# Okemo 4/1



## 2knees (Apr 1, 2009)

Nice freebie today.  3 cans of Chef Boy-R-Dee for a lift ticket.  cant beat that.  Basically skied their open bump runs.  Hit, in order, Ledges, Sels, blackout, the plunge and then Big Bang.  Never did Eclipse cause Big Bang was really nice.

Ledges had the best lines, totally seeded and cut in nice but was the shortest of the 5.  blackout was also good, lines were a bit more spaced, less pitch then ledges but still not long enough.  Sels wasnt very good, imho.  lines were really hacked up and more problematic was the firmness.  Plunge obviously hadnt been skied much recently and was filled with dirty bumps.  the biggest problem was the nasty slog from the bottom of plunge down to the base of jackson gore.  no way i was doing that again.  Big Bang was half natty bumps and lower half seemed like seeded.  Some steeper sections with big ass bumps and troughs re-introduced me to that kind of bumping.  Had a blast hoppin on those.  I think Greg caught me on vid the one time i bailed.  such is the game....

Met Mr. Moose and Ozzy from kzone and always a pleasure to ski with Greg and Madskier.  Ozzy is a hell of a bump skier and Mr Moose is a real smooth skier also.


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (Apr 1, 2009)

nice report..Jolly Green Giant is one of my favorites..lots of whoop do doos..


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## Greg (Apr 1, 2009)

Really fun day. I'm glad I got out as I was a bit on the fence about this one. Turned out great. Met up with 2knees and madskier6 a bit before noon. Hit Ledges, Sel's and Blackout. Sel's was whack, Blackout okay. Ledges had perfect seeded lines. No thought. Left. right. Left Right. Fun but too short. Soon met up with ozzy and mister moose and eventually made out way to Jackson Gore. Cool area. Never skied over there. Hit Big Bang and that was it for much of the afternoon. Great trail. Nice pitch here and there, but also flat areas to dial it back a bit. Bumps pretty much the whole way. We hit that 4 or 5 times in a row. Nice and soft and fun as hell. Then headed back to the main mountain and finished up with two runs on Ledges, one with ozzy, one solo.

All in all a great day. Soft snow, but not mush. Cool, actually sleeted a bit. Great to meet a few new dudes too, ozzy and mister moose. Cool guys. Drive up and back was cake. Okemo gets hammered, but I like it once a year. I think I'll make it a spring thing. Pretty damn good bumps there. No crazy steep pitches, but still good fun. Price today was right (can of chicken broth, manwich and spaghettios).... :lol:

Vid's uploading now.


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## ozzy (Apr 1, 2009)

Was definitely a lot of fun. Nice meeting you guys. There was definitely some lines within the lines on Big Bang that required some extra turns, but kept you out of those deep trough's Ledges was nice as I was diging that line that left right line that was nice and shallow one line over from the top air. I should of skied that last run with you Greg as my appointment at 4:30 never happened. 
Psyced to ski there again as I have two vouches for there for the remainder of the season


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## Greg (Apr 1, 2009)

ozzy said:


> I should of skied that last run with you Greg as my appointment at 4:30 never happened.



Wish you did as I was the uber flailing toolbox on my last run. I always ski shitty solo for some reason. Here's the vid, yo:


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## gmcunni (Apr 1, 2009)

why is there a SLOW sign in the middle of a mogul field?


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## Tyrolean_skier (Apr 1, 2009)

gmcunni said:


> why is there a SLOW sign in the middle of a mogul field?




Because it's Okemo?


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## Greg (Apr 1, 2009)

gmcunni said:


> why is there a SLOW sign in the middle of a mogul field?





Tyrolean_skier said:


> Because it's Okemo?



I thought that was kinda funny too in the first scene. Okemo definitely has no shortage of signage to let everyone know the gnar-level they're in for. 

In all seriousness, I was filiming from the bottom of the run where a novice traverse crosses so that big honkin' sign _kinda _makes sense. Anyway, as I understand it, the Okebumps today were way better than the moguls found at the mighty K.


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## 2knees (Apr 1, 2009)

gmcunni said:


> why is there a SLOW sign in the middle of a mogul field?



its right before a trail merge.


