LUDLOW, Vt. – Halfpipe enthusiasts rejoice! Okemo Mountain Resort is the first in the East to open a superpipe again this winter.

Okemo dropped the ropes on its superpipe on December 20 – more than a month ahead of last year. Snowboarders and twin-tippers can now enjoy the 450-foot long SoBe Superpipe with decks spaced 50-feet apart and walls measuring 18-feet high.

The debut of Okemo’s SoBe Superpipe this early in the season is a testament to the resort’s renowned snowmaking and grooming proficiency.

Okemo’s Snowboard Ambassador and Olympic Gold Medalist Ross Powers and Okemo Freeride Team member T.J. James were the first snowboarders to have the honor of riding the SoBe Superpipe this season.

“It was really good,” said Powers. “Not only did Okemo have the first pipe in the East, it was in great shape. It was the best East Coast opening-day pipe I can remember.”

Powers is the holder of more halfpipe titles than any other rider in history, including a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In addition to working with Okemo’s award-winning grooming team to offer more terrain variety, Powers will be running snowboard camps to benefit the Ross Powers Foundation, a non-profit foundation for athletes with financial need, and attending events at the resort to build excitement for the sport and the winter outdoor lifestyle.

“Okemo is an awesome family resort with great terrain parks,” said Powers. “It’s a place where I can train and raise my family.”

Okemo’s SoBe Superpipe is located in the Dew Zone. It is maintained regularly with a Zaugg Pipe Monster and the pipe is serviced by its own lift – The Pull surface lift.

Okemo is also renowned for its snow quality and grooming prowess. Offering the East’s third greatest amount of skiable acres – 624 to be exact – there’s plenty of room to mix things up and add some variety to all that edge-to-edge corduroy.

This winter, Okemo’s operations team will be devising ways to create more terrain variety on alpine trails. “A lot of the excitement of skiing is terrain change,” says Vice President of Mountain Operations Barry Tucker. “We’re planning to build more character into some of our trails.”

In addition to allowing a few of Okemo’s more difficult trails to take on more natural characteristics by grooming less often, some trails will receive a little extra grooming attention to create gradual swales with subtle fluctuations that will make the snow surface more interesting.

On the Lower Tomahawk trail, a “FamilyCross” park offers intermediate skiers and riders a chance to enjoy a playful assortment of big bank turns, rollers and snow mounds as they wind their way down the trail.

For more adventurous snow sliders, Okemo features five additional terrain parks, ranging in difficulty from the introductory Hot Dog Hill to competition-worthy Nor’easter and the Dew Zone, as well as Okemo’s SoBe Superpipe, at 450 feet, the longest superpipe in the East with 18-foot high walls and a deck-to-deck span of 55 feet.

The SoBe Superpipe is serviced by its own surface lift, The Pull.