AZ Challenge 2011: Hannah Collins, Burke Mountain

[Nick]

Hannah Collins, events manager at Burke Mountain, and Tim McGuire of Burke have agreed to participate in the 2011 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge!

The AlpineZone Challenge is your chance to offer up questions, suggestions or praise to the people who run the mountains in the northeast. For more information on the challenge itself, please see the stickied post at the top of the forum.

We will pick ten of the questions asked here and submit them for review and response, and post them in the Challenge area when complete!

Caveats: we may edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or something similar. Questions may be merged. If we don't get to all the questions, we will encourage followup from the representatives, but no promises.

Please be respectful as well to those answering questions - please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. as these may be confidential to the mountain.

Let er' rip!

Burke Mountain Profile

2006 AZ Challenge Results
2005 AZ Challenge Results
2004 AZ Challenge Results

 

[thetrailboss]

All right Hannah, the obvious question, please provide us with details about the new summit lift project. Who is doing the work? When can folks expect it to be opening? What changes to terrain will be made to handle the increased traffic? Thanks.

 

[riverc0il]

Spill it!!

 

[deadheadskier]

What is the intended operating schedule for the Willoughby Quad when the new summit lift goes in?

Will you still offer the no lift line guarantee?

 

[thetrailboss]

Probably the other largest issue with Burke is snowmaking. While a lot of work has been done on a couple of upper mountain trails and most of the lower mountain, Burke still does not cover a lot of the East Side and Burke lacks the firepower that a lot of areas have. Additionally, Burke's season is relatively short. Can you detail what work we can expect on snowmaking in the next couple seasons, especially considering the new lift? Will such classics such as Powderhorn, Wilderness, and Doug's Drop see snowmaking? And will Burke work to retain the classic terrain that it has rather than bulldozing them flat?

 

[from_the_NEK]

To go along with Trailboss' question(s).
Why has there been a media blackout by Burke on officially announcing the lift? It is already public knowledge fueled by rumor and independent progress reports. What are the lift and new trail going to be named?

Additionally:
Have any local custom fabricators been contacted to create a replacement for the broken POMA lift component?

Does Burke have any renderings for the new race timing building that could be posted online for the public to see?

How much longer is the current Mid-Burke lodge going to be around? Burkie's needs to be saved or relocated.

This is more of a statement than a question but Hannah may have a response to it:
Please, please, please do not cut/widen trails to the extent of what is shown in the "Master Plan". Granted some work will need to be done in spots but it would be very unfortunate to destroy the terrain that makes Burke so interesting to ski.

 

[deadheadskier]

Please, please, please do not cut/widen trails to the extent of what is shown in the "Master Plan". Granted some work will need to be done in spots but it would be very unfortunate to destroy the terrain that makes Burke so interesting to ski.

+1

learn from the mistakes of other areas. Once you widen and destroy the character of a classic trail, there's no going back. There are countless examples of trails all throughout New England that aren't what they once were. It's often just not worth losing that character to be able to have a trails surface better handle increased traffic. I'd rather ski a scraped off trail with character than a wide open boulevard with a pristine surface.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yeah, have to agree with FTNEK on his points, largely the media blackout. I understand the reasons, but this was a major blunder. Sugarloaf and Mount Snow have running blogs on their projects and folks are getting excited. It was very inexpensive and effective. Burke has a great website and has been pushing the mountain bike trails and summer activities. This is the single most important project at Burke since when the Sherburne Base area was built in the 1970's. This is transformative. Other changes have been incremental, but this puts Burke into the big leagues.

As to Bear Den, yes, they need to keep that. You can't recreate that atmosphere.

And @ Nick, these are rambling comments and not meant for questions.

 

[from_the_NEK]

With the master plan of expansion in the East Bowl area, has any consideration been given to glading the entire bowl (ala Burnt Mtn at Sugarloaf and Casablanca at Saddleback) with no trails? If the entire bowl was gladed and a lift installed over there, it would be the only directly lift served "glade pod" in New England (IMHO very marketable). If this could be done, I would almost be comfortable with the East Bowl trail being widened to handle an increased skier load for those that prefer to ski on the open white ribbons.

 

[from_the_NEK]

It is also good to see the close partnership between Burke Mountain and Kingdom Trails Assoc. It looks like the lift served mountain biking has been a big win for both sides. With addition of the new HSQ, has there been talk of offering lift served MTB off of the summit in coming years?
Has there been any thought to hosting a "Race Weekend" with the road bike hill climb, a downhill, and maybe a 12 hour cross country race all in the same weekend (or mabe spread it out over a few weekends)? Burke is really turning into a summer destination for biking. It is even fairly busy there on weekdays.

 

[riverc0il]

This is more of a statement than a question but Hannah may have a response to it:
Please, please, please do not cut/widen trails to the extent of what is shown in the "Master Plan". Granted some work will need to be done in spots but it would be very unfortunate to destroy the terrain that makes Burke so interesting to ski.

C'mon from_the_NEK... Jeopardy style!!

