Burke - 3/2

Got in line for the Mid Burke Express before it opened this morning. Fog was pretty thick on the top half early and a nice layering of ice covered the goggles during the first 2 runs. Started with groomer runs on Dipper then Willoughby. The reported new inch was 2 or 3 up top and it was fun to rip even though I couldn't see. There was a big race today that was delayed a couple times due to the bad visibility. That was also the source of the "crowds" mentioned by a few people. Maybe by Burke standards, but it was fine for me given it was a Saturday with good snow. Met up with from_the_nek and friends at the top and I was lucky to get to follow them around for the rest of the morning. We skied all over - groomers, East Bowl a few times, a few glades, under each of the chairs. Some ungroomed areas were a bit thin, but most rocks were easily avoidable. Another thread had questions about the state of the glades - all seemed open and fairly well covered, although, steeper and/or tighter sections were occasionally scraped off. While another storm would help - if you have good obstacle avoidance skills (not so much me) or skis you're willing to sacrifice to obtain those skills (me!) - even those scraped off spots are passable. I skied another hour or so after FTN and co. left including a run down Dixiland. I'll try and include some pics to get an idea of glade conditions.

This was my second ever trip to Burke and its moving up my favorites list. I look forward to getting back to Burke again - at least next season.

Thanks again to from_the_nek for showing me around.

Woods look skiable! Definitely better than some of the glade coverage I've skied on this year.

Nice. I'm hitting Burke for the first time tomorrow - do you remember where those woods pics were taken?

I would definitely ski those woods.

All 3 were different points in Dixiland, but I think they were representative of other glades on the mountain.

Nice report.....how were crowds? Looks like most chairs were full going up the HSQ in the 1 pic you included.
My wife and I made our first visit to Burke last year in Early March and really enjoyed it.....definately a mtn we'll return to

It was busy but I wouldn't call it crowded - although my perspective is from mostly skiing mid-atlantic/Catskills/southern vt.

Had a fun 2/3rds of a day. Glad I met up with SKI-3PO and got to show him around and I'm glad he was game for pretty much anything :beer:.
We skied a little bit of everything. We even got into the Wet Slot and Fir Burger . The Slot was barely tracked, likely due to a lot of branches and trees that have been falling/leaning into it. The untracked snow was very stiff but the coverage was good. 12" would do wonders up there (I don't believe Burke has reported any single event snowfalls over 8" this year :blink. As usual, the two main groomers of the summit, Willoughby and Dipper, seemed to be the only "busy trails". Most runs we barely saw another person. There was one point at about 11:00 when the lift line was about 4 minutes. But that was right when the (up to that point delayed) race was about to get underway so I think that bumped up the line length. We came around the lodge to see that line and we collectively said WTF. Where did all these people come from ? The rest of the day the line was very short to barely existent.

JimG. said:

I would definitely ski those woods.

Click to expand...

I would ski woods with half as much snow :lol:

Nice report and of course ...

After ruining a pair of skis on dicey glades this year I'd think twice - unless I had a descent pair of pre-ruined rock skis - then of course .