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Burke 1/3/15

VTKilarney

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Arrived at about 9:30 with my son. It was about 3 degrees at the base. Crowds were light. Things picked up when the children's program began. This is the first week of the program.

The surface has improved from when I skied early in the week. It is now more machine groomed than loose granular. I wouldn't call it packed powder, but it was not as sugar-like as earlier in the week. There are still spots of boilerplate that need to be contended with. It wasn't easy skiing, but it wasn't survival skiing either.

Oddly enough, Binney Lane had some of the most boilerplate, even though they just made snow on it. I tried a patch of corduroy on the edge and even that was frozen solid. I'm not sure if it is because they didn't let the whales dry out or what.

Dashney Mile was open and became pretty popular later in the day. Terrain park skiers don't seem to be the type who get to the mountain early.

The good news is that they have made a lot of snow on Lower Willoughby. That is thanks to perfect snowmaking weather. Lots of people were skiing on the trail through and over the whales - even though it's not officially open.

BMA was using 4/5ths of the width Lower Warren's Way. This meant that the 1/5th that everyone else was squeezed into was big time boilerplate. It was probably the worst section of the mountain today. They really need to get Lower Willoughby open to take the traffic away from the training hill.

We met a family from Massachusetts in the cafeteria. Without my even mentioning it, they went into a diatribe about how few trails were open compared to other ski areas. They made it quite clear that they would not return.

Let's hope that the rain is minimal from this upcoming storm. Things are SLOWLY improving, but they are improving. I'd hate to take a step backward.
 
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VTKilarney

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VT NEK
Ticket "line" at 9:30 AM. Notice the National Guard recruitment poster. There is one upstairs too.

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1420310171.346776.jpg


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VTKilarney

Well-known member
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Feb 5, 2014
Messages
5,553
Points
63
Location
VT NEK
It got a little busier as the day went on. My phone battery died so I don't have any photos from then. MBX was a walk on all day. SBX was at most a 4-5 chair wait. Most people on the mountain seemed to be locals or property owners.
The biggest increase in the crowd as the day went on seemed to be because of the kids program.

The cafeteria was not as busy as earlier in the week if that's any indication of how busy they were.
 
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