Will Burke further cut back classic winding narrow trails (a la the already widened Willoughby) to accommodate the increased traffic of the High Speed Quad? If yes, isn't that like killing the goose that laid the golden egg? Burke separates itself from the marketplace due to its old school trails and classic topography. How can Burke sustain itself as a classic old school mountain with both a high speed lift AND flattened and widened trails? Can you put Burke loyalists at ease on this subject or will Burke trails see additional widening and regrading?

 

[from_the_NEK]

Has Burke ever considered establishing a "Seeded" mogul trail? While Burke has some good natural moguls, the offerings are not very numerous. Additionally, since there are not very many offerings for the intermediate bump skier to work on technique, so they are forced into skiing the often irregular advanced bumps that are typically on Burke's steeper terrain, often flailing/scraping their way down. I feel having a seeded mogul trail trail for aspiring bumpers to work on technique would actually improve the quality of moguls across the enitire mountain.

List of current bump trails:
Upper/Lower Doug's Drop (best on the mountain)
Wilderness (short)
Fox's Folly (narrow)
The Gap
Lew's Leap (short/narrow)
Boarderline (1 bump wide)

I would suggest seeded moguls on either The Gap, or The skier's right side (2/3rds of the trail) of Little Dipper. Both of these have snow maikng coverage (respectively former locations of a terrain park and half pipe). My preference would be for the Little Dipper option. It would make for and interesting terrain option coming down that side of the mountain rather than simply bombing down the last section of Big Dipper and it would be an easy trip froom the bottom of the mougul field back to the new Quad.



Short version of above (to simplify the moderators' job) for the challenge ;-) :

Has Burke ever considered establishing a "Seeded" mogul trail? While Burke has some good natural moguls, the offerings are not really very numerous. Additionally, since there are not very many offerings for the intermediate bump skier to work on technique, so they are forced into skiing the often irregular advanced bumps that are typically on Burke's steeper terrain, often flailing/scraping their way down. I feel having a seeded mogul trail trail for aspiring bumpers to work on technique would actually improve the quality of moguls across the enitire mountain.
Good locations include the skiers right side of Little Dipper and The Gap.

 

[from_the_NEK]

OK, 1 more.
Has Burke ever considered hosting a panel of interested parties (day skiers/riders, homeowner skiers/riders, mountain bikers, etc) to provide input on future development to mountain management? Jay Peak did this several years ago as they were ramping up for their master build-out. Riverc0il (a highly respected member of this forum) was invited to and attended their panel. It sounds like Jay took the suggestions very seriously as they didn't want to alienate their current customers by just building a bunch of stuff that looks good on paper (and to the "money holders") but rather improve their overall experience for all parties.

 

[thetrailboss]

To build on what From the NEK wrote, can you provide more information about the Poma and its condition? Will it ever operate as a detachable lift again or has the Mountain Ops team decided to keep it as a fixed lift? Any thoughts about having it named as a historic landmark, since it was the first lift on the mountain? And can we expect it to remain in its current length and orientation? It would be a shame to shorten it since it offers a good back-up on windy days. Thanks.

 

[thetrailboss]

OK, 1 more.
Has Burke ever considered hosting a panel of interested parties (day skiers/riders, homeowner skiers/riders, mountain bikers, etc) to provide input on future development to mountain management? Jay Peak did this several years ago as they were ramping up for their master build-out. Riverc0il (a highly respected member of this forum) was invited to and attended their panel. It sounds like Jay took the suggestions very seriously as they didn't want to alienate their current customers by just building a bunch of stuff that looks good on paper (and to the "money holders") but rather improve their overall experience for all parties.

+ 1.

 

[riverc0il]

Would be interesting to hear some questions from non-regulars... folks that have only visited Burke once or twice. They might have a different take and different types of questions to mix it up a bit.

:beer:

 

[CapyB]

This is more of a statement than a question but Hannah may have a response to it:
Please, please, please do not cut/widen trails to the extent of what is shown in the "Master Plan". Granted some work will need to be done in spots but it would be very unfortunate to destroy the terrain that makes Burke so interesting to ski.

I have to agree to my fullest extend on this, Burke already has Willoughby, Warren's, and the Dippers for wide open trails, and that's not why anybody goes to Burke anyways. I know I come for some classic New England style skiing, not for mile wide, groomed to perfection trails with no variety.

 

[thetrailboss]

Over the past few years I have noticed that the "powerline" from Midmountain to the summit has gone from off-limits, to poached terrain, to terrain that has flagged obstacles on it and is well traveled. Any consideration of making this a designated run and adding it to the map?

 

[from_the_NEK]

Over the past few years I have noticed that the "powerline" from Midmountain to the summit has gone from off-limits, to poached terrain, to terrain that has flagged obstacles on it and is well traveled. Any consideration of making this a designated run and adding it to the map?

This summer they have brushed out the line and are replacing all of the polls (some were almost completely rotted off) and raising the line. This is probably part of the Wind Turbine install. I would almost guess that the powerline will be "open" but not a marked run. The last section between Powder Horn and the East Bowl run-out may remain "off-limits" due to the double fall line and LOTS of rocks. But it would be interesting to hear the official line.

 

[thetrailboss]

With a nice terrain park, a reliable lift, nice lodge, and a self-contained area, any thoughts about having night skiing on the Lower Mountain?