Big Burke announcement

River19 · Dec 8, 2015

Based on the longer term trend that El Nino setup is really keeping the cold air stacked up in Canada and pushing these mild temps through northern New England.......looks like until that pattern breaks down we are in for tough sledding.....literally.

Good luck making and keeping snow and reasonable conditions.......I think any real VAST traffic may be out of the question this year. No bueno.

Glad I got rid of the sleds......

Smellytele · Dec 8, 2015

thetrailboss said:
http://vtdigger.org/2015/12/07/1724...il&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-fe3d6ef76b-405558657

Read the comments for some interesting input.

Stenger saying that the date could be sooner than the 15th of Jan to open the Hotel is kind of useless. Who would be staying there when no reservation are made only a month before.

Gman · Dec 8, 2015

VTKilarney said:
Does anyone have a visual as to how much snow they made on Warren's Way last night? I'm curious about how the new fan guns performed.

I just looked at the ten day forecast. Depressing... I'm now worried about how much snow they will lose, not just whether or not snow can be made.

Pics posted on FB.

Smellytele · Dec 8, 2015

thetrailboss said:
http://vtdigger.org/2015/12/07/1724...il&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-fe3d6ef76b-405558657

Read the comments for some interesting input.

Angry Mark Trigo who I think maybe Burski...

MEtoVTSkier · Dec 8, 2015

Thought they bought 20 fan guns?

VTKilarney · Dec 8, 2015

MEtoVTSkier said:
Thought they bought 20 fan guns?

According to this link they purchased 20:
http://qburke.com/assets/Uploads/PDF/5-5-2015-Snowmaking-Updates.pdf?

VTKilarney · Dec 8, 2015

This is a serious question and not me trying to be a wise guy. What are the odds that they open on the 18th? The ten day forecast is HORRIBLE. If they are lucky they will get some short snowmaking windows at night, but these may not even offset the melting that will occur. Bear Den is not yet done, and Warren's Way needs more snow. And that's before they even think about connecting Mid-Burke to the lower mountain.

My best guess is that if they open it will be from Mid-Burke only - and they will do that just to save some face. But I don't give even this scenario a 100% chance of happening. I'm starting to think that it's more like a 50% chance.

Thoughts?

from_the_NEK · Dec 8, 2015

50% chance of opening Lower Warrens Way via the Poma (a replay of December 2006). Looks like they need at least another 24 hours of snow making to get a good blanket down on Lower Warrens.

Masskier · Dec 8, 2015

from_the_NEK said:
50% chance of opening Lower Warrens Way via the Poma (a replay of December 2006). Looks like they need at least another 24 hours of snow making to get a good blanket down on Lower Warrens.

Good estimate. Starting from scratch at 23 degrees F it would take 36 hours to open the training hill top to bottom.

VTKilarney · Dec 8, 2015

Here are some quotes from a 2012 WCAX story to get us through these tough times:

"The new owner of Vermont's Burke Mountain Resort is going to increase snowmaking capacity by 50 percent to help the resort during winters when there is little snow."

and...

"Jay Peak President Bill Stenger, who bought Burke in May along with a business partner, says the snowmaking system improvements will be the initial focus of the new owners."

Gman · Dec 8, 2015

VTKilarney said:
Here are some quotes from a 2012 WCAX story to get us through these tough times:

"The new owner of Vermont's Burke Mountain Resort is going to increase snowmaking capacity by 50 percent to help the resort during winters when there is little snow."

and...

"Jay Peak President Bill Stenger, who bought Burke in May along with a business partner, says the snowmaking system improvements will be the initial focus of the new owners."

Ah yes....when we were young and naive.

thetrailboss · Dec 8, 2015

VTKilarney said:
Here are some quotes from a 2012 WCAX story to get us through these tough times:

"The new owner of Vermont's Burke Mountain Resort is going to increase snowmaking capacity by 50 percent to help the resort during winters when there is little snow."

and...

"Jay Peak President Bill Stenger, who bought Burke in May along with a business partner, says the snowmaking system improvements will be the initial focus of the new owners."

Three steps backward, one step forward. Still a net loss. No air compressors = less capacity to blow when you need to.

