LUDLOW, Vt. (WCAX) – Yet another epic late-season snowstorm has skiers and riders celebrating, but it comes after a season that many say was hit or miss.
It’s looking like a winter wonderland at Okemo. A Miracle March has turned into an Awesome April for the region’s ski industry. They were literally jumping for joy at Okemo Friday. April skiing in Vermont doesn’t get much better.
“It’s absolutely butter out there, really nice,” said skier Andrew Bosc, who along with his family traveled from upstate New York. He says they are always in search of the snow. “We knew this was coming. We planned for this.”
Ski areas’ social media accounts have been showing off as well. Pico opened Friday morning with two feet of freshies. The turns at Magic were on top of 20 inches of powder. Killington got over two feet and other mountains across the region were reporting similar amounts.
“We’ll probably have 32, 34 miles of skiing and riding,” said Okemo general manager Bruce Schmidt. The April storm, coming on the heels of another big dump in March, salvaging what he says was a less than stellar season. Storms were few and far between during January and February. “I think we would always want to have the snow earlier if we could have it, but, you know, we are going to take it when we can get it.”
“Still waiting on that one really solid storm for everybody to get excited about it,” restaurant owner Lauren Nazzaro told us back in December after an early start to the ski season.
Despite the fresh piles out front of Tacos Tacos Friday, she said business this winter was up and down. “Now we are finally getting it but it’s a little bit at the point where people have swapped their snow tires. They are kind of thinking that it is over,” Nazzaro said.
But the diehards are still coming out for a ski season that had a little bit of everything. “You know we have been pretty blessed this year with three different winters,” Bosc said.
Despite all the recent snowfall, the season is wrapping up at Okemo. A pond skimming competition takes place this weekend. The lifts will stop spinning for good this season on April 14th.