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Big Burke announcement
- Thread starter the original trailboss
- Start date
Talk about clueless. And if you take a look the peeps working up there, everybody is NOT happy. 9/10 chair rides with strangers end up in a "new guy sure is f-ing things up". It's a little depressing.
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He'd inform that they're all wrong...he's going to prove us all wrong...
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VTKilarney
Well-known member
I skied Burke this afternoon and then went to the passholder meeting.
Holy cow was the passholder meeting epic. But before I get to that, on a nice Sunday during MLK weekend the Mid-Burke was ski on. I was absolutely shocked. There were a decent amount of people down at Sherburne, but way fewer than I expected up top. If it weren't for the racers it would have felt like a ghost town.
On to the meeting... This was Ary's attempt at running a meeting without Stenger looking over his shoulder. It was a disaster. Ary was accusing passholders of lying, was insulting customers, and was dodging answers left and right. It was almost as if he wanted it to go as badly as possible.
Just a couple of substantive things:
1) They are going to cancel a new round of hotel reservations this week. They STILL did not give an opening date for the hotel. They blamed the delay on the state withholding the release of EB-5 funds. Someone asked Ary how the passholders could provide support. Ary said that they should contact their local legislator. Somebody else asked who represented Burke in the state legislature. Ary's answer: "I have no idea."
2) Ary says that they are down over 30,000 skier visits. For an area that only gets 70,000 per year, I find this very hard to believe. My guess is that they either (a) they are projecting to the end of the year; or (b) they had some absurd goal for this year based on the hotel being open.
3) They plan on building a couple more hotels, including one that will replace the Sherburne Lodge.
4) Ary's snowmaking goal is to be able to cover a single top to bottom trail. He says that he can only make snow on one third of the mountain at any given moment. People asked him for specific answers about why they appear to make less snow now than on prior years. Ary couldn't say why. He accused the people of asking the question of lying about how much snow they used to make. (Everyone conceded that it wasn't a lot, but that it was more than he makes now.)
In general, Ary was really patronizing and demeaning. I left before it ended, so maybe things turned around. By the time I left, it was downright uncomfortable.
Holy cow was the passholder meeting epic. But before I get to that, on a nice Sunday during MLK weekend the Mid-Burke was ski on. I was absolutely shocked. There were a decent amount of people down at Sherburne, but way fewer than I expected up top. If it weren't for the racers it would have felt like a ghost town.
On to the meeting... This was Ary's attempt at running a meeting without Stenger looking over his shoulder. It was a disaster. Ary was accusing passholders of lying, was insulting customers, and was dodging answers left and right. It was almost as if he wanted it to go as badly as possible.
Just a couple of substantive things:
1) They are going to cancel a new round of hotel reservations this week. They STILL did not give an opening date for the hotel. They blamed the delay on the state withholding the release of EB-5 funds. Someone asked Ary how the passholders could provide support. Ary said that they should contact their local legislator. Somebody else asked who represented Burke in the state legislature. Ary's answer: "I have no idea."
2) Ary says that they are down over 30,000 skier visits. For an area that only gets 70,000 per year, I find this very hard to believe. My guess is that they either (a) they are projecting to the end of the year; or (b) they had some absurd goal for this year based on the hotel being open.
3) They plan on building a couple more hotels, including one that will replace the Sherburne Lodge.
4) Ary's snowmaking goal is to be able to cover a single top to bottom trail. He says that he can only make snow on one third of the mountain at any given moment. People asked him for specific answers about why they appear to make less snow now than on prior years. Ary couldn't say why. He accused the people of asking the question of lying about how much snow they used to make. (Everyone conceded that it wasn't a lot, but that it was more than he makes now.)
In general, Ary was really patronizing and demeaning. I left before it ended, so maybe things turned around. By the time I left, it was downright uncomfortable.
Again, we are all wrong and he is right. He knows it all. Pretty embarrassing that he does not know who his local legislators were....shows how much he cares about the local community.
No way they are building anymore hotels anytime soon. The current "product", from the lodge food to snowmaking is WAY subpar.
VTKilarney
Well-known member
I saw a REALLY dangerous situation on the Dippers just above the shelter. On the right hand side, there was some really rough terrain (swoops and large depressions) that was in bounds right at the edge of what they groomed with no poles keeping people away. It was the kind of thing that if you hit it at speed you would have seriously injured yourself or worse. And it wasn't very obvious until you were right up on it.
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I am surprised that they let Ary run the meeting alone. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Just saw this on FB. Some folks at the show, but for a primo holiday weekend this is a small crowd:
And I saw that they charged for sledding last night (?) I thought that in the past it was free?
Someone also asked about "the sales department". This was on the FB page yesterday:
Someone also asked about "the sales department". This was on the FB page yesterday:
You mean Ary aka Jr. who wasn't supposed to even be involved in the running of the mountain? Oh yeah....that was another load of shit they expected us to swallow.....
VTKilarney
Well-known member
I'm shocked that the Bear Path condos haven't sold out yet. Truly shocked. There must be tons of people that are willing to pay several hundred thousand dollars to ski one or two trails well into January. Right????
Unless it has changed, and it probably has, they were originally $1,000,050 each asking price.
Yeah, that was right. His desk was all cleared out last May. Guess not.
chuckstah
Well-known member
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About half that will now get you aq 3 bedroom
http://farmandforest.com/listings/saved-search/351442?r=11-20
MEtoVTSkier
Active member
Yeah, someone needs to nail Stenger's feet to the floor and get a straight answer about that story. Q senior can't possibly be this stupid to let this crap go on forever. What's he going to do, wait until Jr's antics drive the few remaining customers away and bankrupt the entire operation?
Exactly. And there are a fair number of units for sale on that listing.
I think the "few remaining customers" are really just the folks that were duped into buying a season pass for this year....I don't see people lining up to buy anything new at this point.......how many day passes are they really selling at this point given the fact that damn near every mountain between Burke and Boston has a better product available.......an unopened new hotel isn't a product......good skiing is the product.
Regarding Jr..........Q Sr and Stenger lost any credibility they may have had originally in this area based on letting Jr. "run" the mountain this way for 2+ years at this point.......how can people, like ourselves respect two "leaders" of a business who allow the mountain to be run by a clearly inexperienced, unqualified, egocentric child? We can't. It's sad their incompetence has a direct impact on the financial positions (ie. real estate, rental income, etc.) of other independent citizens. Not to mention the unhappy investors in the EB5 programs....
the original trailboss
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After 40+ years of connections to Burke Mountain, including 27 consecutive season passes, I believe I am looking at my last one. This last few years, when viewed from any perspective, is almost too bizarre to have actually occurred. This could easily make the greatest "What Not To Do" study any MBA course could hope for (and they won't even have to make anything up !).
Ary clearly wants to go it alone so I am going to do what I can now to help him achieve that goal. So instead of telling people I meet about how great Burke Mountain is, I tell them about how great Burke Mountain was.....
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