Okemo

Okemo is one of Vermont’s largest ski resorts, located roughly halfway between Mount Snow and Killington.  That puts it something like four hours’ drive from my house in Coastal Connecticut.  The mountain offers some 121 trails spread across three separate peaks and 667 skiable acres, all served by 20 chair lifts.  This breaks down into 39 beginner (green) trails, 45 intermediate (blue) trails, 27 advanced (black) trails, and 10 expert (double-black) trails.  This is a lot of skiable terrain, making it easy to lose oneself amongst the resort’s sprawling lift and trail system.

Okemo's trail map.  Yes, this is a lot of trails.

Theoretically, Okemo Mountain offers fully 2,200 feet of vertical drop from its highest point down to its base lodge area.  The reality, though, is somewhat less than this, owing to Okemo’s layout.  Most of the skiable terrain is built out rather than up, with the actual peak serving Okemo’s South Face, the base of which sits considerably higher than does the main lodge area.  Moreover, the main face is served by a number of intermediate lifts, such that skiing all the way from top to bottom can become rather rare.  When my buddy Brian and I went a few weeks ago, we got to the top by taking a quad up from the base, skiing a quick connector to the Sunburst Six lift, and then riding from there to the summit.  Once we’d reached the peak, though, we didn’t come all the way back down until our day was completely done.  That was great in the sense that it kept a lot of the true novice skiers below the elevations we were skiing, but it would have been a pain in the ass if we’d left a bag lunch or something back at the lodge.

Okemo is separated into three ski areas.  These range across an enormous tract of land, making it easy to get stuck—or maybe just turned-around—if one is not paying overmuch attention.  The South Face offers a mix of primarily blues and blacks that come off the peak to an express quad on the extreme left of the resort.  A handful of green trails link the upper peak area back to the summit lodge and the main face, with the Glades Peak Quad and a handful of short, enjoyable blue and black trails nestled into a draw between the South Face and main part of the mountain.  The resort’s longest runs come off from the summit lodge area—the main face, though it’s not labeled as such—and drop down towards the main lodge.  Most of these end at a green connector trail called “Lower Mountain Road” along which lies the Sunburst Six as well as the Sachem Quad, the Black Ridge Triple, and a sort of mid-mountain lodge called the Sugar House.  Not all of these lifts go all the way back to the top of the mountain, however, which is why beginners tend to stay on the lower slopes or in one of generally green areas while the upper ranges tend to offer more advanced trails.  Further to the right, one finds the Green Ridge Triple and the Solitude Express Quad, which run from mid-mountain back to the summit and from another base area back to mid-mountain, respectively.  Furthest to the right (north), one finds the Jackson Gore Peak and its mix of blues and blacks, all served by the Quantum Four quad.  This was probably my favorite part of the resort, but it was also the most crowded comparatively.  Luckily, Okemo has already started capital construction on another lift to serve this face of the mountain.

Perhaps the best thing about Okemo is the way that the resort’s design tends to separate skiers by ability level.  Though the mountain offers plenty of beginner-level terrain, Brian and I only really got stuck in and amongst families with young skiers once, when we were heading from the Jackson Gore area back to the main face and missed a turn.  We wound up taking the (green) Mountain Road connector all the way across the mountain, and we both fell at various points trying to avoid the young and reckless—and their parents.  Mostly, though, we stayed to areas that catered to skiers of our ability level, leading to an excellent experience overall.

Panoramic shot from Okemo's summit.

Brian at the South Face lift.

Looking out form the back deck of the upper lodge.

The biggest downside to Okemo is that it’s expensive.  They have a lot of land, a high-speed RFID chip system in lieu of traditional lift tickets, and any number of capital construction projects underway across the mountain.  That stuff costs.  We wound up paying $86 per lift ticket for the Saturday that we went, having gotten our tickets ahead of time via Okemo’s website.  That was fine for me and my buddy by ourselves, but I’d not have paid that for every member of my family of four.  And yeah, it’s possible that Liftopia will offer better prices early in the season next year, but as of this writing, there aren’t a lot of ways to avoid paying full freight.  I’ll also note that Okemo’s upper lodge has a very limited beer selection.  That was an odd oversight in what can otherwise be described as a high-end ski resort.

Still, I enjoyed Okemo and would go again, provided that I can find the time to drive all the way up there and an appropriate mid-week offer on lift tickets.  The mountain itself is great, with loads of skiable terrain, lots of lifts, and plenty of ways to have fun.  Brian and I got fully 15 runs in on an otherwise crowded Saturday.  That was amazing.  

I only wish that the mountain was a little closer.  But what can you do?