VTKilarney
Well-known member
So did Masskier really try to get us excited at Burke now being treated as an outpost for food and beverage management? WTF.
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Big Burke announcement
- Thread starter the original trailboss
- Start date
from_the_NEK
Active member
Lots of steel up now.
Additionally, it looks like the Mid-Burke parking lot is gone. In its place is a graded slope (hydroseeded) down to the lift.
Additionally, it looks like the Mid-Burke parking lot is gone. In its place is a graded slope (hydroseeded) down to the lift.
Slow
New member
So, I am the anecdote: "Q Burke" is not the "Burke" the world is looking for.
Last year was our first year doing a season long commitment to one mountain. At the outset I knew I wanted a manageable sized mountain, unlimited challenging terrain and, a strong connection to the local community (we are NOT a Disney World family). After bouncing around for a couple of seasons with weekend trips to pick a "home" mountain and get the kids in a program, we were torn between Burke or MRG.
I picked Burke, and my wife and I (with our two kids) rented a house and talked a friend (with his two kids into joining us). Last winter we bought seasons passes, put our kids in the season long program, never missed a weeekend, and bought more meals and beers on the mountain than we ever intended to. We also brought a number fo friends up to stay with us so they could understand how great a mountain it is (was) and we could try to recruit them to the area and show them 3.5 from Boston is not "that" bad.
We picked Burke because it was the larger of the two, had snow making, the high speed quad, a great connection to the local community and, in our experience, had a great ski school (along with...in a pipedream world...seeming like a nice place to head up for the mountain biking during the summer). And, I liked the idea the mountain was recently purchased by people who were saying they wanted to invest in the mountain, get more beds in the area, and build it out while not changing the vibe.
Over the course of last winter:
- It was definitely a larger and had FANTASTIC terrain, BUT
- While the snow making saved one weekend over MRG it did not extend the season
- The ski school was kicked off the top of the mountain (where the snow making stuck) during the "saved" days
- The ski school was CONSTANTLY in turmoil (they fired the head of the school 2 weeks in...and she was WONDERFUL).
- You never knew week to week which instructor was going to show up
- It took 3-4 weeks to try to get the classes sorted out and, only the, when I pushed...and they still constantly worked to keep the kids off the top of the mountain
- The lunch line was REDICULOUS...but by the end of the season the beers in the Tamarac were still cold and they had the menu sorted back out (after a VERY rough start)
- They fired half (or more) of the local staff
- (at least from my perspective) they destroyed their relationship with the local community
- Never got the cross-coutry ski center open (my wife is CC) only
- And, severed the relationship with the MTB community (my wife did convert from CC to snowbiking)
Now I hear they have another new head of food service, head of ski school and the son is still running the mountain opps. I am not signing up for ANOTHER year of "learning/training"
This is all a long way to say our expereince was:
Step #1: Give Q-Burke a try,
Step #2: Decide Q-Burke is not headed in the right direction,
Step #3: Just rented the house, bought the season passes, and enrolled in the full weekend program at MRG
Step #4: Never look back
One question...is there any snowbike community in the Mad River Valley? Snow biking is a BLAST!!
Last year was our first year doing a season long commitment to one mountain. At the outset I knew I wanted a manageable sized mountain, unlimited challenging terrain and, a strong connection to the local community (we are NOT a Disney World family). After bouncing around for a couple of seasons with weekend trips to pick a "home" mountain and get the kids in a program, we were torn between Burke or MRG.
I picked Burke, and my wife and I (with our two kids) rented a house and talked a friend (with his two kids into joining us). Last winter we bought seasons passes, put our kids in the season long program, never missed a weeekend, and bought more meals and beers on the mountain than we ever intended to. We also brought a number fo friends up to stay with us so they could understand how great a mountain it is (was) and we could try to recruit them to the area and show them 3.5 from Boston is not "that" bad.
We picked Burke because it was the larger of the two, had snow making, the high speed quad, a great connection to the local community and, in our experience, had a great ski school (along with...in a pipedream world...seeming like a nice place to head up for the mountain biking during the summer). And, I liked the idea the mountain was recently purchased by people who were saying they wanted to invest in the mountain, get more beds in the area, and build it out while not changing the vibe.
Over the course of last winter:
- It was definitely a larger and had FANTASTIC terrain, BUT
- While the snow making saved one weekend over MRG it did not extend the season
- The ski school was kicked off the top of the mountain (where the snow making stuck) during the "saved" days
- The ski school was CONSTANTLY in turmoil (they fired the head of the school 2 weeks in...and she was WONDERFUL).
- You never knew week to week which instructor was going to show up
- It took 3-4 weeks to try to get the classes sorted out and, only the, when I pushed...and they still constantly worked to keep the kids off the top of the mountain
- The lunch line was REDICULOUS...but by the end of the season the beers in the Tamarac were still cold and they had the menu sorted back out (after a VERY rough start)
- They fired half (or more) of the local staff
- (at least from my perspective) they destroyed their relationship with the local community
- Never got the cross-coutry ski center open (my wife is CC) only
- And, severed the relationship with the MTB community (my wife did convert from CC to snowbiking)
Now I hear they have another new head of food service, head of ski school and the son is still running the mountain opps. I am not signing up for ANOTHER year of "learning/training"
This is all a long way to say our expereince was:
Step #1: Give Q-Burke a try,
Step #2: Decide Q-Burke is not headed in the right direction,
Step #3: Just rented the house, bought the season passes, and enrolled in the full weekend program at MRG
Step #4: Never look back
One question...is there any snowbike community in the Mad River Valley? Snow biking is a BLAST!!
