Big Burke announcement

[River19]

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.....

Sadly I don't think you are alone in this. I had a little bit of hope last year when it felt like after the monster PR debacle Jr. caused had finally made the point to Sr and Stenger that Jr. was completely incapable of the job they gave him. But as we have seen, it was a complete sham and the petulant child is still very much involved in the mountain and continuing to drive it to ruin.

When I drove around town over the holiday weekend, I didn't see much activity........looks like a portion of the condo owners are up but not much else for activity. Sad. I think the mountain is down two TDs with 4mins left in the 4th and they just turned the ball over on their own 20.......

 

[VTKilarney]

After having a chance to sleep on things, the passholder meeting is no less surreal feeling than it was last night. Aside from Ary's complete lack of decorum, what's really troubling is that Ary seemed to have very little knowledge of the mountain. He answered "I don't know" several times when he should have had an answer at his fingertips.

One other interesting thing: Ary was asked if passholders are going to bear the burden of the money being spent on snowmaking improvements. The proper answer would have been to say that the goal is to increase skier traffic so that passholder rates can be kept competitive with the market. But not Ary... His answer was that, yes, passholders will have to pay for these expenses. No mention of any other revenue source whatsoever.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the summer. It looks like a couple of years of horrible snowmaking during holiday periods is biting Ary in the ass. The captive audience is coming, but the weekenders who spend lots of money are definitely not.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see an unusual amount of condos come up for sale this summer. Under this management, the mountain is in a death spiral. I just hope that whoever buys it next knows how to run a ski area.

 

[River19]

After having a chance to sleep on things, the passholder meeting is no less surreal feeling than it was last night. Aside from Ary's complete lack of decorum, what's really troubling is that Ary seemed to have very little knowledge of the mountain. He answered "I don't know" several times when he should have had an answer at his fingertips.

One other interesting thing: Ary was asked if passholders are going to bear the burden of the money being spent on snowmaking improvements. The proper answer would have been to say that the goal is to increase skier traffic so that passholder rates can be kept competitive with the market. But not Ary... His answer was that, yes, passholders will have to pay for these expenses. No mention of any other revenue source whatsoever.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the summer. It looks like a couple of years of horrible snowmaking during holiday periods is biting Ary in the ass. The captive audience is coming, but the weekenders who spend lots of money are definitely not.

It wouldn't surprise me if we see an unusual amount of condos come up for sale this summer. Under this management, the mountain is in a death spiral. I just hope that whoever buys it next knows how to run a ski area.

Again, these clowns knew only a couple things, how to cut operating expenses (regardless of the impact to the business) and how to build a building with someone else's money. That appears to be it.

Honestly VTK, passholders should be deeply insulted to show up at a passholder meeting and have that asshat be the ONE person there as the spokesperson and have zero real answers. It also sounds like the answers he did have were wrong.

As a busniess owner, you invest in the business and infratructure required to produce a quality product, heck a passable product would be a vast improvement. A restaurant owner doesn't tell his customers "if you want better food, clean tables and a clean restaurant you are going to have to spend more money here so I can get better food, hire more staff to clean etc."........the owner makes the investment in the product whereby they can then justify pricing commensurate with the market of similar products in their location.

I would argue based upon all the evidence that Burke's product is not currently up to par with their current pricing. Increasing the passholder's cost to potentially make modest improvements to the product is laughable. It isn't worth the price they pay today and Jr. wants passholders to pay for the work to possibly provide value equal to what they were being charged a few years back.

good to hear most of their competitiors had a pretty good weekend even with the same weather challenges early in the season. Sounds like Wildcat etc. all had good conditions going. And paying customers.

 

[deadheadskier]

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.....

If people want change at Burke, this is the only way it happens. Vote with your wallet and take your business elsewhere.

This is what I and numerous pass holders did at Wildcat after the fiasco a couple years back. They ended up investing even more in snowmaking than originally planned. People saw the difference, came back and now sing the praises.

I hope to read a similar success story at Burke, but as long as people continue to give them money, what is their incentive to change? Less negative posts on Facebook and message boards? As far as I can tell, that only galvanizes Ary further.

 

[VTKilarney]

Unfortunately, I am locked in for next year. I bought a bunch of gift cards when they offered their cyber-Monday special (buy a $50 card get $10 free) - enough to purchase season passes for my family. Trust me when I say that I am regretting that decision. I won't be doing it again next year.

I think that we'll be going with either Bretton Woods or Cannon. If Cannon can get their snowmaking act together it would be my preference.

 

[VTKilarney]

9:15 AM on a holiday weekend and the only lift serving the main mountain is ski-on.




.

 

[River19]

And numerous empty chairs going up......probably the best conditions too.....snowing, 3" of fresh powder last night etc.

