BenedictGomez
Well-known member
I LOL (literally) when I read about the "random" bit. What a farce.
Also makes one wonder what it was precisely that Clan Burton was giving (and to whom) to lock up Christmas vacation every year.
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Stowe's Stone Hut Burns
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
I LOL (literally) when I read about the "random" bit. What a farce.
Also makes one wonder what it was precisely that Clan Burton was giving (and to whom) to lock up Christmas vacation every year.
??????
Hawkshot99
Active member
What's confusing? I think the Burton's will not have any of the primetime slots for a year or 2 since it is "random" now. But as soon as the press in the area finds something new to complain about then the Burton's will be back to having Christmas every year.
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Hawk
Well-known member
What is the big deal about Burton getting holiday weeks/weekends? Those are the most crowded times to ski at Stowe. Christmas week is also way early at Stowe in terms of woods and lower elevation glades. Wouldn't you want a night sometime in February or March when everything is open and skiing is great? I do not see it as a big deal. The trick to getting the place is to have a good size group of people all sign up even if they do not plan to go. That way your odds get better.
The big deal is one family receiving preferential treatment for access to a State owned resource.
Otherwise I agree with what you are saying. Locals I know have been able to get the Hut every season going back as far as I have had connection to the town in 95. They incorporate the strategy you suggest. There's probably at least 50+ people in that group and they make reservation requests for five nights and individuals just use it one night at a time. They usually try for some time in March or April; not so much because the skiing is better, but for the longer day light hours to enjoy hanging outside of the hut after the ski day is done. This is obviously much easier for locals to do than those who are trying to travel to use it.
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Otherwise I agree with what you are saying. Locals I know have been able to get the Hut every season going back as far as I have had connection to the town in 95. They incorporate the strategy you suggest. There's probably at least 50+ people in that group and they make reservation requests for five nights and individuals just use it one night at a time. They usually try for some time in March or April; not so much because the skiing is better, but for the longer day light hours to enjoy hanging outside of the hut after the ski day is done. This is obviously much easier for locals to do than those who are trying to travel to use it.
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BenedictGomez
Well-known member
Mind = Blown.
Hawk
Well-known member
What's so mind blowing about that statement. I couldn't care less if Burton gets all the vacation weeks. I'm not that anal about the entitlement thing. Like deadheadskier says. March and April are my picks.
BenedictGomez
Well-known member
Back when the roof blew off this thing (no pun intended) I thought for sure someone would do some digging into precisely how Clan Burton was securing the most coveted week year after year in a "random lottery" drawing, but nothing happened.
It makes you wonder how many people are involved in opening/organizing the envelopes.
Is it just one guy you need to pay off? Typically something like this is done with a group of people present precisely so the "fix" Burton was pulling cant occur, but given we now know the thing is rigged, my suspicion is only a few people ran this "lottery" system. It would also be interesting to know if the same family(ies) received MLK, PDW, etc.... multiple times.
BenedictGomez
Well-known member
So it's all about you. Got it.
What if Christmas week was your pick? You know....kind of like it is for many more ski families than March & April.
Hawk
Well-known member
No it's not about me. I assume that if you want the best experience up there, then why not pick the best time to go. I mean who skips out on Christmas to go when conditions and crowds probably not optimal. Well unless you have no family or you are a Jewish or Muslim family, or whatever..... I or anybody else who really likes to ski and wants the best experience would shy away from Holidays all together. I am sure I am not alone in this sentiment.
No, you are not alone, but traditionally, Xmas week is one of if not the busiest weeks of the year. I am sure the demand for the hut is very high that week. Having it's use basically gifted year after year to one family is pretty corrupt.
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The snowboard company family...
BenedictGomez
Well-known member
Christmas used to be the busiest week of the year at Stowe when I worked there. I remember that because I got it off every year! As penance, however, I would work every other holiday, which as has been mentioned isn't that big of a deal IF you're a local. That said, I am aware that the entire eastern ski population is not local to northern Vermont .
https://vtdigger.org/2016/02/25/stowe-reporter-stone-hut-lottery-system-called-above-criticism/
This claims there is no way to bribe the officials, but it sounds like if you know the exact rules of the lottery, you might be able to game it in your favor.
Burton might be submitting multiple forms (with different names) for the Christmas week. It says there were 20 requests for 5 night stays, one might be daddy burton, another might be mommy, than grandma and then grandpa.. etc. So instead of having a 1 in 20 chance, they end up with 10/20 or 1/2 odds. That's assuming all 20 - 5 night requests were for the christmas holiday.
Still seems really fishy.
This claims there is no way to bribe the officials, but it sounds like if you know the exact rules of the lottery, you might be able to game it in your favor.
Burton might be submitting multiple forms (with different names) for the Christmas week. It says there were 20 requests for 5 night stays, one might be daddy burton, another might be mommy, than grandma and then grandpa.. etc. So instead of having a 1 in 20 chance, they end up with 10/20 or 1/2 odds. That's assuming all 20 - 5 night requests were for the christmas holiday.
Still seems really fishy.
OK. Now I follow you. I was not understanding what you were saying.
I think that might have been one of the things that they were doing.
I'm sure it was. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion as others have that they bribed officials and that there's some big conspiracy here. The rules were laid out and I'm sure they used them to their advantage. Add in the fact that according to the article, Christmas week was not a popular time to rent the hut and it isn't surprising that they were able to "win" multiple times. I see people making the argument that Christmas week is a popular time in Stowe, but I don't think that correlates to how "in demand" the hut is during that time. I'd say a lot of the clientele that are doing family trips to ski areas during busy holiday periods are not exactly your typical demographic that would want to stay in a hut at the top of the mountain. Those people are more like Hawk where they are interested in times when there would be a better chance of good skiing to take advantage of.
BenedictGomez
Well-known member
Nope; in fact, doing that is viewed as "gaming" the Stone Hut lottery sytem and would have put Clan Burton at the very end of the line as punishment for a circumvention attempt.
Directly from the lottery rules:
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