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## 2knees (Apr 1, 2009)

Greg said:


> Wish you did as I was the uber flailing toolbox on my last run. I always ski shitty solo for some reason. Here's the vid, yo:



noice wipeout!  i said my legs werent responding on that and it REALLY shows there.  i can really see myself trying to force them over but they just werent listening to me.


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## TheBEast (Apr 2, 2009)

Tyrolean_skier said:


> Because it's Okemo?



My thoughts exactly!!


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## SKidds (Apr 2, 2009)

2knees said:


> its right before a trail merge.


Novices have to be careful off the Sachem Quad as that whole Easy Street to Ledges area is a little, shall I say, interesting.  Must be four years ago now my daughter (6 at the time?) had her first expert trail experience on Ledges.  Easy Street, a nice gentle beginner trail comes down under the Sachem Quad.  Seemed like a nice trail to us, of course this was our first time at Okemo.  What we didn't know was that, with relativley little marking, Easy Street transitions straight into Ledges.  If you miss the Home Stretch cutover to Sachem you are left with only one way down.  So, my novice daughter was stuck at the top drop off of Ledges (actually a pretty steep trail, fortunately not bumped at the time) and being the gamer she is she gave it a go.  Now, at 10, she can make her way down Skyward and Mac at Whiteface top to bottom, natural bumps and all, but that is now, and this was then.  Thing is, she was making her way down fine until some dingleberry skiing way too fast and pratically out of control side swipes her and knocks her down.  A bit bruised on the hip later in the lodge, after getting over the scare, she was quite proud (as was I) of how well she was skiing until she got knocked down.

So, bumps or not, given the merges and the way the trail is the slow skiing sign probably makes sense.


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## Greg (Apr 2, 2009)

Okemo hate is lame. Is it an overall steep ski area? No, but I seem to enjoy the bumps when I go there. I can see the groomer only crowd tiring of it though. Anyway, I really like the one trail we skied at Jackson Gore. Not overly steep, but with almost top to bottom bumps it was a lot of fun. I don't necessarily need ass clenching pitch, especially on a bump run. I'll take moderate pitch with nice lines, over steep as hell and VW bumps any day. But that might just be because I suck at steep bumps. I know Okemo is not "cool" enough for most people, but I stopped worried about being cool sometime after 11th grade.

I'll go back next spring. My only gripe, and this has always been the case, is needing to take the base area lifts until you get to the main mountain. The conveyor belts (kinda weird) improve the ones at the main mountain since there is less lift stoppage for the novices and the base area lift at JG is a HSQ so it's not too bad.


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## madskier6 (Apr 2, 2009)

That was a great day of Spring skiing.  I had a lot of fun.  Always enjoy skiing with 2knees & Greg.  Nice to meet Ozzy & Mr. Moose.  My back is sore today from all the bump bashing.  I'm not used to skiing that many bump runs in one day (at least this year where I've only been skiing 10 days all season).  I'm definitely feeling it today but it's a good kind of soreness.

While Okemo is not my favorite mountain, I always have a lot of fun when I go there.  I agree that all the Okemo hating is lame.  It is what it is but it's also a fun mountain to ski from time to time.

Thanks for the great day of skiing guys!  Nice vid Greg.


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## gmcunni (Apr 2, 2009)

Greg said:


> Okemo hate is lame.


agreed.



Greg said:


> I can see the groomer only crowd tiring of it though.


disagree.  i think groomer only crowd loves Okemo, it is their sweet spot. miles and miles of groomed trails for people to enjoy.  i am one of the enjoyers!  i can't wait to get up there with the Nordicas 

but if you are looking for high-speed arcing on *steep* groomers, then i do agree, you'd be frustrated after an hour.


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## Greg (Apr 2, 2009)

gmcunni said:


> but if you are looking for high-speed arcing on *steep* groomers, then i do agree, you'd be frustrated after an hour.



That's kinda what I meant. But for terminal intermediates, the place is great. It's not surprising it's such a successful resort. In fact, I might try to get a family weekend or two booked up there next year. The place is perfect for my wife and kids and there's enough to keep me entertained when I can break away for a bit.


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## hammer (Apr 2, 2009)

Greg said:


> That's kinda what I meant. But for terminal intermediates, the place is great. It's not surprising it's such a successful resort. In fact, I might try to get a family weekend or two booked up there next year. The place is perfect for my wife and kids and there's enough to keep me entertained when I can break away for a bit.


