Big Burke announcement

[the original trailboss]

I don't know which is worse: your habitual intent to incite or your pushbacks veiled by not me's and it's a free and open internet. ...

 

[VTKilarney]

I don't know which is worse: your habitual intent to incite or your pushbacks veiled by not me's and it's a free and open internet. ...

If you look at my posts recently you will see that I've done the opposite - I've refrained from doing anything to incite. Recently I've been the one supporting the mountain and taking a wait and see attitude. That's why I got offended when someone tried to make something out of nothing when I asked a mere factual question and made it clear in a subsequent post that I had no problem with how they were handling things.

I'll tell you when I'm not happy. Trust me. I just get annoyed when people don't actually read what I have written and say something that is not correct based on that reason alone. You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

 

[Masskier]

I skied 4 of the past 6 days. Conditions continue to be fantastic, powder, packed powder, and more powder. All in all it was a great week at the mountain. from the comedy show last Saturday to the fireworks on Friday. A lot of people were around but the days that were real cold kept many from skiing. However the warmer days (Thursday in particular) was busy by Burke standards.

 

[thetrailboss]

So, to be fair, someone who is a new passholder to Burke may not know that, historically, Burke does not make much (if any) snow in February. The years I skied there they would go into mid or late January depending on the weather. Now if they said that they were going to keep blowing snow this season I'd be interested in knowing why considering that reports are that the snow is there.

And, FWIW, we are blowing snow at Snowbird :roll: It's that grim out here.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I skied 4 of the past 6 days. Conditions continue to be fantastic, powder, packed powder, and more powder.

Now we know who writes the conditions reports.

 

[thetrailboss]

Now we know who writes the conditions reports.

Yes, that Packed Powder over Powder is mighty tasty! :lol:

 

[faQ]

No. I was following up on a matter that I care quite a bit about - snowmaking and the accuracy of statements made during the meeting.



.

Let's assume they meant they would keep making snow if they had too, which they don't.


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[thetrailboss]

Let's assume they meant they would keep making snow if they had too, which they don't.


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I was not there, but that explanation makes sense.

 

[VTKilarney]

I was not there, but that explanation makes sense.

Agreed. I guess my preference, therefore, would be to have the early ability to blow snow - but it's really a crap shoot. In other years February could require some serious refreshing of trail surfaces. In a perfect world you can do both.

 

[Masskier]

So, to be fair, someone who is a new passholder to Burke may not know that, historically, Burke does not make much (if any) snow in February. The years I skied there they would go into mid or late January depending on the weather. Now if they said that they were going to keep blowing snow this season I'd be interested in knowing why considering that reports are that the snow is there.

And, FWIW, we are blowing snow at Snowbird :roll: It's that grim out here.

Time to make a trip back east?? We haven't had a winter like this in a long time.

 

[thetrailboss]

Time to make a trip back east?? We haven't had a winter like this in a long time.

Perhaps one is in the works....


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[the original trailboss]

Lots of new, interesting deals now that the holiday period is over, including Silver Streaker Days on Tuesday and Thursday, and, a 3-for-1 Wednesday special. Conditions are great but Mother Nature needs to kick in a little warmth here.

 

[SkiRaceParent]

After having frequented the southern Vermont resorts and NH resorts over the last few years, I fully get the QBurke investment hypothesis. It will be discovered, it's just a matter of time. There are so many inferior skiing experiences in VT/NH where you have to wait in line, whether it's the liftline, the parking lot line, the dinner line, etc. that are only a 30-1:30 hour drive closer to the big cities. We are talking like big city traffic, for not so good skiing experiences. Okemo comes to mind. With some investment in services and better management it will happen, even with many of you deep down inside wanting to see it fail.

 

[deadheadskier]

I don't think anyone wants to see Burke fail.

What they do want to see is an investment in services and better management like you said. Both of these have gotten worse since the new regime's arrival. Less snowmaking and understaffed operations at times shows a lesser investment in services. Bonehead decisions by management across all four seasons not exactly being the better management Burke skiers want.

The "grand plan" for Burke is appropriate. The execution of even the most basic steps of that plan has been poor. When management is approached regarding that reality, they dig their heels in and push back against the feedback.

That is reality. That's not people wanting to see it fail.

 

[SkiRaceParent]

It was a little tongue and cheek on the fail point, just an editorial comment about how far people take the criticism. As mainly an observer to comments on here in the last couple months, it does feel that way sometimes (prompt incoming wave of Love: 'I love Burke it's home posts') and I just wanted to comment that from a market perspective (not execution) I totally get it, the more I travel to oversubscribed crappier mountains and venues.

