Big Burke announcement

chuckstah · Mar 15, 2015

Burke skied real nice today. 6 inches or so of mid density snow topped off the firm base nicely. Woods were in mid winter form. There was one hiccup in the day as the lower mountain lost power from around 11 til noon. The mbx was running, and they shuttled people from the sherburne lodge up to mid Burke. Some people were pissed as they could not sell you a lift ticket. A bunch of people were trying to give them money, but they could not take it. A backup plan is needed. Sell tickets at mid Burke where power was fine? Should never have stopped!

thetrailboss · Mar 15, 2015

chuckstah said:
Burke skied real nice today. 6 inches or so of mid density snow topped off the firm base nicely. Woods were in mid winter form. There was one hiccup in the day as the lower mountain lost power from around 11 til noon. The mbx was running, and they shuttled people from the sherburne lodge up to mid Burke. Some people were pissed as they could not sell you a lift ticket. A bunch of people were trying to give them money, but they could not take it. A backup plan is needed. Sell tickets at mid Burke where power was fine? Should never have stopped!

+1

When I visited two weeks ago the Sherburne went down as well and they were all similarly confused with no plan. It was like the Keystone Cops. The folks I was with commented at the complete lack of real leadership.

Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

from_the_NEK · Mar 16, 2015

deadheadskier said:
I thought I recalled shoot being fenced off at one point? Or maybe it was another trail. I remember FNEK pointing it out the one time I made turns with him.

Good memory! But you are just off... :smile:
It was the right option of Camper Carry after they widened the left section. They were trying to regenerate vegetation on the right and mitigate the bad intersection where the two sections of trail came back together.

thetrailboss · Mar 16, 2015

from_the_NEK said:
Good memory! But you are just off... :smile:
It was the right option of Camper Carry after they widened the left section. They were trying to regenerate vegetation on the right and mitigate the bad intersection where the two sections of trail came back together.

I thought it was odd how they planted a tree right at that intersection...or tried to block it. That is a bad intersection.

from_the_NEK · Mar 16, 2015

VTKilarney said:
... I'm REALLY disappointed that they aren't pursuing transitional terrain from the lower hill accessed by the Willoughby lift.

+1. IMHO that set up is almost perfect. However, I can only take credit for mapping it. The idea was actually raised at the advisory panel session a couple years ago (with strong agreement from the crowd).

River19 · Mar 16, 2015

Interesting developments over the past week so based on this discussion here.

Selling the quad......can make sense if it really brings in any cash.......it could also reduce potential insurance expense but that is just a gut guess thinking an aging lift used very little becomes a liability at some point.

One question that occurred to me from a selfish standpoint was the snow making capability extending the season longer..........are we talking late April? Or are they talking about the ability to even make April if we have a March warmup etc.

Again, I'm asking for a selfish reason for the non-winter season.......

VTKilarney · Mar 16, 2015

The want to fill the hotel so they want to extend the overall ski season. That's at least my take on it.

.

oldtimer · Mar 16, 2015

While I suspect you are correct in terms of their motivation for a saying they desire longer season, someone should tell them that no resort can give away hotel rooms mid-week in the first 2 weeks of April-- no matter how good the product.

VTKilarney said:
The want to fill the hotel so they want to extend the overall ski season. That's at least my take on it.

.

River19 · Mar 16, 2015

VTKilarney said:
The want to fill the hotel so they want to extend the overall ski season. That's at least my take on it.

.

Interesting. Here is where I am coming from with my question.......so you invest in snowmaking, awesome, very much needed specifically on the front end of the season and to recover from mid season warm ups. I'm wondering what the implications are of extending the season with additional snow pack on the length of the upcoming mud season and possible delay of loading the hotel up with bikers who would need to purchase all new passes vs. a meaningful % of the late season skiers being pass holders.