How does it compare to Sunapee?  Just curious...if it's really similar I would likely pass on going there just because Sunapee's a lot closer...

Bumps did look nice, however.


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## Greg (Apr 2, 2009)

hammer said:


> How does it compare to Sunapee?  Just curious...if it's really similar I would likely pass on going there just because Sunapee's a lot closer...
> 
> Bumps did look nice, however.



Only been to Sunapee once and didn't see much of the place. Okemo is definitely more expansive and way way way more resorty than Sunapee. Similar places though, but I'd imagine Okemo gets a lot more snow.


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## 2knees (Apr 2, 2009)

way past worrying about what people think of an area.  I ski for fun.  I have fun skiing okemo's bumps.  wish ledges and blackout were longer.  had fun on big bang.

fun is the reason i ski.  not to say i skied the steepest run, tightest trees, biggest bumps. I'll leave those statements and concerns to the internet experts.  those who cant just enjoy themselves and forget about the perception or image of where they are, what they're skiing on, whether their clothes match or what time of the week is reserved for skiing steep stuff and when its ok to ski flatter stuff have their priorities skewed.


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## mondeo (Apr 2, 2009)

2knees said:


> fun is the reason i ski. not to say i skied the steepest run, tightest trees, biggest bumps. I'll leave those statements and concerns to the internet experts. those who cant just enjoy themselves and forget about the perception or image of where they are, what they're skiing on, whether their clothes match or what time of the week is reserved for skiing steep stuff and when its ok to ski flatter stuff have their priorities skewed.


I had a guy yesterday comment on how my boots, jacket, and boot bag all matched.

I have no idea who you're talking about on the rest of the stuff.


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## Greg (Apr 2, 2009)

ozzy commented yesterday how my grips matched my boots. He said it was gnar, but I think he really meant to call me a poser. :lol:


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## jack97 (Apr 2, 2009)

hammer said:


> How does it compare to Sunapee?  Just curious...if it's really similar I would likely pass on going there just because Sunapee's a lot closer...
> 
> Bumps did look nice, however.



The common saying I get from people who like Okemo is that it has something for everyone. IMO and as Greg noted, Sunapee is just smaller in scale, the two mountains are very similar.... it has something for everyone.

Kind of ironic that the reason these two places are getting the spotlight is that they put a great base for their seeded bumps thus they will last well into spring skiing. 


Hammer,
You prolly know the bumps on chipmunk has a lower pitch and it's a great place to learn bumps, I just found out that they didn't groom a section on Lower Blast Off (skiers right). If you do go to sunapee, look for it next season, couple of weeks ago, it had expose troughs so I didn't go in but it does look interesting.  Bumpers on that side of the mountain could link these sections together and get a longer practice run.


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## 2knees (Apr 2, 2009)

i think flying goose, overall, is consistently steeper then any of the okemo runs.  longer too, except for big bang, which has a bunch of really flat sections.


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## mister moose (Apr 2, 2009)

2knees said:


> fun is the reason i ski.  not to say i skied the steepest run, tightest trees, biggest bumps. I'll leave those statements and concerns to the internet experts.  those who cant just enjoy themselves and forget about the perception or image of where they are, what they're skiing on, whether their clothes match or what time of the week is reserved for skiing steep stuff and when its ok to ski flatter stuff have their priorities skewed.



And here I thought we were there because it was free...

The bump report today from Killington was Dreamaker headwall, Escapade, Downdraft from the top.  Needles is getting sketchy.  Very warm, very soft, very sunny.


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## Geoff (Apr 2, 2009)

mister moose said:


> And here I thought we were there because it was free...
> 
> The bump report today from Killington was Dreamaker headwall, Escapade, Downdraft from the top.  Needles is getting sketchy.  Very warm, very soft, very sunny.



You forgot about Catwalk.


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## 2knees (Apr 2, 2009)

mister moose said:


> And here I thought we were there because it was free...
> 
> The bump report today from Killington was Dreamaker headwall, Escapade, Downdraft from the top.  Needles is getting sketchy.  Very warm, very soft, very sunny.




its not my top choice by any stretch, but i was just commenting on the fact that alot of people bag on the place but it certainly can be fun.  those bumps really are fantastic.


and free doesnt hurt either....


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## powbmps (Apr 3, 2009)

Doesn't matter where it was.  Looks (and sounds) like you guys had a good time.


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