 

[thetrailboss]

After having frequented the southern Vermont resorts and NH resorts over the last few years, I fully get the QBurke investment hypothesis. It will be discovered, it's just a matter of time. There are so many inferior skiing experiences in VT/NH where you have to wait in line, whether it's the liftline, the parking lot line, the dinner line, etc. that are only a 30-1:30 hour drive closer to the big cities. We are talking like big city traffic, for not so good skiing experiences. Okemo comes to mind. With some investment in services and better management it will happen, even with many of you deep down inside wanting to see it fail.

That has been the thought for probably 30 years or so....it will be discovered eventually. Will it?

 

[thetrailboss]

I don't think anyone wants to see Burke fail.

What they do want to see is an investment in services and better management like you said. Both of these have gotten worse since the new regime's arrival. Less snowmaking and understaffed operations at times shows a lesser investment in services. Bonehead decisions by management across all four seasons not exactly being the better management Burke skiers want.

The "grand plan" for Burke is appropriate. The execution of even the most basic steps of that plan has been poor. When management is approached regarding that reality, they dig their heels in and push back against the feedback.

That is reality. That's not people wanting to see it fail.

Spot on. Nothing more to add.

 

[River19]

I don't think anyone wants to see Burke fail.

What they do want to see is an investment in services and better management like you said. Both of these have gotten worse since the new regime's arrival. Less snowmaking and understaffed operations at times shows a lesser investment in services. Bonehead decisions by management across all four seasons not exactly being the better management Burke skiers want.

The "grand plan" for Burke is appropriate. The execution of even the most basic steps of that plan has been poor. When management is approached regarding that reality, they dig their heels in and push back against the feedback.

That is reality. That's not people wanting to see it fail.

This is exactly my position on Burke as well; couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Smellytele]

Burke was great today. The groomers were fast and the most carvable I have ever skied on. Not a piece of ice on any of them (might be because there wasn't much snow making done. We were flying today. The woods were also in great shape. Much better than Loon's were on Sunday right after they got 7 inches or so. When we got there it was about 17 below zero and I was impressed that the construction crew was out there putting walls up.

 

[Big Wave Dave]

I don't think anyone wants to see Burke fail.

What they do want to see is an investment in services and better management like you said. Both of these have gotten worse since the new regime's arrival. Less snowmaking and understaffed operations at times shows a lesser investment in services. Bonehead decisions by management across all four seasons not exactly being the better management Burke skiers want.

The "grand plan" for Burke is appropriate. The execution of even the most basic steps of that plan has been poor. When management is approached regarding that reality, they dig their heels in and push back against the feedback.

That is reality. That's not people wanting to see it fail.

this comment ignores the forest throught the trees. For the last 20 years the knock on Burke has been no slopeside beds. Now their will be a hotel that is, much against the wide array of prior comments on this thread, on time and on track. So to say they have messed up even the most basic steps is just not true. Lots of missteps and unneccessary strife, but clearly they are not batting zero.

I would also note, as someone who occasionally checks this thread for good information, no one really seems to care about the Q Burke name outside of the internet or maybe the NEK proper. Folks I know who rent condo's have had a great year with many repeat clients, and skiier visits themselves are up nicely- if the temperatures up here ever went above 10 I bet they would be up even more.

and I agree with SkiRaceParents logic. Loon is 50 minutes south of Burke and pretty much always an inferior ski product, by a wide margin. If you dont think that Burke with a little more infrastructure can pull 5-10% of the Ski 93 crowd (include Bretton Woods in that) away and a bit further north then your crazy. I would argue this has already started, just based on how much more development there is at burke now than their ever was in the way of local beds (whether they be Bearpath, the Kirby cabins, townhouses at base of access road, 2 lodges in East Burke, I could go on....)

also for what its worth, i would argue that Burke is the prettiest ski experience in the East. Worth so much to me and others too I think and the Q's cant screw that up. Maybe Camden Sno Bowl gives it a run for its money.

One other thought on my ramble here- I read a few pages back about people speculating how an aquatics and tennis center would be appealing to Chinese investors- I think this is spot on- and, considering the very frequuent usage of the letter Q (sound really) in the Chinese language, I would apply the same logic here. Team Quiros and Stenger knows who their audience is and I think that is why they have been so deaf to complaints about what all of us think is arrogance. Q implies luck in Cantonese.