Okemo TR 1/10-1/11

[ectobar]

I thought I would try my hand at a trip report...

 

Fri.

Drove up to VT Friday afternoon. Drive went by pretty quickly and without incident so it wasn't too bad. On the last rd there though, there was a jeep Cherokee upside down on the side of the road. Looked like it must have just recently happened too because there were no cops on the scene yet. We stopped briefly next to it too see if anyone needed some help, but the windows were busted and no one was inside so we moved along. Unfortunately didn't get a picture, camera was still packed away in the trunk.

 

We hit up a one of the 3 bars in town, trappers (i think that's what it was called) and had a couple beers. While there we ended up chatting it up with a guy who worked on the mt and some other locals which made for a decent first night. We got to the bar after the kitchen had closed but wanted something to snack on, so my buddy got involved and the owner of the place who was sitting at the end of the bar ended up offering to make us some nachos. There were three of us on the journey, so my other buddy asks if we can get two orders of nachos, and the owner agrees. So were wrapping up a game of pool, and out comes the owner with three orders of nachos. Shes like, I had some extra so I made 3. We were pumped at first because we thought we scored some free nachos, that is until we were ready to leave and the bar tender asks who's paying for them and there were 3 orders on the bill. Is that a power move or what? As they were only $5 each, we didn't make a big deal out if it, but it was still a little annoying.

 

 

Sat.

On the advice of the guy who worked at the mt, we parked at the base of the Jackson gore peak to avoid some mayhem. It appeared to work out alright. We got a good spot, and were at the lodge quickly. Was on a lift by 9am, which is pretty good for me. Conditions were decent in the morning. All the trails were a mix of hard pack and chord. Everything was easily carvable in the morning. As none of us have ever been to Okemo, we spent the day exploring the mt. Took a couple runs down the Jackson Gore peak, but it had what turned out to be the worst conditions so that didn't last too long. Made our way to the middle of the mt, checked out a couple of runs and the terrain park. Then headed over to the south face. It was much less crowded over there, so that ended up being were we spent most of Sat. Overall Sat. was decent, but not super exciting. I didn't really end up getting to hit anything in the park Sat. After I had a couple runs in me and was ready to go, we went over to the park to find a competition getting ready to start. I talked to some official looking dude who pretty much just told me to not hit anything and he didn't know when it would end, so that was that.

 

 

Sat night we ended up watching some football, then heading over to The Pot Belly Pub. Excellent bar/restaurant that had some good food and a guy on piano/guitar who was taking requests. I went with a new england clam chowder/mac and cheese/meet loaf plan, and it was awesome. On word that there would be some fresh in the morning, we called it an early night.

 

Taken towards the end of the day.

Some snow being blown.

Snow falling outside our place sat night.

 

Sun.

Sun morning we woke up to 5-6 inches of fresh snow. Super Stoked. For the first time in my career I go to a mt before it opened. We were second in line at about 7:40. Standing there looking at the fields of untouched snow was definitely a cool experience, but at the same time made for some of the longest 20 minutes of my life. Once things finally got going, we made our way over to the park. It was ungroomed and full of fluff. The crew was working on a couple of the lips, and the features they weren't working on you couldn't really get enough speed going to hit. But it was definitely still fun to try. Took a couple runs down the park until the crowds started showing up, and then made our way over to the south face again. Spent most of the day enjoying the crap outta all the snow. What an awesome day.

 

 

Overall I'd say I wasn't all that impressed with Okemo. It was pretty big and has some decent runs, but I just don't like the flow of the mt. You have to work to get to the different peaks. I mean I guess its not all that hard to follow signs, but when there is only one run to take it gets a little annoying. I wouldn't park at the Jackson Gore peak again either. Although we did get a good spot, that peak isn't all that exciting and is a pain to get to from the rest of the mt. We ended up getting just a good of spot at the main base area on Sun. Where Okemo did score major brownie points for me was in the food dept. I had a grilled chicken/pesto/tomato panini that came with fries for about $9 on Sat. And a prime rib sandwich with pasta salad and corn salad for $11 on Sun. Those are some of the most reasonable prices I've seen at any mt, and it all tasted great.

 

No panty trees to be found.

 

As for the park for anyone looking for some particulars. It has a good variety of features. There was a flat-up-flat rail to start things off. A rail that split into a Y next. A down box and rail set. A flat box and up box set next. Two jumps to follow (15-20ft). Then there were two sets of jumps that had his/her take offs which were both fun. They were in the 20-25ft range. It ended with another set of boxes, a fun rainbow box, and then the amp bus at the bottom. The take offs for all the features were in good shape, and the landings for the jumps were good. The landings for the rails got mega icy by the end of the day though. Aside from that there were a couple learner parks, which had a couple boxes in the ground and some baby jumps. They could really use a middle of the road park though, as they weren't really any medium sized features.

Additionally, the pipe was open Sat. That thing is a beast. As I suck at pipe, I didn't give it all that much love. I took a couple runs, and barely got to the top of the 18ft walls. Hung around to see if anyone had some skills, but it just wasn't happening. I think I saw maybe 2 people actually get out of it, and they didn't throw anything.

 

Overall great weekend.

[TT C6]

Thanks for the detailed report.

I appreciated the jump descriptions.

 

I might have to hit Okemo again.

Edited January 12, 2009 by TT C6