Burke 3/11/2012

[from_the_NEK]

I only made it to the mountain for a few hours yesterday. I was skiing with my cousin and his wife who hadn't been out on the slopes for a couple of years. So we stuck to the groomers for the mostpart.
Beautiful day with temps near 50. The first run down Willoughby was fantastic (even at 12:30 :-D ). We only encountered one other skier on that run. We then worked our way left to right across the mountain. Unfortunately we never made it over to East Bowl and I never got to go into the trees.
I'm worried about Burke making it through the next 2 weeks. The base is not very deep in a lot of places. Additionally, the loading area for the Mid-Burke lift is very exposed to the sun and heat. The groomers are going to have to get very creative to keep a track of snow running all the way to the lift .

 

[xwhaler]

I skied Burke both days this wknd with mixed results. Saturday was hardpack generally with some LSGR and loose powder? mixed in. Went over to East Bowl once on Saturday and wasn't too impressed...too much frozen cord and ice depsite the groom they did Friday night. I did make one run down Caveman (ducked the rope) coverage not as bad as I was expecting...not sure they could have had it open but not terrible either.
Saturday's run of the day was probably Upper Dipper which was very carveable and in nice shape all wknd. Did go down Sasquatch with my wife who is a newbie to glades...I'm trying to encourage her to challenge herself more and she did pretty well. Upper Powerline was fun as well with prob the loosest powder type snow on the mtn.

Apres in the Bear Den on Sat was fun with Ride and Ski NE there (I got to meet Jeff the guy who runs it) Very healthy crowd for that

Skied yesterday from 9:30 until noon. Condiinons were a tad disapointing. I had hoped that the sun and warmth would soften things up but it was not really happening. Rather than cruise more hard pack groomers and sort of go through the motions we called it at noon and made our way home. I was a tad disapointed leaving the mtn though as I wondered if by 2pm things would soften nicely and the afternoon NEK locals would have some great spring conditions. East Bowl was getting nice and soft the 2nd time we skied it about 11:30 yesterday AM though. That side of the mtn seems to get more sun.

1st time at Burke was a lot of fun. Condo worked out well, loved the new HSQ. Tamarack Grille for lunch on Sat was good. Mid Burke lodge has a pretty awful stench to it though haha.
In comparing to Saddleback (my 'home' mtn) certainly some similarities which I've heard the 2 hills compared to one another around here quite a bit. I think the type of terrain and vibe is similar to the Back. Certainly the 2 HSQ's at Burke are nice. I do prefer the trail pod setup at Saddleback. I wonder if Burke has enough terrain up top to quckly spread the masses coming off an HSQ on real busy days or when/if the new houses get put in and Burke becomes busier?
The HSQ is really the only option at this point and while it's a great lift it's the only thing servicing 100% of the terrain for intermediates and above.

Trees seemd denser on the west side (birches and jungle and were more in line with the types of glades Saddleback has. East Side glades looked more ledgy with stumps and root balls to jump off of and trees were spaced further apart. The glades seem like they would be a blast on a great day though!

Was awesome watching those kids at BMA rip down Warren's Way. Can see why BMA is so highly regarded among ski schools and producing the 50 olympians...those kids are top notch.
Stopped at Trout River on the way up Fri night. Got there about 7 and sat down right away...good crowd though...awesome pizza beer was ok but not amazing.

Will definately be back to Burke---it's a great place for families as well I think with the lower mtn lift dedicated to emerging skiers (reminded me of Saddleback's South Branch chair in this way)

 

[from_the_NEK]

Skied yesterday from 9:30 until noon. Condiinons were a tad disapointing.

You didn't wait long enough By 2:00 the corn was perfect!

Mid Burke lodge has a pretty awful stench to it though haha.

I noticed that yesterday as well. Smelled like a hockey locker room on the end closest to thte bathrooms. :blink:

The HSQ is really the only option at this point and while it's a great lift it's the only thing servicing 100% of the terrain for intermediates and above.

The plan is to move the old quad out into the East bowl area at some point. This should help spread the "crowd" out. I hoping they don't build a buch of trails over there but instead develop a glade pod something like Casablanca.

Will definately be back to Burke---it's a great place for families as well I think with the lower mtn lift dedicated to emerging skiers (reminded me of Saddleback's South Branch chair in this way)

Glad you had a good time :-D

 

[Zand]

I suppose if the runout to the HSQ melts out, they could open the old quad back up.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

I was at Burke on Saturday (first time in a few years). New lift was night and day. Lines were almost nothing until lunch, then during and after lunch they were zero, ski on (ride on in my case). I thought conditions were great considering the fact that in natural untouched areas there couldn't have been more then 6 inches of snow on the lower elevations, maybe a foot or so up top. As to East Bowl, I thought it rode really well. I treked out there around 1ish and conditions were powder/hard back bumps in areas and typical corn, Dougs was also pretty good. All in all really good day.