Big Burke announcement

[oldtimer]

depressing, as is the long range forecast. Had a good long bike ride today. May have to like that for several more weeks. urghhhhhhh

 

[thetrailboss]

Karma for Q is a bitch.

 

[River19]

Drove up and took some pics this morning, looks the same or worse than the pics posted above. Nothing at all down by the Mid Burke really......and plenty of grass. Looks like May 13th not Dec 13th.

Cannon was skiing today when I drove by, nothing on the Notch side has snow, just that main run from the top along the ridge.

 

[VTKilarney]

Could you tell how much damage there is above Warren's Way?


.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

Sure doesn't look like they had 17 fanguns going on the training hill. According to the pictures anyhow. And by the wording of that email, it still sounds like they can't run the fans and the air/water system at the same time. Really?

 

[River19]

Could you tell how much damage there is above Warren's Way?


.

It looked May like, which is to say, not good. Lots of grass and lower Warrens looked a little worse than yesterday had spotty snow on 50% of the right side, the other side was 100% grass.

It looks the same or slightly worse than in halfpintvt's pics from yesterday. I thought they were making snow last night......? It was 30 degrees at our cabin at 900' in Lyndonville.....but the next few days still look "meh".

Although, I didn't see any snow remaining near the MBE base at all.....in his pics there was "some" I didn't see it.

That mountain isn't going to have anything worth mentioning opened in the next 2 weeks from what I can see.

I took a look from the base of the mountain at the lodge parking lot and it might as well have been biking season with all the grass I saw.

 

[VTKilarney]

Sure doesn't look like they had 17 fanguns going on the training hill. According to the pictures anyhow. And by the wording of that email, it still sounds like they can't run the fans and the air/water system at the same time. Really?

Very good point. They have yet to run both the fan guns and the other guns at the same time. It looks like for some reason they can't. So in reality the fan guns weren't an improvement at all - at least not in the way they needed to be.

 

[thetrailboss]

So no skiing so far. No Hotel either. Think about how much revenue has been lost. And a lot of it is due to bad weather. But some of it is, like Sugarbush, the complete inability of them to take advantage of cold snaps to make enough snow to get going.

 

[steamboat1]

TB I hate to tell you but many areas have had a hard time getting going in New England. Some may even close again after this coming weeks weather. Sugarbush has actually done a good job getting both Organgrinder & Ripcord open, not to mention top to bottom. They're probably offering the most challenging trails available in all of New England right now, takes a bit of snow to cover them. Burke is a different story, don't compare the two. You're way off base doing so.

 

[WWF-VT]

TB I hate to tell you but many areas have had a hard time getting going in New England. Some may even close again after this coming weeks weather. Sugarbush has actually done a good job getting both Organgrinder & Ripcord open, not to mention top to bottom. They're probably offering the most challenging trails available in all of New England right now, takes a bit of snow to cover them. Burke is a different story, don't compare the two. You're way off base doing so.

+1

 

[jimmywilson69]

Heard from the marketing girl at burke on Saturday, at an event hosted by the tour company I use, that they are hoping to have the hotel open by MLK.

By her presentation you would think all was perfect in Qutopia...

 

[thetrailboss]

Heard from the marketing girl at burke on Saturday, at an event hosted by the tour company I use, that they are hoping to have the hotel open by MLK.

By her presentation you would think all was perfect in Qutopia...

 

[thetrailboss]

TB I hate to tell you but many areas have had a hard time getting going in New England. Some may even close again after this coming weeks weather. Sugarbush has actually done a good job getting both Organgrinder & Ripcord open, not to mention top to bottom. They're probably offering the most challenging trails available in all of New England right now, takes a bit of snow to cover them. Burke is a different story, don't compare the two. You're way off base doing so.

Off base? I don't think so. Let me explain.

First, yes, weather has been a major challenge. That said, there ARE places open. My comment has to do with BOTH areas REDUCING their snowmaking capacity in recent years. The coincidence is uncanny really. Both got rid of air compressors when they built hotels. That meant that they could not put on as many guns at once when weather was favorable. Granted Burke has suffered more. Both have responded by using Low-E guns or options that require less air when the obvious solution would be to rent their compressors again.

This criticism of SB (which I love) is not new. We've talked about it a lot on SkiMRV and the SB thread, particularly in seasons where there were marginal temps at best early on. Sugarbush is just slower at responding than other resorts to which it compares itself...in particular the other "S" one up the road.

In Burke's case it is hard to know what the difference would be since they've always been conservative blowing snow. I think that they might have the Poma (barely) going if they had the same air capacity. They might not. As we've discussed there was a legitimate water shortage.

 

[jimmywilson69]

LOL

She was nice, and it certainly wasn't the forum to "blindside" her with questions about all of the issues discussed for the last139 pages.

It is ridiculous tough to listen to an adult say "QBurke" over and over during a 5 minute marketing presentation. It sounds Just as bad as it has in my head since they changed the name. It just further reinforces the pretentiousness of the Quiros clan.

1 other thing she mentioned. She made it sound like QBurke and Kingdom Trails had this awesome relationship. wasn't it completely dissolved? I'm sure this was covered on page 90 or something...

