Burke - 01/25/15

Conditions: Variable

I hadn't been to Burke in 25 or so years and it was about time for me to give it a shot. I don't really remember much from my first visit so I was pretty much a newbie. Here is my summary of the day:

The conditions yesterday varied a great deal from one trail section to the next nevermind different places on the mountain. With that said, there is a VERY strong base on the entire mountain including all of the glades. After taking the lift from Sherburne I caught the Mid Burke chair and pretty much rode that from start to finish. I started the day with Dixieland:



This was a really fantastic glade that reminded me a lot of Kinsman or Thompson Brook lite. It offered up some nice steep sections and cozy trees. Not only that but there was even some leftover pow at the bottom that hadn't been skied in and hadn't frozen over. This was definitely a repeat!

Fox's Folly was scraped off pretty good but still very enjoyable because the base was awesome.



Lower Power Line was definitely the run of the day by far. Burke patrol was nice enough to rope off most of this trail for me and I was able to enjoy lots of soft pillow pow landings. This trail is now one of my new favorites! It offers up small hucks one after another all the way to the bottom. Nothing over 10 ft but they all have really great landings.







I also did runs on Jungle, Ledges, Marshland, Birches, Throbulator and all were a lot of fun. One of my biggest pet peeves is mountains that have trails that all ski the same. This is most definitely not the case at Burke. Even the intermediate cruisers were a blast for me.

All in all it was a great day and I will definitely go back. Here are my takeaways from my first visit:

Pros

-Isolated beginner area
-Tremendous variety of terrain
-So many options for intermediate skiers
-Fast lift + no lines = ridiculous amount of vert
-Great tree skiing - Should develop past Jungle/Birches

Cons

-Base lodge situation needs to be fixed...absolutely nowhere to sit today because of the vertical challenge and Burke Mountain Academy race going on.
-East Bowl runout is not great but putting a lift in there is not a solution
-God dammit people.....pick up your freaking skis and put them on the rack!!! Coming out of the East Bowl,
I literally had to go uphill to go around them
-Racers think they own the mountain. Kids screaming past me to cut around me in the lift line. Cutting me off exiting the lift and just pretty much thinking they own the place. I doubt this behavior is just isolated to yesterday.

Does Dixieland follow a narrow path as it looks from the pic, or is it generally more wide open?

It widens out and opens up near the bottom. It stays fairly narrow and trees are close together up top in the steeper sections

Sweet report. I didn't make it into Dixieland last Monday but it does look to have good coverage. I elected to do Caveman a second time. And Powerline is really fun now that the line is high enough that I don't have to duck under it :razz:.

Skied this afternoon. 3-4 " of powder over packed powder. It was sweet. Still snowing, hopefully a few more inches tonight.

Sweet pics. Shamefully never been to Burke. Must make a better attempt.

Looks deserted. Nice.

reefer said:

Sweet pics. Shamefully never been to Burke. Must make a better attempt.

Click to expand...

I would recommend it for anyone. It's got a ton of character

Nice terrain/pics MMW....

I had never been to Burke and a lot of my comments are shared with MMW, I parked at the Mid lodge thinking that was the main lodge wrong , they don't sell tickets there? , the Mid Lodge is a real throw back ski lodge, full or race kids and parents. It's clicky,was just about pushed off the table that we were sitting at by some 60 year olds. If I had known it was THEIR table I would never had sat there!
Besides being very cold it has great terrain, good lifts , fun trails , very good tree skiing, it is a very good place for families. May only gripe of the mountain is to many intersections, that could cause problems on busy days

Brad J said:

My only gripe of the mountain is to many intersections, that could cause problems on busy days

Click to expand...

Never heard that gripe before. Luckily Burke is never busy!

from_the_NEK said:

Never heard that gripe before. Luckily Burke is never busy!

Click to expand...

It probably has to do with Deer Run.


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone

There are a lot of crossings. No doubt about that


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

VTKilarney said:

It probably has to do with Deer Run.

Click to expand...

That I can understand and that is why it was reclassified from a green to a blue. To many beginners that didn't understand trail merging etiquette were getting to be a problem.

from_the_NEK said:

That I can understand and that is why it was reclassified from a green to a blue. To many beginners that didn't understand trail merging etiquette were getting to be a problem.

Click to expand...

To be fair to the people on Deer Run, the first crossing does not have good visibility at all.

VTKilarney said:

To be fair to the people on Deer Run, the first crossing does not have good visibility at all.

Click to expand...

The uphill view is terrible there. Unfortunately a lot of people get halfway out in the trail before they even look up. I ALWAYS take the skiers right side of the trail in that spot when coming down Dippers.
Ideally there would be a large STOP sign with a message about looking before merging at the intersection.

from_the_NEK said:

That I can understand and that is why it was reclassified from a green to a blue. To many beginners that didn't understand trail merging etiquette were getting to be a problem.

Click to expand...

Deer Run is fun to arc tight turns on and there are interesting glades between the turns as short cuts. The worst thing on that trail are beginners that snow plow the entire run and cause traffic jams. That is how my wife broke her shoulder a few years back. We generally stay away from that rail for that reason. All the glades to far skiers right are good-great.


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone

dlague said:

Deer Run is fun to arc tight turns on and there are interesting glades between the turns as short cuts. The worst thing on that trail are beginners that snow plow the entire run and cause traffic jams. That is how my wife broke her shoulder a few years back. We generally stay away from that rail for that reason. All the glades to far skiers right are good-great.

Click to expand...

Yep, exactly why I only ski short sections of Deer Run here and there to reach those glades.