Big Burke announcement

Burke is pretty sweet today. Normally i wouldn't consider that a "big announcement", but by the standards of this thread....

Cannonball said:

Burke is pretty sweet today. Normally i wouldn't consider that a "big announcement", but by the standards of this thread....

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They got a couple of inches of snow overnight. It looks like that helped a lot.

VTKilarney said:

They got a couple of inches of snow overnight. It looks like that helped a lot.

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Like I said a few pages, the physical properties of Burke allow the mountain to recover very quickly with relatively little natural snow. 4-6" at Burke can feel like what it takes 10-12" at Jay.

Unfortunately, with the snow making situation, trails like the Dippers (Upper Dipper specifically) will not be open any time soon.

deadheadskier said:

You should request Q senior and Bill Stengers presence. I would think a round table with Ary is a waste of time.

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i could be wrong, but the whole idea that stenger is involved in anything day to day with burke is a pretty big misconception. i'm sure stenger has some tie to the hotel (because it's an eb-5 project) but as for day-to-day operations of burke mountain (snowmaking, etc) i don't believe he has any say into or knowledge of how things are run.

seems to me the last real tie to operations with the jay team ended when steve wright stepped away before the season started.

zeke said:

i could be wrong, but the whole idea that stenger is involved in anything day to day with burke is a pretty big misconception. i'm sure stenger has some tie to the hotel (because it's an eb-5 project) but as for day-to-day operations of burke mountain (snowmaking, etc) i don't believe he has any say into or knowledge of how things are run.

seems to me the last real tie to operations with the jay team ended when steve wright stepped away before the season started.

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Stenger's formal title for Burke is "advisor to the Board." Considering how poorly both Q's listen to people I think you can guess how little Stenger contributes to things.


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If my memory serves me correctly I was told three years ago that sixty, not thirty, guns was max ??

the original trailboss said:

If my memory serves me correctly I was told three years ago that sixty, not thirty, guns was max ??

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Exactly. That was with the full compliment of compressors instead of what they have now. Progress?

the original trailboss said:

If my memory serves me correctly I was told three years ago that sixty, not thirty, guns was max ??

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Everybody is happy...

What's up with this?
http://www.skiburke.com/burke-blog/snowmaking-update/

Burke has been insisting that they can't increase compressor capacity because of electricity limitations. But this work was done AFTER the existing compressor was installed.

I am certainly not up here all the time but I can say that I have never seen anthing close to 60 guns going at the same time. Ever. Not doubting that the management at that point was telling people that they could run 60 guns though. Just never seen it.

VTKilarney said:

What's up with this?
http://www.skiburke.com/burke-blog/snowmaking-update/

Burke has been insisting that they can't increase compressor capacity because of electricity limitations. But this work was done AFTER the existing compressor was installed.

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(You weren't supposed to read that )

And as to sixty guns, that does make sense. Back during 2005-2008 when I regularly skied there I recall them being able to blow snow on several upper mountain trails and one lower mountain route simultaneously. Was it like Sunday River caliber production? No. But for an area that used to be able to only blow on, say, just Lower Warren's only at once it was a big improvement. Did I count every gun that was running? No. I just know that anecdotally they were able to make snow in many areas at once to help get things going and to recover quickly if needed.

Let's also set our expectations here--Jay is NOT a powerhouse in snowmaking. In fact their snowmaking generally sucks in my experience. They pretty much blow snow on one route at a time and move on. They only really blow to build base and not to recover. Of course they say that they get epic snow (they do get a lot) but Jay is not known for snowmaking. I dare say that for a while Burke had better guns and ability to cover terrain because they needed to.

If these guys were serious they'd take a long look at the mountain layout and decide what to do in the long term. Burke has always been a "blow what you need and then stop" resort. They blow twice on the main routes to get them going and move on. They're not like Sunday River, Killington, or Okemo in that the machine made snow IS the main product. So the Burke system was always different...essentially four main lines that run from MidBurke to the Summit and three and a half lines on the lower mountain. With spurs, long hoses, and some creativity, they can cover a lot of their terrain.

Northern Star did have plans to reconfigure the trails such that there would be more continuous top to mid-mountain runs with complete snowmaking. But that did not happen.

So if they ARE serious about the ski product they either need to get back their initial capacity, and then add to it, and fix and maintain what they have, or they have to plan on more extensive work with trail rerouting and new lines. Honestly I think if they ran two more complete lines from Mid Burke to the Summit (one along Dipper Doodle, Powderhorn, Wilderness; the other up Doug's) they'd be in really good shape.

None of this matters though if they don't have enough power to run more than 30 guns let alone enough people who want to work for Q to run the system. It's pretty widely known that a lot of people have left and that they cannot get help.

And as to those 60 some-odd "high efficiency" guns, my guess is that Q got those for reduced price or free from Efficiency Vermont this summer. Nothing like your tax dollars/electric fees put to good use :roll:

thetrailboss said:

(You weren't supposed to read that )

And as to sixty guns, that does make sense. Back during 2005-2008 when I regularly skied there I recall them being able to blow snow on several upper mountain trails and one lower mountain route simultaneously. Was it like Sunday River caliber production? No. But for an area that used to be able to only blow on, say, just Lower Warren's only at once it was a big improvement. Did I count every gun that was running? No. I just know that anecdotally they were able to make snow in many areas at once to help get things going and to recover quickly if needed.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I don't recall that period as particularly a high point in Burke snowmaking. As a matter of fact I can't remember any high point. It has always been lackluster during our time there. When Ginn brought in the new guns I was hopeful but having guns and using them are two different things. Anyway like every year I am hoping for lots of natural snow. The groomers were hard at it the past few nights moving the snow had been made around on the lower mountain. Maybe they will pick up several inches tonight and the rain at the end of the storm tomorrow will not take all the new snow away.

Back under 3000 posts in this thread unless Nick can restore the last week of discussions.

what the heck happened? did we just go back in time?

faQ said:

what the heck happened? did we just go back in time?

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Yep there is a fuckup somewhere.

qhacked

This may be Ary's work.

All of my memes blew up the forum!

North Qreans?

Wow. Interesting.