Jackson Gore Inn at Okemo in Ludlow Vermont

Jackson Gore Inn at Okemo in Ludlow Vermont

If you live in the area, you would be hard pressed not to know that the Okemo Ski Resort, in Ludlow Vermont, about 25 miles south of Killington, was celebrating it's 50th year in business today. Lift tickets for those of us over the age of 50, and you know who you are, cost $5.00 for today. We have not done a road trip this year, so we decided for Five Bucks, what the heck.

When we got to Okemo, we went to the Jackson Gore entrance. All skiers are forced to park in a remote parking lot and shuttled to the Jackson Gore Inn. The shuttle driver was nice and friendly, but this is a step in the fine art of skiing that we are not used to at Killington, where essentially you can drive to a large parking lot surrounding every base lodge. Once at the inn, we were first directed to a ticket window, then to a common area for day skiers called the "Roundhouse" at one end of the inn. The facility was nice and comfortable, smaller than any base lodge at Killington, but very well appointed.

From a skiing standpoint, we boosted up several lifts, finally arriving at the "Summit Lodge". We were skiing green and blue trails, which are the majority of trails at Okemo. And it was a good thing, because the fog was so thick you could not see 10 feet in front of you. At one point, we were trying to locate the "Lower Fall Line" lift. We could hear the lift motor running, and the squeak of the cable pulling over wheels on lift towers, but we could not see the lift. It seemed like we did not see the lift until we skied into the lift line maze, but I know that is an exaggeration. The fog was really that thick.

After picking our way over to the far end of Okemo to the South Face Express Quad, we headed back to Jackson Gore. All told, we were on skis a little more than 3 hours, after which we retired to the Colebrook Tavern at Jackson Gore for lunch.

My overall impressions are mixed. It is hard to judge the skiing because of the fog and the surface conditions. The fresh snow was hiding a hard base which got considerably choppy as the morning wore on. Because we did not know the terrain, and we could not see, most of our skiing was done by feel...which can get pretty exciting. We found ourselves taking a lot of turns. By Killington standards, all of the slopes we took were Greens or Blues. On a bright sunny day, they were probably nice cruisers, but it was not meant to be. We will need to go back to properly evaluate the skiing component.

From a resort component, Okemo has done some nice things. We quickly became aware that to the left of the top of each lift was a large trail map with a big "You are Here" sticker. Killington has map boards spread out around the mountain, but the boards at Okemo were particularly conspicuous. The facilities we used were also nice. Both the "Summit House" and the "Jackson Gore Inn" facilities were in great shape, very nice and comfortable. Lunch at the Colebrook Tavern was excellent. Our Waiter, Joquim, from Chile, was very polite and attentive. He left a nice final impression.

The one downside we noticed was that we could not get out of the weather. At Killington, if you don't like the weather, you ski to a different mountain, which faces in a different direction, which usually has different weather conditions. At Okemo, all of the peaks appear to face in the same direction, hence if a cloud blows over one peak, it blows over them all.

Will I go back to Okemo? Most likely yes... some day... In the mean time... Best Wishes to Okemo on the celebration 50 years in business!