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Burke April 2, POWDER and Pond Skimming

from_the_NEK

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It was the absolute best of both worlds. :daffy: Skiied knee deep pow in the morning and the clouds parted and i warmed up for pond skimming in the afternoon. I'll get some vid and pictures up tomorrow. The coverage on the mtn is excellent and this snowfall has set up some great bumps on Dougs Drop and Lower Dougs. Oh yeah, the woods did not suck either :wink:
 

thetrailboss

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Was the first glade sasquatch? Nice job on the trees!

Yes. That is Sasquatch.

Burke was still nice today. Very windy and cool, but the sun did soften up the snow in places. It was firm first thing, but lots of base depth.
 

from_the_NEK

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I'm happy enough with the GoPro basic....for now. :smile: Although the line down the Wet Slot would have looked much better in HD :whistle:

I was really surprised there weren't more powder chasers at the Burke given it got the most snow in Vermont from Friday's storm by a decent margin. The lift was practically ski-on all day. Oh well, I guess it just meant more for the rest of us that made it there. :highfive:
 

Cannonball

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Great day at Burke on Saturday.

With all the chatter about their 14-16" on Friday we were a little concerned about crowds. But there were no crowds at all. It seemed that there were as many pond skim spectators as there were skiers on the mountain.

We don't know Burke that well, but we aren't afraid to explore. We hit multiple off-map and closed sections that were fresh and amazing. I don't know how sensitive Burkers are to name dropping of lines so I'll leave them out. But we were red in the face after one of the long off map tree lines, but then found power to hit a nice straight playground of hits and drops.

Morning snow was soft, fresh, and deep. By the afternoon it was a workout plowing through heavy chowder.

The pond skimming was the best I've seen anywhere. The crowd was really into, the costumes were excellent, even the announcer was good (a rarity). The tandem ski thing was wild....400 pounds of potential pain hurtling down the mountain with no option to stop!
 

thetrailboss

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Glad to hear that you had a great day on Saturday.

Yes, Pond Skimming at Burke draws several hundred spectators and is really well done. It is the ideal location for it with the views and the open slope.

As to the crowds, I went to Sugarbush on Saturday for first chair and watched 25 Claybrookers, including several with 20 year old straight skis :blink: be allowed to poach the line. Needless to say the woman who was in line with me was :angry: There were 75 folks or so waiting for the lift to open. At Burke yesterday at 9:15 or so several chairs ran empty. Never a line all day and it was a pretty steady crowd with every chair carrying someone up most of the day. So yes, Burke is a gem and where I grew up skiing!

Oh yeah and sore from the steep runs yesterday at Burke!
 

Cannonball

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Oh yeah and sore from the steep runs yesterday at Burke!

That brings up a question. This may come across wrong, but I don't mean it to. It's a very sincere question. Where are steeps at Burke? We have loved the few days we've had at Burke. There is so much to love there. But I'd the one thing that would prevent it from being a top choice for us is the lack of pitch anywhere. Maybe we've just missed it, although I feel like we've hit the whole mountain. Guidance would be hugely appreciated.
 

thetrailboss

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That brings up a question. This may come across wrong, but I don't mean it to. It's a very sincere question. Where are steeps at Burke? We have loved the few days we've had at Burke. There is so much to love there. But I'd the one thing that would prevent it from being a top choice for us is the lack of pitch anywhere. Maybe we've just missed it, although I feel like we've hit the whole mountain. Guidance would be hugely appreciated.

I'm pretty much referring to the skiing on the west side of the mountain....Warren's Way to looker's left. Though not technically "steep" as in you need a rope and belay, the pitch is very consistent.

Besides that, there are short places where the pitch is very steep such as Fox's Folly, Lew's Leap, and Ledges.
 

Cannonball

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I'm pretty much referring to the skiing on the west side of the mountain....Warren's Way to looker's left. Though not technically "steep" as in you need a rope and belay, the pitch is very consistent.

Besides that, there are short places where the pitch is very steep such as Fox's Folly, Lew's Leap, and Ledges.

Thanks, that is helpful. We hit all of those. Thought we might be missing something else.
 

from_the_NEK

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Originally Posted by Cannonball
That brings up a question. This may come across wrong, but I don't mean it to. It's a very sincere question. Where are steeps at Burke? We have loved the few days we've had at Burke. There is so much to love there. But I'd the one thing that would prevent it from being a top choice for us is the lack of pitch anywhere. Maybe we've just missed it, although I feel like we've hit the whole mountain. Guidance would be hugely appreciated.

I'm pretty much referring to the skiing on the west side of the mountain....Warren's Way to looker's left. Though not technically "steep" as in you need a rope and belay, the pitch is very consistent.