 

[thetrailboss]

LOL

She was nice, and it certainly wasn't the forum to "blindside" her with questions about all of the issues discussed for the last139 pages.

It is ridiculous tough to listen to an adult say "QBurke" over and over during a 5 minute marketing presentation. It sounds Just as bad as it has in my head since they changed the name. It just further reinforces the pretentiousness of the Quiros clan.

1 other thing she mentioned. She made it sound like QBurke and Kingdom Trails had this awesome relationship. wasn't it completely dissolved? I'm sure this was covered on page 90 or something...

I'd say it is a detente for right now. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

[steamboat1]

Off base? I don't think so. Let me explain.

First, yes, weather has been a major challenge. That said, there ARE places open. My comment has to do with BOTH areas REDUCING their snowmaking capacity in recent years. The coincidence is uncanny really. Both got rid of air compressors when they built hotels. That meant that they could not put on as many guns at once when weather was favorable. Granted Burke has suffered more. Both have responded by using Low-E guns or options that require less air when the obvious solution would be to rent their compressors again.

This criticism of SB (which I love) is not new. We've talked about it a lot on SkiMRV and the SB thread, particularly in seasons where there were marginal temps at best early on. Sugarbush is just slower at responding than other resorts to which it compares itself...in particular the other "S" one up the road.

In Burke's case it is hard to know what the difference would be since they've always been conservative blowing snow. I think that they might have the Poma (barely) going if they had the same air capacity. They might not. As we've discussed there was a legitimate water shortage.

Sugarbush has increased snowmaking capacity not reduced it. They increased the diameter of piping & added new pumps to increase the amount of water they can pump up the hill. All VT. areas have reduced the amount of compressors needed by purchasing low-e guns, not just Sugarbush. Even the almighty Killington which rents most of their compressors has reduced the number of compressors they rent by about 1/3. Killington only owns a small in house electrical compressor. Most of the compressors they use are rented & are diesel powered which gives them an advantage when electrical rates skyrocket. They rent them instead of buying them because of the constant changes in regulations regarding diesel power. It's cheaper to rent them than to constantly upgrade them every year to meet new regulation standards. Jeff Temple, the head of mountain operations at Killington, discussed this on another site last year. So yes I still think you are off base comparing Burke to Sugarbush.

 

[thetrailboss]

Sugarbush has increased snowmaking capacity not reduced it. They increased the diameter of piping & added new pumps to increase the amount of water they can pump up the hill. All VT. areas have reduced the amount of compressors needed by purchasing low-e guns, not just Sugarbush. Even the almighty Killington which rents most of their compressors has reduced the number of compressors they rent by about 1/3. Killington only owns a small in house electrical compressor. Most of the compressors they use are rented & are diesel powered which gives them an advantage when electrical rates skyrocket. They rent them instead of buying them because of the constant changes in regulations regarding diesel power. It's cheaper to rent them than to constantly upgrade them every year to meet new regulation standards. Jeff Temple, the head of mountain operations at Killington, discussed this on another site last year. So yes I still think you are off base comparing Burke to Sugarbush.

Have they increased air capacity to where it was before 2006 or equivalent?

 

[Big Wave Dave]

Sugarbush has increased snowmaking capacity not reduced it. They increased the diameter of piping & added new pumps to increase the amount of water they can pump up the hill. All VT. areas have reduced the amount of compressors needed by purchasing low-e guns, not just Sugarbush. Even the almighty Killington which rents most of their compressors has reduced the number of compressors they rent by about 1/3. Killington only owns a small in house electrical compressor. Most of the compressors they use are rented & are diesel powered which gives them an advantage when electrical rates skyrocket. They rent them instead of buying them because of the constant changes in regulations regarding diesel power. It's cheaper to rent them than to constantly upgrade them every year to meet new regulation standards. Jeff Temple, the head of mountain operations at Killington, discussed this on another site last year. So yes I still think you are off base comparing Burke to Sugarbush.

a ha! so burke, in line with peers, dropped compressors due to fan guns that no longer required them. You seem to have knowledge that others posting on here do not, who keep insisting that that the lack of compressors was in effect a reduction of capacity decision. Would appreciate any further info you have on this as it would negate at least 200 existing posts about how Burke really didnt add capacity . It would have seemed very odd to me that Burke claimed snowmaking improvements if not having additional compressors is really the linchpin of capacity. thanks.

 

[thetrailboss]

a ha! so burke, in line with peers, dropped compressors due to fan guns that no longer required them. You seem to have knowledge that others posting on here do not, who keep insisting that that the lack of compressors was in effect a reduction of capacity decision. Would appreciate any further info you have on this as it would negate at least 200 existing posts about how Burke really didnt add capacity . It would have seemed very odd to me that Burke claimed snowmaking improvements if not having additional compressors is really the linchpin of capacity. thanks.

It is the issue. One has to understand the context of the situation--in this case Burke dropped their air capacity by 2/3. They have less air capacity for their system that requires air and water.

 

[steamboat1]

Have they increased air capacity to where it was before 2006 or equivalent?

No need to. You can run 50 snow logic guns with the same air as 1 ratnick. Water is the limiting factor now (which they've increased) not air.