LUDLOW, Vt. (WCAX) – A petition is circulating at Okemo Mountain to save the ski resort’s halfpipe. The upwards of 5,000 people behind the effort say it’s a local treasure with national significance.
The lifts are spinning at Okemo Mountain and plenty of terrain is open, but one thing skiers and riders will not find here this year is the Superpipe.
“This is the only half-pipe in the area so we picked Okemo,” said Aubrey Meyenburg, who along with her family has spent winters at Okemo for about a decade. But their future at the Ludlow resort is up in the air after the resort decided to pull the plug on the mountain’s 18′ half-pipe, the only one of its kind on the East Coast. “There is an entire large group of athletes who travel to Okemo to train and to compete.”
“We did not make this decision lightly,” said the resort’s Bruce Schmidt, who says they decided to focus on the mountain’s snow-making resources elsewhere this year. “It’s about the snow and it’s about making sure we can have skiing into spring.”
Vermont is known for snowboarding Olympians including Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter, and Ross Powers, who all began their careers in the Green Mountains and at Okemo’s Super-Pipe. “I know there is a least a few that have some through here over the last 20, 25 years that they represented Vermont I think in a great way,” said Vincent Minozzi of Syracuse.
And a new generation of elite athletes like Joey Okesson are already on the map. “Without that half-pipe, I would not be where I am today,” Okesson said. He is currently competing at the X Games and has his sights set on the 2026 Olympics. He worries those who come after him will not have the same opportunities. “I understand to build a halfpipe is a lot of money and bottom line and this and that, but if you look at the image of the mountain and why people know Okemo, that is a huge part of it — it’s undeniable.”
The skiers and riders we spoke to at the bottom of the lift said they had never used the Superpipe. Whether it will be back next year is a decision for another day.