Looks like a reasonable stream of the captive audience are getting their morning runs in before they all pile up on Rt 93......lol

I left yesterday to be back here in the office this morning.....

 

[from_the_NEK]

I was up there yesterday morning with my kids on the J-bar. I had no desire to buy a full lift ticket with barely two "decent" trails coming off the summit. Ary Jr got $27 out of me.
Honestly, the passholder meeting report doesn't surprise me. I wonder if Stenger decided he was sick of trying to keep Q Jr's head above water.
The whole thing =

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

Unfortunately, I am locked in for next year. I bought a bunch of gift cards when they offered their cyber-Monday special (buy a $50 card get $10 free) - enough to purchase season passes for my family. Trust me when I say that I am regretting that decision. I won't be doing it again next year.

I think that we'll be going with either Bretton Woods or Cannon. If Cannon can get their snowmaking act together it would be my preference.

So you're locked in for 16-17 ?? Ughhh!

 

[thetrailboss]

Unfortunately, I am locked in for next year. I bought a bunch of gift cards when they offered their cyber-Monday special (buy a $50 card get $10 free) - enough to purchase season passes for my family. Trust me when I say that I am regretting that decision. I won't be doing it again next year.

I think that we'll be going with either Bretton Woods or Cannon. If Cannon can get their snowmaking act together it would be my preference.

via Imgflip Meme Maker

 

[thetrailboss]

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.....

I don't know anyone else who is as passionate as TOTB is regarding Burke. His passion has rubbed off onto me....enough that I follow it and post on it from two timezones away. I know how hard it is for TOTB to admit that he will not be there next year. And as he has said to me, what has Q gained by being a complete asshat? Nothing.

 

[yeggous]

You can always try to sell off those gift cards to unsuspecting suckers.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[mriceyman]

You can always try to sell off those gift cards to unsuspecting suckers.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone mobile app

Judging by the webcam it doesnt look like the sucker pool is too big


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[thetrailboss]

You can always try to sell off those gift cards to unsuspecting suckers.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone mobile app

People are trying to dump vouchers on eBay.

 

[VTKilarney]

People are trying to dump vouchers on eBay.

The last one sold for $20. That ought to tell you something.

I think it's safe to say that MLK weekend was pretty much a disaster for Q Burke. You know it's bad when the Sherburne chair is much busier than the Mid-Burke. I spoke with several families that took one run up top (usually on Deer Run) and never went back up again. Most of the people skiing the lower mountain were not doing so because it was their first choice.

They need to improve snowmaking big time before things will change. And, unfortunately, they have probably alienated a lot of people from returning even if they get their snowmaking act together. Screwing people over by taking hotel reservations for dates you know will not be available adds to the problem.

TOTB said it well... you could teach a college course on how NOT to run a company with Q Burke as an example.

 

[River19]

Based on what I have seen on the webcam.....it has been ski down and ski on the lift all morning on a key "Holiday" weekend where snow has been falling for close to 12 hours or more.......there are also plenty of empty chairs going up.......friggin' sad.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

Guess I don't have as many years going to Burke as TOTB, only since '84-'85 for me... That many years consecutive seasons passes is impressive. If I had invested that much of my life there, pretty sure I'd be writing a very, very long letter to Stenger and Sr. You know how it goes, 1 guy tells 25 people bad reviews, they each tell 25, and so on and so forth... It's really going to start getting ugly. So many people have been alienated now, there may be no way to recover at all without an ownership change again.

It's really a shame that BMA couldn't just of owned and managed the mountain. Make it a teaching mountain for all facets of the industry.

 

[VTKilarney]

They just posted another cell phone video on Facebook. It shows a nearly empty Sherburne base on a peak holiday weekend. It looks like people have just given up and gone home.


.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

They just posted another cell phone video on Facebook. It shows a nearly empty Sherburne base on a peak holiday weekend. It looks like people have just given up and gone home.


.

Well, at least you don't have to worry about being run over by the hordes today, if you're out teaching some little ones. Almost like having your own private mountain.

 

[mbedle]

The last one sold for $20. That ought to tell you something.

I think it's safe to say that MLK weekend was pretty much a disaster for Q Burke. You know it's bad when the Sherburne chair is much busier than the Mid-Burke. I spoke with several families that took one run up top (usually on Deer Run) and never went back up again. Most of the people skiing the lower mountain were not doing so because it was their first choice.

They need to improve snowmaking big time before things will change. And, unfortunately, they have probably alienated a lot of people from returning even if they get their snowmaking act together. Screwing people over by taking hotel reservations for dates you know will not be available adds to the problem.

TOTB said it well... you could teach a college course on how NOT to run a company with Q Burke as an example.

Was the skiing off the summit that bad? Seems odd they would hang out on the lower intermediate and beginner terrain on the lower mountain.