Burke 2/22/2015

Date(s) Skied: Sunday, February 22, 2015

Resort or Ski Area: Burke

Conditions: Powder

Trip Report: Continued the Fox44 tour with a trip to Burke. The mountain reported 3" Sunday AM, but that actually seemed underestimated (like many other things there)... we measured 5" before we left the inn just up Darling Hill. In any case, echoing the other reports from across New England on Sunday, the skiing was fantastic and the crowds were very light (although the woman next to us on the Mid Burke Express said the 3-4 minute wait at 10am was the longest she'd had there all season).

I hadn't been to Burke since they added a "Q" to their name but, contrary to some reports on this board, I found the mountain to be as laid back and welcoming as ever. Lunch was delicious and well priced, staff was incredibly friendly, and the mountain still had that unique "quietness". Caveman glade was run-of-the-day. In fact, it was near impossible to find a bad line in any of the East Bowl glades. Even the groomers were fun, since the mountain clearly groomed prior to when the snow started Saturday night.

One note to Burke: your trail map is awful. A few of my fellow weekend warriors choose mountains based on trail maps, and they laughed when I told them how great Burke really is. The trail map doesn't do the place justice.

Looks fantastic!

Awesome!

I agree the trail map isn't great. But I guess I like it because it doesn't cut traverses and name a trail "upper, lower, middle".

Don't get me wrong, I love Burke. But that map, coupled with their trail rating designations, does them no favors. The map looks like a five year old first held a green crayon sideways and rubbed it all over the paper, then took a blue crayon and drew squiggly lines all over it.

And any intermediates used to wide cruising boulevards at Stratton, Okemo, Stowe, ect. would have had a panic attack at the top of Bear Den on Saturday... steep moguls and exposed rocks right down the middle of the trail. While I'm also the first one to laugh at Okemo's diamonds, a little rating differentiation would be a good thing for intermediates at Burke.

How would y'all recommend redrawing the map? I'm thinking Photoshop. Use the selection tool to grab just the trails and woods areas on Q Burke.

Step 2) Cut, Paste into new layer, 2.5) Find photo of Matterhorn, 2.75 Download and drag into PS as a layer 3) blend selected Burke trail network as "overlay" or "hard light", whichever makes it show up onto Matterhorn picture. 4) tweak all settings until it looks plausible.

The worst mistake some map artists make is making the trees too large to scale. Makes the mountains look only several trees high in vertical drop in some cases. Amateurish and an insult to the intelligence of prospective skiers.

This practice of over emphasizing the height of pines and hard woods on otherwise roughly directional maps fell out of favor due to the overwhelming number of complaints from skiers, expecting to see much fewer trees based on the map.

I'd recommend calling James to draw the map.

Not Bob Ross either. His trees are....err were too happy for a trail map

bdfreetuna said:

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that...is...awesome

Now we're talking! Maybe a few more people would check the place out if they advertised with something like that!

bdfreetuna said:

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Wow. I am speechless.


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bdfreetuna said:

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Bahahahahahaha!! Nice work. Your photoshop skills are strong :lol:.

And nice report Loaf Nut 8)

The staff at Burke have been great. Don't confuse concerns about management with concerns about staff. Once the snow came after the thaw Burke has been fantastic this year.


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