Nov 17, 20233 min read

4. Opening Day: Friday, November 17th, 2023

I woke up before my alarm at 6:15 a.m. because my giddiness could not be tamed... I was going skiing today!! It felt like I was transported back to Christmas morning of 1999 (I was 4 years old) when Santa brought me my pink girly skis with matching princess helmet (this is Abby talking by the way, not Noah, though I know he'd appreciate pink girly skis). 💖

Somehow, I was even happier today than I was on that Christmas morning, probably because I knew I would be able to share it with this amazing community and kickstart our season together. We are so excited to be back today to share our experience at Okemo's Opening Day for the 2023/2024 ski season! ❄️

Abby, Noah, and Danny are all smiles at Okemo's summit.

Today's Quick Facts:

🎿 Trail Count: 6/122

🚡 Lift Count: 2/20

⛅️ Weather: High of 57°

Myself and my entourage (Noah, Hannah, and Danny) arrived at the mountain promptly at 8:10 a.m. and quickly gathered our gear to join to small crowd forming at A&B Quad. Okemo pulled out all the stops today with free hot cocoa, coffee, donuts, stickers, pins, and they even had a slopeside DJ to really capture that first-day-feeling with happy hits like "Celebration" and "Happy". 🎤 The lifts started loading at 9 a.m. and while we didn't get first chair, it was so exciting to see the first skiers load and break through the opening day banner. The hype was real! Now, back to Noah...

...It has been a long off-season here in Ludlow and we are finally back to my favorite part of the year, ski season. As Abby said, Okemo pulled out all the stops for opening day but I’m here to give you the inside scoop on the conditions. ☕️ While we had some great snowmaking conditions earlier this week, temps have risen so we are kicking things off with a warm opening weekend. The snow is soft with late-season vibes for sure.

From the top of the A Quad, you are able to ski down Lower Mountain Road to the Sunburst Six, from there you can head up to the summit and access our one top to bottom run via Countdown, Upper World Cup, Chute, and Lower Chief. The snow was consistent across the mountain. It was getting softer as the day went on but there was plenty of snow to go around. My favorite trail today was Upper World Cup, with a few pitches and some sweeping turns, it was great to get back in the groove of things. 🕺

Overall, we really enjoyed skiing with our friends, caught up with ski buddies and Unofficial subscribers, and finally got to showcase our new Helly Hansen outfits and our fresh Nordica skis with new bindings and setups from The Boot Pro. 🤝

🌨️ Weather tonight looks unfortunately wet with the dreaded “R” word but we expect the majority of that to clear out by late morning leaving us with temps in the high 30s to low 40s tomorrow. At this point in the season, we are going to take what we can get, remember a day on snow is always better than a day in the office!

Pro Tip: It's like spring skiing out there, wear light layers (we were sweating... a lot)

We have NEW PATRONS! 🎉 Thank you to Ben (spamfreeben) and Dan Hanover for joining our Patreon Community. This is the best way to support our free snow reports.

We can't forget to mention that our first merch collection drops today at 3 p.m. on our website. We will send a reminder email before the shop opens. 😍

"Are you laughing at me because I forgot my poles?" - Noah

Love supporting Ludlow? 🚒 Then you won't want to miss Fire & Ice, a fundraiser for the Ludlow Fire Department! Join us on Saturday, December 9th at 7 p.m. for a night of fun with a hypnotist show at Jackson Gore. There will be a silent auction (with some Unofficial merch!) as well as exclusive Ludlow t-shirts and pint glasses for sale (made be me!) All proceeds benefit the Ludlow Fire Department. Buy your tickets today!