Resort Update: Okemo’s New Chairlifts and State of Crowding Affairs

Background

Okemo completed a series of major lift projects this summer, and once the Vermont resort finally opened in its entirety, we headed there to check out the new experience.

Two new chairlifts have been installed for the 2021-22 season. The first chairlift, the Quantum Six six-pack at Jackson Gore, has replaced the Quantum Four bubble lift in the same alignment. This installment no longer has bubbles, but it provides higher capacity for the popular area and runs at a slightly faster speed than the outgoing lift. The new lift is now able to carry a maximum of 3,000 people per hour, versus 2,180 for the old one.

The second chairlift is the Evergreen Summit Express, a new high-speed quad bubble chair that replaces the Green Ridge Triple. The new lift will look familiar, as Evergreen is actually the old Quantum Four, which has been relocated to serve in this new capacity. The Evergreen chair essentially follows the same alignment as the outgoing Green Ridge lift, but the resort has created a new cutoff from the Mountain Road trail to allow access to the loading area. The new setup creates a second high-speed lift route to Okemo’s main summit from its mid mountain area.

These upgrades were originally set to open for the 2020-21 season, but they were delayed due to the impacts of COVID-19. So were they worth the multi-million dollar investments? Let’s take a look.

The Experience

On the plus side, the Quantum Six upgrade at Jackson Gore has arguably been a net positive for Okemo. While the new lift loses its bubbles, the ride is sheltered enough to be comfortable unless temperatures are truly frigid. The new lift is clearly more efficient in shuffling crowds up the mountain, with lines moving faster than in previous seasons. And the ride itself is faster than the old Quantum Four—and feels it.

The Quantum Six in February 2022. This is the first season since 2014-15 this lift line has hosted bubble-less chairs.

When riding, the Evergreen Summit Express is considerably faster than the old Green Ridge Triple (although it’s not quite as fast as Okemo’s other detachables). The ride is much more comfortable too; the bubbles really help on windy days (although they’re not heated), especially on the wind-exposed upper half of the lift line. However, the lift has had a few teething problems since it was installed and has been offline for maintenance a few times since the season started. Hopefully, these issues are only plaguing the lift while it is new and any remaining kinks get ironed out quickly.

The new connector trail from Mountain Road has also made the Evergreen chair easier to access than the old Green Ridge setup. It’s now practical to reach this lift from Jackson Gore, eliminating the need to go all the way to one of the bases to get to Okemo’s main face and making it much more direct to reach the Sunburst summit from that zone of the mountain.

A ride up the now-orange Evergreen lift line.

Unfortunately, one thing has considerably diminished the effectiveness of these upgrades this season—and that’s a substantial uptick in crowding. It’s clear that Epic oversold their passes in the Northeast this year, and in recent weekends, lines have been bad at some lifts and out of control at others. The new Quantum Six has been great on the weekdays, but despite the capacity upgrade, lines have actually been worse than in previous seasons. Some recent Saturdays have been especially bad, with the singles line extending almost to the top of the Coleman Brook unload at the worst times. Okemo doesn’t have lift redundancies to get out of this part of the mountain, so ending up in this area means you’re stuck waiting in the line.

The mid-mountain Evergreen Summit Express is meant to provide relief by way of a bubble alternative to the bottom-to-top Sunburst Six, but lines at both have been lengthy on weekends. The Evergreen Summit lift has certainly seen shorter lines than Sunburst, but they’ve still been long enough that the wait and ride combined would have been shorter on the old Green Ridge Triple, which never had any lines. Thankfully, it’s still possible to avoid the lines on Okemo’s main and South Face areas by taking the fixed-grip Sachem and Glades Peaks Quads—but going this route means you won’t be benefitting from the new lifts.

One interesting side effect of the new Evergreen lift has been the number of people confused about the lift’s identity. As a second orange bubble chair on the main face, the relocated quad does look quite a bit like the Sunburst Six. The chair does not have its name printed on it, and during our time at the resort, some groups tried to load the lift as a six-pack.

Despite losing the bubbles, the Quantum Six has been very popular this season.

Final Thoughts

While these upgrades provide needed lift improvements for Okemo, deteriorations in other realms have limited their effectiveness. While both the Jackson Gore and Sunburst areas have seen capacity upgrades, you’d be hard pressed to tell based on the number of people waiting in lines at the new lifts and “relieved” Sunburst Six. These new lifts aren’t enough to combat the increased crowds, and despite their installation, lift lines have still arguably gotten worse.

It’s going to be hard to justify an increase in Okemo’s lift score in this situation, as the resort would really need to upgrade at least one of its main-base South Ridge Quads to a high-speed chair to provide an experience worthy of a higher rating. Additionally, the increased resort traffic negates the capacity and redundancy impacts of the new chairs, making it tough to rationalize any increase in the crowd flow category. We’re watching for crowds throughout the rest of the winter before making a final judgment, but we actually haven’t ruled out a decrease in this category once the season is over. Epic Pass products may have been cheaper this season, but at least at Okemo, the affordability seems to have come at a cost.

For more on Okemo, check out our comprehensive mountain review. Additionally, check out our full Vermont destination resort rankings.