Big Burke announcement

[thetrailboss]

Trail rental perhaps? I wonder if Okemo charged my high school fees back in the day. I'm guessing no and that they were happy selling the 50 extra season passes to all the team members. The vast majority of usage by the school was from 2-4 in the afternoon when the mountain was dead anyways. I didn't race, but I know the school provided all their own gates and coaching.

+1

Just shows that Q is all about money. What an stupid decision to cut off his nose to spite his face.


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[thetrailboss]

They don't even use the Mid-Burke express for mountain biking, so it's a real head scratcher to me.

There's no doubt some work but not seven weeks worth.


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[faQ]

Sometimes I come down Warrens, I hope I don't get charged extra. BTW, "Mid-Burke Express is experiencing an electrical problem and currently on delay. We are working to fix the issue and appreciate your patience. Sherburne is operating." And it's snowing.

 

[from_the_NEK]

"Mid-Burke Express is experiencing an electrical problem and currently on delay. We are working to fix the issue and appreciate your patience. Sherburne is operating."

I just came here to post that. I wonder if these problems the MBX has been having is factoring into the hard close date?

 

[whiskey jack]

There's no doubt some work but not seven weeks worth.


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Speaking from experience, there is quite alot of work that goes into preparing the Sherburne Lift for Mountain Biking. 20 chairs are taken off the line, the grips are completely dismantled cleaned and organized for non destructive testing. Line work has to be perfomed at each tower which involves raising the cable off the sheave train and inspecting liners, bearings, bushings, switches and wiring and greasing. If deficiencies are found repairs are made. Both the bottom and top terminal are gone through checking the bearings on all the wheels and sheaves, and all the belts. Cable inspection by an outside entity is performed, and as mentioned above NDT is performed by an outside entity on all grip parts and parts of the chair, gooseneck in particular. Once testing is done on the grips worn parts are replaced and the grips can be reassembled and put on the chairs. Chairs can be put back on the line and when all maintenance is completed the State lift inspector comes and does his thing.

 

[VTKilarney]

MBE started loading at 11:30.


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[River19]

Speaking from experience, there is quite alot of work that goes into preparing the Sherburne Lift for Mountain Biking. 20 chairs are taken off the line, the grips are completely dismantled cleaned and organized for non destructive testing. Line work has to be perfomed at each tower which involves raising the cable off the sheave train and inspecting liners, bearings, bushings, switches and wiring and greasing. If deficiencies are found repairs are made. Both the bottom and top terminal are gone through checking the bearings on all the wheels and sheaves, and all the belts. Cable inspection by an outside entity is performed, and as mentioned above NDT is performed by an outside entity on all grip parts and parts of the chair, gooseneck in particular. Once testing is done on the grips worn parts are replaced and the grips can be reassembled and put on the chairs. Chairs can be put back on the line and when all maintenance is completed the State lift inspector comes and does his thing.

And when we throw $8-15K of bikes on a chair, we do appreciate this work............not to mention our sorry asses.....

 

[thetrailboss]

In this article: http://vtdigger.org/2015/04/04/regulator-gives-anc-bio-project-partial-clearance/

You see what "really" happened with the Burke project(s) last year:

The developers’ agreements with the Vermont Regional EB-5 Center for the AnC Bio Vermont and Q Burke Mountain Resort projects were “suspended” on June 27, 2014, according to documents from the state. The center, which is part of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, also cancelled the West Bowl expansion at Jay Peak Resort.

And.....

The private placement memorandum for AnC Bio Vermont, a legal document that details the risks and terms of an investment agreement, was approved on March 27. The PPM for Q Burke, which is under construction, has not yet been approved by the department and cannot be “disseminated to investors,” according to a memo from Donegan. The developers say the project is 60 percent completed, and the department agreed last week to push the Q Burke financial review ahead of AnC Bio.

I have to question the propriety of this action:

In addition, Kelly said Gov. Peter Shumlin had suggested that “the state will cooperate with project developers to issue a joint press release or joint media response within the next few days to clarify and correct inaccuracies that were published by VTDigger in their recent articles.”

 

[VTKilarney]

Looks like MBX had more troubles today. I hope they figure out the problem.


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[yeggous]

Today was an excellent powder day at Burke. My wife and I had a really good time. There was an Easter egg hunt, and we did quite well. We found several eggs with lift and mountain bike tickets. Since we were limited to redeem two per person, we left with 4 lift tickets for next year and re-hid the eggs with biking tickets and the candy that we did not want. They had a nice brunch in the Tamarack that was worth the $14 given that it included great dessert and coffee / juice.

Say what you want about Q, but his staff presents a great atmosphere and customer experience, at least from this occasional visitor's perspective.

I did see a number of the Fah-Q stickers on trail signs around the mountain. They were hilarious. I did sense a lot of animosity from the regulars.

