Okemo, VT 1/9/00

Jerm · Apr 17, 2000

(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/11/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.) The Jay Cloud really makes it difficult to justify sampling a variety of different ski areas. Maybe I should have just bought a season pass there instead of getting this Youth Corps VT ski area potpourri deal. In any case, it was gonna be really warm on Saturday so I figured I'd better tend to my car repairs now rather than with frozen fingers on some dark and lonely interstate later. So Saturday got bagged and I ended up driving up to Ludlow with three other Woods Holers Sat night. With McSkiing being pretty much the only option south of Jay, I figured this would be as good a time as any to use my Okemo voucher. My compatriots were all newbies so that suited them fine too. It was either Okemo or Killington, and from the reports I'd heard and read Okemo sounded like they'd have more open... even if it would all be cloned versions of the same trail. We got there around 8:30 with flurries just starting. By the time we made it to the top it was snowing at a good clip and we were happy to see that the dark blobs on the horizon were not the rain clouds we all feared. Some of the cloud cover to the southwest reminded me of the skivt day at Magic last year -- dark and churning like witch's cauldron. There was a fairly dramatic temperature gradient between the bottom and the top all day long and we had trouble determining the appropriate degree of bundlement. For the most part though, it was a pleasant day and a few bursts of snow in the morning made it feel more or less like winter. Our trail choices went north to south, starting on easy stuff around Solitude so my friends could get their ski legs back and gradually progressing over to the sorely mis-named Double Diamond and assorted amusements on the South Face. The group split pretty quick, and Greg and I took off to find what challenge we could elsewhere on the mountain. We did Exhibition to Plunge, and soared off the headwall on Exhibition.. a big jump that nearly got me fired years ago. You can easily get 100 feet of distance off it. After that we began working our way over toward the Northwest chair to see if they really had opened up one of the glades. Somewhere in between I sampled ungroomed McPowder on Upper Wardance where I found a big rope strung across the trail and other fun obstacles to thwart my passage. The skiers left side of DD was probably the best shot of the day, though woefully short. Only the right half of the trail was open, with a rope running down the middle. Just beyond the rope there was some blowover (and trees) to wake me from my stupor and warrant turning every so often. The rope did its job and kept the masses from chewing what little was there to pieces. Most of the stuff on the South Face was open, except for the glades and "Off the Rim" I think. Stumpjumper and Punchline were deserted by the mobs rushing down Rimrock, DD, and Wild Thing. Stumpjumper is, in my expert opinion, the most well cut trail in the South face area (aside from the glades, which they actually did a good job with). Unfortunately, judging from the few people skiing it and the crowds on boring trails like Sapphire, Nor'Easter, Countdown, etc. -- it isn't what the average Okemo skier wants to ski. At lunch I filled out a survey form rating Okemo against other mountains. They had a comment section where I could whine about changes and character that has been bulldozed off the mountain over the years. I implored them to redeem themselves by adopting a new cutting strategy in the new Jackson Gore area. It would be nice to see trails that exploit the natural curves of the mountain rather than blasted and bulldozed "terrain features". Maybe they should talk to the people who built the original ski area, with trails like Geronimo, Wardance, Chief, Rimrock, Fall Line, and others, all of which were trails that people got excited about when they opened for the season. Now they open in November and ski exactly the same all the way through to April. Wide, flat, groomed ... dead. Rumor is the new area will have "traditional New England skiing" - I'll believe it when I see it. After skiing some two dozen runs I had my fill and we all headed down to Tacos Tacos for a pit stop before the long slog home. Tacos Tacos reputedly has the "Best Burritos North of the Baja" and I'm inclined to believe them. Their big beef burrito is my old standby; I've never been disappointed. Two burritos and a big plate of nachos was enough to propel us all the way to the Cape -- with windows open most of the way.

Okemo, VT 1/9/00

Jerm

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