We are back! The wrongways.com stuff took a week off to ski and snowboard in Vermont and now, we are officially back in the real World where internet connection is not a problem, cell-phones are not in a roaming mode and a cable TV one remote control away. In the unreal World where we spent seven days these small luxuries were not available and quiet frankly, we did not miss them that much. At one point, someone from our group asked, “What date is today?” Yeah, only at that moment, you truly understand what it means to live in a secluded place.

But anyway, welcome to the Vermont and mountain Okemo. Located just four hours away from NYC, granted there is no traffic, the Okemo mountain peak pierces skies at 3.344 ft, features 117 slopes, trails and glades, 624 acres of terrain, with 95% covered by snowmaking (585 acres) and enormous amount of fun. There are enough slopes for every ability level. You might go for green or easy trail such as Sachem with its nine minutes ride time down or blue, more difficult trail like Countdown and if you consider yourself a hardcore, “life is too short” type of person than nice and icy, a “bit” bumpy double diamond trail might be for you. And by the way, do not forget about a bunny slope. It might look flat yet it will be enough for a beginner who needs a bit of practice.

We rented a very nice house in a nearby village, Chester, just 15 minutes away from a mountain. In the town you can find pretty much everything, even Wi-Fi hot spots. Our house sported unbelievable and unique views, was secluded and located on the top of a hill, overlooking a medium sized pond.(which we used to skate) It had everything to create romantic mood with gateway feelings. If you go there, your cell-phones might not work at all unless you have a “Blackberry”, that is a special phone with an extended coverage. So be ready to be cut off in some ways from the rest of the world.

There are some stores and restaurants in the town that can and should meet your various needs. Do not expect something extraordinary such as a Best Buy or Sears, but at the end you do not go to Vermont to make shopping, you go there to ski or snowboard, at least during winter. The only store you might really need is a ski (snowboard) rental one. And there are plenty of them. By the way, it might make sense to rent things there because it is pretty much cheap. Initially, we thought to rent our equipment in NYC, however, a local rental store asked us for a big cash deposit and charged big buck for using their skies and snowboards. In Vermont, we found four or five ski stores nearby our house. We rented our snowboards at the price of 25 bucks a day, skies were cheaper, and all deposit was in a form of a credit card copy. It was also pretty convenient because by not taking rentals in NYC, we saved a lot space in our cars.

On the first day when we got to the mountain, there was light rain and snow was a bit sloppy. After the few hours our group was soaked in water, our bodies generously sprinkled with the first layer of bruises and spirits were a bit down. But it was nothing what we would encounter on the next day.

That night, whoever was responsible for weather in Vermont decided to surprise us. This surprise was in a form of -20 on Celsius at night and lightly covered with snow ice on the mountain when we got there for the second round in the morning. Try to imagine this, you put on your snowboard, make a little move and all of sudden you find yourself speeding down on the ice… for the first few minutes on a snowboard and the rest on your butt…Good mourning…

That day was quiet an experience for all of us. Even one of the instructors who worked on the resort quietly confessed to me while we were waiting for a lift,

“Today, we are having extreme conditions.” I felt it pretty good. My body was screaming,

“So, where is your 60 dollars protective butt-patch, you, hardcore, cheap monkey…”

All I could do was to shiver and turn my face away from strong and icy winds that were swinging our lift back and forth.

By the way, if you have never experienced a mountain lift, be prepared because it is not as easy as it seems. Watch first, or take with you someone who had such experience before. When you are on a lift platform, nobody will hold a lift for you unless an operator sees that you are not ready for some reason to sit on it.
This thing flies from behind, lightly hits your legs and momentarily raises you in the air without a warning. Once in the air, you have to grab and pull down a rail that will help you to feel safer. And when you are ready to get off the lift, make sure you have your snowboard on because the lift will not stop! You have to be ready to jump from the lift on an unloading platform and from there slide down on the side since the next landing group might collide with you. This whole thing needs at least three or four attempts to be mastered.

Once on the top, if you make it from the first time, you are ready to rock & roll. And before you do so, be sure to know how to stop your skies or snowboard because people ahead of you have the right of way and it is your responsibility to avoid them. If you cannot control your equipment properly, be careful and first, master the bunny slope. It is not as cool as a regular slope, but you need more than elementary knowledge to survive even an easy, green, trail. It happened to see a ski patrol taking down people on stretches from the mountain. And if for some reason you decide to get off from your skies and walk down be ready for a long and not really pleasant walk. If sliding down takes nine minutes, walking down might take hours, literally. Here is one more thing, higher does not mean more difficult. In matter of fact, some green trails starting at the top of the mountain can be easier than ones closer to the bottom of the mountain. Same holds for the diamond slopes. Not all of them are located right where the mountain’s peak spears the sky. Therefore, it will make sense to look at a trail map before you leave for a ride and have “how and where” planned.

It is not a theory but a real time experience. Having experienced all of these in the first two days, some members of our group hesitated to go for it again on the third day. However, that day was sunny, a little chilly but nothing extreme plus we had some snow a night before. So, we all pulled ourselves together, some with clutched teeth, bought lift tickets, some with clutched teeth, and got on the top. Folks, there was nothing like that in my whole life. I just wished to have an iPod in my pocket. The mountain was not crowded, the slopes where not that icy and there was no wind whatsoever. The pain in joints was not as strong and a snowboard felt more manageable. And I think it will be true to say that when you feel comfortable with your equipment, know how to make turns and stops, there is nothing to dislike about skiing or snowboarding. You forget about bruises and unpleasant moments; you do not feel bad about not having a butt-patch or need expensive lift tickets…

It is you, your snowboard, the mountain and nothing in between.

While riding down you think about how to get back to the top and ride again and again.

At the end, we caught one last lift with nobody behind us coming up. The mountain was closing at 4 pm, and there we were…on the top of the completely empty mountain… it felt like you were standing on the top of your own huge private property. What a moment…it was the fastest yet most memorable ride down. And once on the bottom, I unfastened my snowboard, looked back at the white slopes stretching from far above in a smoky fog and thought: “I wish I had the few more days in this unreal world and more lift tickets…”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.