Last edited:
from_the_NEK
Active member
Uggh.... that just makes me feel sick to my stomach. :-(
VTKilarney
Well-known member
Slow's post made me realize something. You can have as many new hotels as you want, but unless OPERATIONS improve the mountain will not attract skiers. So long as Q-Jr. is at the helm, I am not optimistic for significant operational improvement. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
BTW, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's important for people who care about the mountain to hear what actual consumers are thinking. It sounds to me that if management was doing their job, you would likely have been a Burke skier for many more years to come. Burke can't afford to lose that type of customer.
BTW, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's important for people who care about the mountain to hear what actual consumers are thinking. It sounds to me that if management was doing their job, you would likely have been a Burke skier for many more years to come. Burke can't afford to lose that type of customer.
mister moose
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2007
- Messages
- 1,097
- Points
- 48
Glitz is not a substitue for competence. That's why Smuggs wins awards and does fine with one of the oldest lift infrastructures in New England. Sure, you need new stuff when the old wears out. And there's always folks who want to travel to ride the newest lift, ski the newest trail (Sundown) or eat in the newest lodge. But at the end of that day with the new shiny girfriend, you don't return for the glitz, you return for the fun you had. Competence counts.
Agree with FTN.....it makes me sick. Sorry to hear about the experience. Unfortunately your feedback will only convince others to stay away without the benefit of changing how things are going up there. I'd say that our year's worth of vocal constructive criticism is probably falling on deaf ears. In fact, I think I can confidently say that Q does not care about us at all and is emboldened to continue on his path to, um, I don't know where.
Last year when he emerged I watched the interviews and read his comments. It seemed pretty obvious to me that there was a facade over a guy who had no idea what he was doing. His incredible rude post on that Mountain Bike forum was just absurd. There's no spinning that.
Your comments confirm a lot of what I had heard about how things were going. Add the fact that snowmaking was terrible from what I heard because they had let go of some of their staff and key folks who knew what to do. From what I had heard they made more ice than snow. And their promise of a longer season with an earlier opening never happened.
You'll love MRG. Since it is cooperatively owned, they are really committed to making their skiers happy. Be sure to go over to Sugarbush. That is another ski area that is near and dear to my heart. Win and company have overall done a great job. Win is the complete opposite of Q--he listens to his customers and is very good with making folks feel welcome and valued.
The only thing I can conclude from the Q attitude is that they are building it up to flip it. They don't have any idea how to run a resort, let alone a ski area. I think they thought it would be easy--just copy what Stenger does at Jay. And I think they thought that they could invest EB-5 money to improve it and then sell it to another owner for a big profit. If they were in it for the long haul, Dad would have told Jr. to go do something else.
SkiRaceParent
New member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
- Messages
- 141
- Points
- 0
super depressing to read that post, I wish you would send it directly to Q.
I agree, but only for morbid curiosity. For any other resort, I'd say absolutely contact them directly because they would appreciate the feedback. But considering the unequivocally harsh response that others have gotten would make me think twice about writing them directly.
For those that want to see what things looked like last week, here's a story from the LSC news folks:
http://www.news7newslinc.net/index.php/around-the-nek/burke/891-q-burke-hotel-shaping-up
http://www.news7newslinc.net/index.php/around-the-nek/burke/891-q-burke-hotel-shaping-up
halfpintvt
New member
halfpintvt
New member
Sorry for the double photo post; not sure why that happened. As you can see the Hotel is coming along. Not sure there will be any guests if "Q" continues on his present course. Time will tell 
Smellytele
Well-known member
So is the hotel going to be the day lodge as well at Midburke? Why do ski areas keep putting the lodges so far below the lifts. Call me lazy but I would much rather have the lodge where the old lodge was or in the parking lot. They did the same crap at Jay as well and lots of other ski areas. Make lodges SKI OUT please!!!
From what I understand it will be the middle portion of the building in between the two wings that will serve as the "new" Mid-Burke lodge. As to where the Bear Den Lounge will be.......?
Smellytele
Well-known member
Right then you'll have to walk up hill to get to the lift...
Yeah, it will be like Stateside at Jay I imagine. I agree with you. Maybe they will install a Maqic Qarpet to move people up to the Mid-QBurke Eqpress.
from_the_NEK
Active member
More like Tram House Lodge to Green Mountain Flyer. About 50 yards with 15-20' of climbing (Stowe's Forerunner Quad is 150 yards away from the lodge).
Where the Mid Lodge is currently located does not work well with the new lift setup. It causes a traffic bottleneck trying to get to the lift coming off the Dippers. Additionally, there isn't much room on that part of the mountain to build a structure as large as the one they are building. There are a lot of small streams around there and trying to get permits to disturb waterways is damn near impossible in VT.
from_the_NEK
Active member
Sweet pics HalfPint. I need to get up there myself. Maybe this weekend. Sucks that all Mid-Burke parking looks like it is going to be in the lots on the other side of the trees.
Zand
Well-known member
I don't mind a short uphill walk as long as it isn't a Mansfield Lodge to Fourrunner Quad type climb. I don't think the climb from Tramhaus is bad so hopefully this will be similar (although I am guilty of only hiking to the magic carpet and using that to get speed to the Freezer haha).
steamboat1
New member
You should try walking up to the lodge at Mt. Ellen from one of the lower parking lots.
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