Besides that, there are short places where the pitch is very steep such as Fox's Folly, Lew's Leap, and Ledges.

Burke isn't really known as a Steep mtn in Advanced skiers terms. It definitely doesn't have any Cannon like steeps. As Trailboss said, it is more of the general consistancy of fairly steep fall line without having super steeps. This creates relatively steep BLUE rated terrain with little to no flat runout back to the lift (there are a few traverses: e.g. East Bowl). For example, I don't know that I've ever skied anywehere else that has a blue trail with as steep a section as Upper Dipper after the first Tool Road crossing. There are a lot off intermediates that stop there and look at it for a good long time before actually going for it. If that trail was at Killington, it would have five different name as it flipflopped back and forth between a Blue and a Black rated trail. :)
There are some short steeps there and there, but nothing that is really hair raising. There are a few off the map spots that have some really tight steep drops as well but again nothing that is really wide open and steep.
Let me know next time you are up at Burke and I'll show you around.
 
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Cannonball

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Burke isn't really known as a Steep mtn in Advanced skiers terms. It definitely doesn't have any Cannon like steeps. As Trailboss said, it is more of the general consistancy of fairly steep fall line without having super steeps. This creates relatively steep BLUE rated terrain with little to no flat runout back to the lift (there are a few traverses: e.g. East Bowl). For example, I don't know that I've ever skied anywehere else that has a blue trail with as steep a section as Upper Dipper after the first Tool Road crossing. There are a lot off intermediates that stop there and look at it for a good long time before actually going for it. If that trail was at Killington, it would have five different name as it flipflopped back and forth between a Blue and a Black rated trail. :)
There are some short steeps there and there, but nothing that is really hair raising. There are a few off the map spots that have some really tight steep drops as well but again nothing that is really wide open and steep.
Let me know next time you are up at Burke and I'll show you around.


Thanks for all the input. And I'll definitely take you up on that last one.

BTW: plankton = awesome!
 

Cornhead

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I was planning on skiing Magic when the forecast was for more snow. When they ended up not getting so much, I decided to try Burke. It was worth the trip. What a great weekend. Saturday's conditions were amazing, especially for April. And yes, the woods absolutely did not suck. $35 lift tickets were nice too.

It was my first time to Burke. And though I agree there is nothing very steep, hell Greek Peak has steeper steeps, the trails are long with descent pitch, and the glades are great. Pretty spectacular views from the mountain too.

Sunday I ate my lunch at my car. I left my skis in front of the lodge. I decided to ski down to the lower lodge and ride the quad back up. The lift broke while I was in line. I think they may have had to evacuate the people on the lift. Kudos to the staff for shuttling those who needed a ride back to the upper lodge. No bus, two pickups and a minivan. I was thankful not to have been on the lift when it broke, I didn't drive 300 miles to be stuck on a bunny slope lift.

Speaking of lifts, the main lift ride is a bear, 13 minutes I was told by a lifty, I didn't time it. I heard they are planning a high-speed replacement. Returning from the east side of the mountain is a bit of a schlep too, well worth the effort however. At least last weekend it was. Definitely not snowboard friendly.



Sorry for the crappy pics, cell phone.
 
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from_the_NEK

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I was planning on skiing Magic when the forecast was for more snow. When they ended up not getting so much, I decided to try Burke. It was worth the trip. What a great weekend. Saturday's conditions were amazing, especially for April. And yes, the woods absolutely did not suck. $35 lift tickets were nice too.

It was my first time to Burke. And though I agree there is nothing very steep, hell Greek Peak has steeper steeps, the trails are long with descent pitch, and the glades are great. Pretty spectacular views from the mountain too.

Sunday I ate my lunch at my car. I left my skis in front of the lodge. I decided to ski down to the lower lodge and ride the quad back up. The lift broke while I was in line. I think they may have had to evacuate the people on the lift. Kudos to the staff for shuttling those who needed a ride back to the upper lodge. No bus, two pickups and a minivan. I was thankful not to have been on the lift when it broke, I didn't drive 300 miles to be stuck on a bunny slope lift.

Speaking of lifts, the main lift ride is a bear, 13 minutes I was told by a lifty, I didn't time it. I heard they are planning a high-speed replacement. Returning from the east side of the mountain is a bit of a schlep too, well worth the effort however. At least last weekend it was. Definitely not snowboard friendly.

Glad you had a good weekend. :beer:
I heard about the lower mountain quad breaking down. It was the last day of the season for that lift too as oly the uppper mountain is going to be open next weekend.

The plans for a new quad to the top has been discussed here a lot. It seems the gears have recently started to move a bit faster on it this. :lol:

http://alpinezone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84209

http://alpinezone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90069

http://alpinezone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93236
 
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