River19 · Dec 8, 2015

At the end of the day, they can blame the weather all they want but over the next 3-4 weeks when all the other ski areas who are dealing with the same or worse weather conditions have more open terrain and are actually providing a product for the people that bought passes....well the truth will be obvious.

At that point we will either see the impact of the snow making improvements they supposedly made or not.....they are out of excuses.....

River19 · Dec 8, 2015

At the end of the day, they can blame the weather all they want but over the next 3-4 weeks when all the other ski areas who are dealing with the same or worse weather conditions have more open terrain and are actually providing a product for the people that bought passes....well the truth will be obvious.

At that point we will either see the impact of the snow making improvements they supposedly made or not.....they are out of excuses.....

VTKilarney · Dec 8, 2015

If natural snowfall doesn't save them, this is going to get ugly very fast. They still don't have any snow made on the lower mountain, which is vital to have since they don't have sufficient parking at Mid-Burke.

I mentioned a few pages ago in this thread that the warm weather makes them look better than they really are. Once the cold weather hits, other areas will be opening trails left and right. Burke will be opening trails at a snail's pace compared to those other resorts. This is when the lack of snowmaking will really stand out.

I really wonder what management is thinking right now. With the hotel about to open, and a third year in a row with Christmas being horrible compared to the competition, they've got to do something MAJOR over the summer. Something more than installing a few fan guns to benefit BMA. But I'm not convinced they will. The pattern has been to rely on natural snow to erase everyone's memory of just how bad the first half of the season was.

To be fair, even Jay Peak is showing its lack of snowmaking right now. They are the most northerly resort in Vermont and their offering is pretty bad. But at least they are open. You have to figure that a lot of people are cancelling Christmas reservations, even with discounts of up to 40% for Christmas week. It's really unfortunate, but this is the gamble you take with the ski area business.

River19 · Dec 8, 2015

But everyone else in New England is dealing with the same shit weather patterns and has been for the past few years. They all knew snow making was going to be the new norm and many upgraded and are prepared to deliver on some semblance of a ski product. What sucks is people buy a season pass and the season most likely will be 25% too short based on Q's choices. So if those season pass holders want to ski over the holiday they will be paying for more passes somewhere else.

It was more important to get the EB5 hotel up as that was funded, snow making improvements would actually have had to come from Q's pocket and we know what goes in doesn't seem to come back out.....

Wildcat looked good today from what I saw in pics......

VTKilarney · Dec 8, 2015

River19 said:
But everyone else in New England is dealing with the same shit weather patterns and has been for the past few years.

You're right. It's one thing to inherit a ski area with marginal snowmaking. It's another thing to functionally cut back on the marginal snowmaking that you inherited - which is exactly what Quiros has done. Cutting the ability to make snow shows the most basic lack of understanding of how to run a ski area in the northeast.

BenedictGomez · Dec 8, 2015

I 've said this before, but it's been quite a while, so I'll reiterate.

Q Burke Resort will either be bought as an RPT* or eventually go bankrupt.

*Rich person's toy

yeggous · Dec 8, 2015

River19 said:
But everyone else in New England is dealing with the same shit weather patterns and has been for the past few years. They all knew snow making was going to be the new norm and many upgraded and are prepared to deliver on some semblance of a ski product. What sucks is people buy a season pass and the season most likely will be 25% too short based on Q's choices. So if those season pass holders want to ski over the holiday they will be paying for more passes somewhere else.

It was more important to get the EB5 hotel up as that was funded, snow making improvements would actually have had to come from Q's pocket and we know what goes in doesn't seem to come back out.....

Wildcat looked good today from what I saw in pics......

The Cat's strategy is always to bury and reinforce terrain before expanding. The terrain does not allow them to just dust and run. They may not have the most open acreage, but it is usually buried.

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faQ · Dec 9, 2015

BenedictGomez said:
I 've said this before, but it's been quite a while, so I'll reiterate.

Q Burke Resort will either be bought as an RPT* or eventually go bankrupt.

*Rich person's toy

I think they are "filing it up to sell". Vail needs a eastern-mt-Brighton.

Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

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