Snow Business: Okemo Does It Right With The Kids

LUDLOW, VT — Here is Part 2 of a report on a December trip to Okemo Mountain Resort — loading up four kids — two 6-year-olds with a serious itch to hit the hill for the first time, an 11-year-old who is a veteran of the black diamonds and a 15-year-old goddaughter on snow blades.

Here was the scenario — Okemo had a serious snowmaking window and entered that second Saturday with plenty of cover at its clock tower base area. So it was off with the 6-year-olds to the Okemo Snow Stars area.

Okemo Children's program director Liz Schmitt runs a tight ship, but a fun ship. That translates into a lot of serious instruction mixed with a lot of fun instruction in a group setting and a lot of individual attention. So the young ones were left to her care (the kids gets lunch in the full-day program), while the other two headed to the top.

The runs up top were very nice, certainly better that last year and very good if you consider the factor of wiping out the paranoia of another horrible snow season. Give Okemo a little cold and its snowmaking team works wonders.

The plan was to hit the stuff around the Sunburst Six, Okemo's heated bubble chair in the earlier part of the morning and work over to the Solitude peak, a favorite of the kids because it tends to provide the trails less-traveled at Okemo and Chef Jason Tostrup puts out a great farm-to-table fresh lunch at Epic, the restaurant at Solitude.

All that time skiing, just how the twins were doing was lodged in the back of the mind, so the temptation to head back over to the Snow Stars hill was too great to pass up. It wound hp being great entertainment. The kids were smiling and stopping on their own on the first-timers hill. That is all a parent could ask for on the first day and it is a credit to Schmitt and her staff.

From there, it was off to the Timber Ripper mountain coaster at the Okemo's Jackson Gore area, a swim at the hotel pool (the Spring House fitness center pool had been visited the night before) and dinner at the Coleman Brook Tavern with Chef Scot Emerson. Chef Scot did not disappoint with the swordfish.

The twins want to go back.

We want to go back.

It's an Okemo thing for sure, but it is a thin g that one never grows tired of.

Photo Credit: Chris Dehnel, Skylar Goold

Chris Dehnel is an editor at Patch, a past-president of the Nortjh American Snowsports Journalists Association eastern division and the current eastern executive secretary of NASJA. His Snow Business Column appears regularly during the season.