Okemo is developing into a mountain with three of four different skiing personalities. So far I have discovered three. They are the main base area with its almost Coney island atmosphere, the South Face with its mainly blue intermediate runs and no base area and the relatively subdued Solitude Village area. The fourth area, still under development in 2003, is the Jackson Gore Base. As one of Okemo's ski ambassadors told me, each area has its own personality.

If you are just at Okemo for the day, it can be more awkward because this is NOT what mountain management wants to see going on.  You'll have to take a bus from the main parking lot or the main base to the Solitude base. Once there, you will find locked doors facing a small parking lot. Only condo dwellers have keys. No matter, you can walk around the outside of the building and access it from the mountain side. Once inside you will find a small concession stand and a clerk who will sell you a ticket. Isn't it nice to buy a ticket indoors rather than having to queue outside on a windy day at the main base area? The only caveat here; one must change into your ski boots at the main parking lot first. There isn't much room for ski bags at Solitude.

I took the Solitude Express Quad after purchasing my ticket. Like others I am sure, I was curious to try the Jackson Gore area, so I headed over to the right, once off the lift. Here I met a gaggle of ski ambassadors who didn't seemed to be that busy. I asked for a ``mountain tour" and off we went crossing over to Blue Moon and down Lower Limelight which is one of Jackson Gore's new blue runs. We had stopped at the bottom of the Jackson Gore Express Quad, right next to a ``SLOW" sign, when I was violently catapulted forward onto the snow. It seems a snowboarder had crashed into the back of one of the ski ambassadors, who in turn had crashed into me, sending us both flying! The snowboarder had disappeared without a word, thereby chalking up another negative thought about snowboarders amongst us with the balding heads and grey hairs.

The Jackson Gore Express Quad zips you up 1,260 in four and half minutes. It is the fastest quad lift at Okemo. There is rarely a lift line here, I was told. There is not a lot to see on the way up, but one thing you will notice is that the black diamond trail underneath the lift, Quantum Leap, is not that steep or difficult. The adjoining trail, Vortex is a little steeper, but it is short. Avoid it on icy days.

In truth, I found this area somewhat characterless?a strange feeling. What is more interesting to my mind is the Solitude Condo area where you will also find multi-million dollar trail-side homes to gawk at. You get here by coming down Sidewinder and at about the half way point, look for a small trail off to your left. This is the top of Moonshadow, if you look at an Okemo map. It starts off as a green, then becomes a  gentle blue. If you are low intermediate, this is an ideal area to build confidence. No snowboarders seem to come here except at the end of the day. You will see some examples of lavish spending on this trail. There are homes here big enough for an eight or ten person family and statistics say that they stand empty for all but about 28 days in a year! You can peer into their huge glass windows as you ride the Line Drive triple back to Solitude Base area. According to a local real estate agent, a one acre plot here is about $500,000! See in the homes in a QuickTime Slide Show below.

It is an astonishing site to see the development that's going on and to realize more of it is on the way, though Jackson Gore will have fewer private homes , and more condos as well as a big hotel instead. This is the development that was to have gone on the southern side of the mountain but which was prevented by environmentalists.

One wonders when the bubble will burst or if it ever will, or where all the money is coming from at time of recession. With these thoughts in mind, one more or less forgets what the skiing is like, but at Okemo you rarely have to worry about that. Like Stratton, Okemo almost guarantees good skiing no matter what the weather is doing. The mountain is run very efficiently and very well.

While no one seems to have any criticism of Okemo, I do find two things annoying.

• The Ski Reports: The Okemo web site never, ever gives wind speed. All the mountain lifts could be shut down due to wind and you'd never know it until you got to the mountain. Also the people hired to do the updates insist on using an apostrophe when referring to a temperature. It is not temps in the 20's!  ...please! Also another pet peeve: ``sunny skies." How many skies are there at Okemo. Presumably there is only one. Why not simply say ``sunny?" I think it is time that Okemo management upgraded the literacy requirements of their employees who are charged with writing reports that will be viewed by potential customers!
• The other thing that miffed me during my visit was something that happened at the end of the day. Runs that take you back to the Solitude area were roped off well before the 4:00 pm closing. This forced me to ski down a closed trail to get back to my vehicle parked in a secret place!

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