LUDLOW–Skiers and snowboarders visiting Okemo Mountain Resort this winter will view the snowy landscape through the bright orange tint of a retractable, transparent dome when they ride in the comfort of another new, high-speed bubble chairlift, named Quantum Four.
Okemo’s upgrade and renaming of the Jackson Gore Express Quad includes the replacement of chairs with comfortable four-passenger bubble chairs that protect skiers and riders from wind and weather as they ascend Okemo’s Jackson Gore summit. Okemo will become the first resort in North America to feature multiple bubble chairlifts.
In addition, Okemo is installing a new chairlift, creating a new trail at South Face Village, and adding snowmaking to two trails at Jackson Gore.
Okemo’s snowmaking system expansion this year includes White Lightning and Rolling Thunder at Jackson Gore. This installation increases Okemo’s snowmaking coverage to 98 percent of its trails.
At South Face Village, Okemo’s newest on-mountain community, the Sunshine Quad, a new fixed-grip Leitner-Poma chairlift, will connect the village center at South Face Village to the South Face Express Quad and provide access to the new Suncatcher trail. The trio creating SouthFace Village at Okemo includes the developer, SouthFace Village at Okemo Development Company LLC, headed by Ted Rossi; designer/builder Bensonwood; and Okemo Mountain Resort’s mountain operations and trail maintenance.
“We have always put the guest experience first,” said Okemo Mountain Resort owner Tim Mueller. “State-of-the-art lifts and snowmaking are the heart of the skiing experience, so this is one more example of maintaining that standard and keeping Okemo as the gold standard in the industry.”
Additional improvements at Okemo for this winter include a new Prinoth 500 horsepower grooming machine and the continuation of Okemo’s partnership with Snow Park Technologies to enhance the Tomahawk trail for more flow and originality with jumps and hits. The Homeward Bound terrain park will be renamed to recognize the contributions of Okemo’s first snowboarding program director, Gordon Robbins. The park will include jumps, hips and features that will highlight and celebrate Robbins’ love for snowboarding.
For more information, visit www.okemo.com.