Capturing the pent up demand for biking season and new revenue is probably more worthwhile than capturing the ass end of the ski season.....

from_the_NEK · Mar 16, 2015

River19 said:
Interesting. Here is where I am coming from with my question.......so you invest in snowmaking, awesome, very much needed specifically on the front end of the season and to recover from mid season warm ups. I'm wondering what the implications are of extending the season with additional snow pack on the length of the upcoming mud season and possible delay of loading the hotel up with bikers who would need to purchase all new passes vs. a meaningful % of the late season skiers being pass holders.

There is at least a full month between ski and bike season. The snow is long gone (unless a Killington-esque glacier is in the plans) and the opening of bike season hinges more on the raininess of the Spring and onset of vegetation growth which draws the moisture out of the soil.

River19 · Mar 16, 2015

from_the_NEK said:
There is at least a full month between ski and bike season. The snow is long gone (unless a Killington-esque glacier is in the plans) and the opening of bike season hinges more on the raininess of the Spring and onset of vegetation growth which draws the moisture out of the soil.

Yes, my point is, why compound that with extra standing water from additional snow pack, which means trail work is delayed and dealing with trail closures until several weeks into the season. Just like we had with the Memorial Day 5" of snow we got a few years back.

from_the_NEK · Mar 16, 2015

River19 said:
Yes, my point is, why compound that with extra standing water from additional snow pack, which means trail work is delayed and dealing with trail closures until several weeks into the season. Just like we had with the Memorial Day 5" of snow we got a few years back.

I still think it would be pretty rare that the extra snow would have that impact. Like I said, the snow is long gone by the end of May unless we get a once in 50+ year Memorial Day snowstorm (a 3-5 inch rainstorm would also delay work). The ground won't start to really dry out until the vegetation growth kicks into gear. Post snowmelt the ground remains very saturated until that growth happens. Any additional melt water would typically just run off the surface and into the streams. There may be a few isolated spots that a muddier than "normal" but I wouldn't think it would be enough to delay opening for MTB by the beginning of June.

River19 · Mar 16, 2015

So then the answer would be minimal impact, based on that line of thinking. Only one way to find out....

ablb · Mar 16, 2015

I'm skeptical about mountain bikers staying at the hotel. Most are looking for cheap. There is a market for weddings however.

VTKilarney · Mar 16, 2015

The lower mountain, where lift served mountain biking takes place, might not stay open nearly as long as the upper mountain.

As for current conditions, while the recent snow was quite heavy, it was a very nice refresh.

River19 · Mar 16, 2015

ablb said:
I'm skeptical about mountain bikers staying at the hotel. Most are looking for cheap. There is a market for weddings however.

This is pretty accurate. Camping and sitting by a fire covered in mud and drinking a beer is a good thing......

VTKilarney · Mar 17, 2015

ablb said:
I'm skeptical about mountain bikers staying at the hotel. Most are looking for cheap. There is a market for weddings however.

I think that is one reason why they are trying so hard to package Q Burke as a wedding destination.

River19 · Mar 17, 2015

VTKilarney said:
I think that is one reason why they are trying so hard to package Q Burke as a wedding destination.

I think that was one of the original reasons for justifying the hotel was to capture the accommodation AND reception revenue and be able to have a legitimate venue vs. downstairs at the Tamarack/patio, not that those are horrible.

I'm sure some bikers will stay at the hotel, but the price has to be right and I would say 75% prefer to camp or rent a lodge/house with friends. I think the % that usually stays in the Inns are the ones to give the hotel a try if the price is right and if they want to ride right out of the hotel. But many people like to stay in town so they can easily ride out of their place vs. having to climb the road back up to the hotel (which will be a good poke at the end of the day).

Here's hoping for a relatively dry spring and mid May KT opening......

VTKilarney · Mar 17, 2015

Of course the wedding business isn't going to fill the hotel on weeknights, so they still need to cater to conferences and mountain bikers.

River19 · Mar 17, 2015

Yeah, just like many "vacation" area hotels, the weekdays can be tough to fill. The exception being the true vacation folks, but KT tends to be a weekend destination and holiday weeks. I can see it getting booked up for NEMBAFest etc.

Big Burke announcement

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