can be used to reach the top of the mountain instead, although it loads at the middle of the mountain. Intermediate skiers and riders will particularly enjoy Sapphire, a classic New England cruising trail, with great views of the valley. The main area also includes runs directed at more advanced skiers, such as Searle's Way, Sel's Choice, Nor'Easter Terrain Park, Defiance, and the Dew Zone (Mountain Dew sponsored halfpipe and snowboard park).

Solitude, to the right of the main mountain as one looks uphill, offers about 1100 vertical feet. The Solitude area also has its own base lodge, hotel accommodations, and private trailside homes. Most of the trails in this area are intermediate cruisers, though some blacks exist, such as Exhibition and The Plunge. The Solitude Express Quad usually has short lines, especially after the new Jackson Gore opened, as many skiers and riders go to the other high-speed quads instead.

The South Face area, to the left, has the highest peak on the mountain, faces the sun in the morning, and is served by a 1,100 ft (340 m) high speed lift. This area is known for its more difficult terrain, including most of the double-black diamond trails. While some of the main thoroughfares are groomed nightly in this area, trails like Outrage and Forest Bump remain natural. There are also mogul trails in this area, such as Punch Line, and Okemo makes sure to mark mogul trails. Okemo is also known for their bailout lanes, groomed sections on bump runs where one can escape from the moguls. While the Northstar Express Quad sees crowds early, the South Face Express Quad has short lines most of the time, save for crowded weekends in January and February in the middle of the day.

The final area, on the far right, is the still-developing Jackson Gore, complete with its own access road, lodge, ski school, and most other amenities also found at the Base Lodge. This area, served by two high-speed quads, has some of the steeper terrain on the mountain, as well as the standard green and blue trails. Lines are unlikely to be found here, although there is often excessive skier traffic on the Lower Limelight trail as skiers move from the main mountain over to Jackson Gore. A little-used alternative is Jack-a-lope or Moonshadow to Southern Crossing, although this goes to the base area only rather than the lift to the peak. Future plans for the Jackson Gore base area include more condominiums off to the right, with ski-in access provided by a new fixed grip quad and trail underneath it. There is also a plan to place a gondola that loads at Jackson Gore's base and unloads at the top of the main mountain. The proposed location for this gondola is shown on the trail map as a line of snow through the trees that goes through Solitude Village and Solitude's trails and continues to the main peak next to Upper Tomahawk, remaining to the right of the Green Ridge Triple.

As Okemo claims to have five areas, a fifth, smaller one would be Glades Peak, between the main mountain and the South Face, serviced by one fixed grip quad. It provides access to most trails on the mountain, including a couple that are exclusively served by its lift. As it is just an in-between lift, the Glades Peak Quad has barely any lines, and can be bypassed totally when access to the South Face is open through the Catnap trail.

Although the East Coast ski experience has been known to be icy, Okemo does a credible job in controlling the issue with frequent snowmaking and grooming. One can see where fresh snow was blown in the last 24 hours and what trails have been groomed by checking a map at any of the ticket offices each morning. After a significant snowfall, Okemo tends to leave several trails ungroomed so skiers can experience the fresh powder. These trails are marked as ungroomed so skiers that do not enjoy thick powder can avoid them.

There are also designated snowshoeing trails on the map, in a couple of different loops on the lower part of the mountain. Like the ratings for skinng the trails, these routes also range from easier to most difficult, determined by how steep each trail is. The ratings vary along each route based on what trail it takes to go back in the opposite direction. In addition, a tubing area has recently been installed at the base of Jackson Gore.

Summer activities

The 2.9 mile (4.7 km) Healdville Trail for hikers starts at a small parking lot off State Route 103 and makes a relatively easy ascent to the fire tower at the top of the mountain. Visitors can also drive up the mountain on the paved road that follows the Mountain Road trail. There lookout points at which to stop and take in the scenery along the way.

Across Route 103 sits the 18-hole, par-70 Okemo Valley golf course which has had many accolades heaped upon it as well, including being rated the best public course in Vermont for 2006 by Golfweek. Run by Okemo, it is the first Heathland-style golf course built in Vermont. The whole course measures 6,400 yards (5,900 m) and hosts two events on the Vermont PGA Tour. Other amenities include a 12,000 ft (3,700 m)² year-round indoor training center, an 18 acre outdoor learning center, a clubhouse, a pro shop, and Yamaha gold carts. Adjacent to the course is Willie Dunn's Grille, a restaurant open every day during the summer and winter seasons (with breaks in between) for lunch and dinner. The Muellers also own Tater Hill Golf Club in Windham, Vermont, 22 miles (35 km) away from Ludlow.

Wind power

During August 2006, the Muellers announced they were switching to wind power for the upcoming ski season at their three resorts, Okemo, Mount Sunapee, and Crested Butte. The Muellers have bought 27 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy certificates from Sterling Planet, through a contract with Gunnison County Electric Association in Colorado, for about 15% more money than they were paying previously. It is estimated that this will prevent 18,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions on a yearly basis.

Trivia

• The "Beach House" (formerly the "Wigmam") used to be at the top of the mountain (at the top of Nor Easter) before the Summit Lodge was built.
• The Morning Star Triple was formerly the Northeast Summit Triple, which ran where the Northstar Express Quad is now.
• The trail Home Stretch used to be named Ugh.
• Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity skis at Okemo and discusses it on his show.

External links

• Okemo Mountain Resort official site
• Okemo Mountain Stats & Facts
• Okemo snow report
• Okemo trail map
• Lodging on Okemo Mountain
• Okemo at WikiWinter