The lift went down for 30ish minutes around 2:50pm. I threw in the towel then.


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[thetrailboss]

Today was an excellent powder day at Burke. My wife and I had a really good time. There was an Easter egg hunt, and we did quite well. We found several eggs with lift and mountain bike tickets. Since we were limited to redeem two per person, we left with 4 lift tickets for next year and re-hid the eggs with biking tickets and the candy that we did not want. They had a nice brunch in the Tamarack that was worth the $14 given that it included great dessert and coffee / juice.

Say what you want about Q, but his staff presents a great atmosphere and customer experience, at least from this occasional visitor's perspective.

I did see a number of the Fah-Q stickers on trail signs around the mountain. They were hilarious. I did sense a lot of animosity from the regulars.

The lift went down for 30ish minutes around 2:50pm. I threw in the towel then.


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You're the first I've heard say that the staff made a great atmosphere. On my days there this year I thought they were deadpan if not depressed. Perhaps they were happy because it's the last day?! :lol:


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[Masskier]

Today was an excellent powder day at Burke. My wife and I had a really good time. There was an Easter egg hunt, and we did quite well. We found several eggs with lift and mountain bike tickets. Since we were limited to redeem two per person, we left with 4 lift tickets for next year and re-hid the eggs with biking tickets and the candy that we did not want. They had a nice brunch in the Tamarack that was worth the $14 given that it included great dessert and coffee / juice.

Say what you want about Q, but his staff presents a great atmosphere and customer experience, at least from this occasional visitor's perspective.

I did see a number of the Fah-Q stickers on trail signs around the mountain. They were hilarious. I did sense a lot of animosity from the regulars.

The lift went down for 30ish minutes around 2:50pm. I threw in the towel then.


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Agreed, It was a great way to end the season. Friday was 60's blue sky, spring skiing at its best, and Sunday was a powder day. Overall it was one of my top 5 seasons at Burke. Cold, but lots of powder and packed powder.

 

[VTKilarney]

I've said from the beginning of the season that I have quite a bit of respect for the staff, and that I think the staff have tried hard to deliver a good product. But I can tell you that by the end of the season I observed multiple instances of staff openly mocking Ary in the presence of customers. Hopefully that situation will improve next season and management and the front line workers will see more eye to eye.

 

[River19]

I've said from the beginning of the season that I have quite a bit of respect for the staff, and that I think the staff have tried hard to deliver a good product. But I can tell you that by the end of the season I observed multiple instances of staff openly mocking Ary in the presence of customers. Hopefully that situation will improve next season and management and the front line workers will see more eye to eye.

Seems like a clear indication that Jr. doesn't have the respect of the staff, and from what I can tell it stemmed from Jr. not respecting the staff on the flip side. I'm surprised employee engagement isn't at an all time high up there. Again, change was needed and the mountain needed to grow and it couldn't stay the same as that is the definition of insanity, but it would have been very easy to avoid the pothole and crap-shows that Jr found himself in.

We'll see how things go from here.......

 

[VTKilarney]

Fortunately we had a good year when it was all said and done. If they can improve snowmaking and make the lifts more reliable, next year should also be good from a skiing perspective. I can accept some dysfunction if the overall product is a quality product. But I also recognize that you can't count on Mother Nature to deliver a quality product these days. That's where I would like to see the most attention given during the off season.

 

[yeggous]

Fortunately we had a good year when it was all said and done. If they can improve snowmaking and make the lifts more reliable, next year should also be good from a skiing perspective. I can accept some dysfunction if the overall product is a quality product. But I also recognize that you can't count on Mother Nature to deliver a quality product these days. That's where I would like to see the most attention given during the off season.

The staff was very friendly and helpful. From an outside customer perspective they do a great job. I spotted Ary only once for a couple of seconds at brunch, but did not have a chance to interact with him. I sense way more angst from the regular customers than the staff. This is probably a credit to their professionalism.

I can see the snowmaking and lifts being an issue. Natural snow was plentiful so I didn't get a sense from the snowmaking coverage. The MBX is great, but I understand it went down twice this weekend. That's a Crotched Rocket track record.

 

[thetrailboss]

It seems odd to be talking about lift reliability with Burke. Granted during my time there they had a few issues, but not the ones that they've been having. Seems odd considering that those are relatively new lifts.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice Email

 

[doublediamond]

Jesus. A two-year-old could do a better job with that collage in MS Paint.

 

[SkiRaceParent]

thankfully Burke has a great raw product and with the hotel it will get more beds in town, especially good considering they'll be ski in/ski out. even though management decisions continue to be perplexing i'm relatively happy with where things are and where they're going. after the snowmaking debacle in december i was nervous it was going to be a torturous year.