Burke Announces HSQ and Other Improvements

[Hado226]

Hiked up Burke Saturday. New poles are mostly set (there is still one cache of poles side of the road), new conductors strung about half-way down from the top.

Lots of work to do before snow flies,

 

[Telemechanic]

Burke is posting construction pictures on its facebook page, nothing exciting yet but hopefully more will come later. The album seems to be public, non-fb memebers should be able to see.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150365374458023.411211.303348433022&type=1

 

[from_the_NEK]

Burke is posting construction pictures on its facebook page, nothing exciting yet but hopefully more will come later. The album seems to be public, non-fb memebers should be able to see.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150365374458023.411211.303348433022&type=1

I just saw those. They are all older than the ones I took almost a month ago. But it is promising that they are getting the word out.

 

[riverc0il]

I think the Power Line is one of the few lines at Burke I haven't skied yet. Unless local wood chucks have been busy these past two seasons creating even more woodsy goodness.

 

[thetrailboss]

Just got this Email. Confirms Jester is the same as the Kingdom Trails trail:

Summer's winding down, and we're getting excited thinking about how soon winter will be here. Which leads to us getting nervous thinking about how soon winter will be here and how much work needs to be done. This seems truer this season than any in the recent past as we've been hard at work since the end of last season with some major mountain improvements.

Probably the most anticipated of our improvements is a brand-new, high-speed quad to the summit. Our newest lift, the Mid Burke Express is under construction and is targeted for a mid-December opening. So instead of 14 minutes on the Willoughby, you'll go from just below the Mid Burke Lodge to the summit in half the time, giving you more time on the snow instead of over it. Follow us on Facebook for updates, pictures and more about the new lift as construction continues.

Powering the new lift is our own wind turbine. Located just above the Dipper Trails, the turbine was completed last month and is already producing renewable energy (up to 20% of the mountain's total needs).

While we were up there, we decided to go ahead and name five new intermediate and expert trails, including Jester, a new summer mountain-bike trail which will serve as a terrain park trail in the winter.

We're sure you have questions. We'll be holding a community event on Thursday, September 22nd, or find us at the Fall Foliage Festival Sept. 24 or at the Burke Mountain Music Festival that afternoon, and we'll be happy to answer everything we can. We'll even share some plans for next season and beyond.

I couldn't be more excited, both as a skier/rider and as the GM of the mountain, about the new lift, the turbine, the new trails and this next exciting chapter in the mountain's history.

Hope to see you on the mountain,


Tim McGuire
General Manager

 

[from_the_NEK]

The new liftline will be fun though... should be a longer steep pitch than Fox's and easier to open with less rocks.

I went up this weekend to check out the progress (unfortunately, I haven't update the blog yet :roll. I hiked up the new line from the bottom of Doug's Drop to the top of the Poma. Unless they do something creative with the rock they blasted out for the lift tower bases, there are going to be quite a few rocks (some are rather large and pointy) in the lift line. It does have a better falline than Fox's Folly with only big headwall/roll partway down (also the location of a lift tower).
What this section of Rerun used to look like:

 

[Zand]

Forgot that the blasting would turn up rocks in the trail. I always skied that glade earlier than any other glade on the mountain because there weren't many big rocks to hit but it makes sense that that won't really be the case now.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think it is fair to say that those rocks will probably be removed at some point.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I think it is fair to say that those rocks will probably be removed at some point.

I wouldn't count on it as it is very hard to get in there with equipment.

 

[from_the_NEK]

Looking up the new Rerun trail from between two future lift towers:

Saturday was also a beautiful day for this:

There was a swarm of Hang-gliders and Parasailers over the mountain. One parasail had to easily have been up over 4000'.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Looking up the new Rerun trail from between two future lift towers:

Those are not friends of my ski bases:-x:-x:-x:-x

 

[from_the_NEK]

Those are not friends of my ski bases:-x:-x:-x:-x

Keep in mind this is immediately after blasting and the lift line is in a very raw state. I am willing to bet a lot of this rock is used to back fill the tower footings.Hopefully the crew tries to repile remaining rocks in a more ski base friendly fashion.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I've also updated the blog. Can the title of this thread be changed to "Now official - Burke HSQ Updates"?

 

[Smellytele]

I know I read it some where but what will become of the Willoughby Quad? Scrapped? moved over to east bowl?

 

[thetrailboss]

I know I read it some where but what will become of the Willoughby Quad? Scrapped? moved over to east bowl?

Staying in place for the immediate future. BTW I was in downtown Rutland and on the side of a building next to the Price Chopper there was a giant mural of the Willoughby Quad with a single snowboarder on it. Apparently this is a part of an art exhibit or something. Interesting.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I know I read it some where but what will become of the Willoughby Quad? Scrapped? moved over to east bowl?

Currently, it is staying where it is and it will probably run on "busy" weekends. The rumor (and IMHO, what makes sense) is that it will be moved to East Bowl when that phase of "expansion" starts. I don't think they will need that much capacity over there, but it is probably cheaper/easier than buying a new lift.

Move process =
1. Get the new lift line prepped and footings set.
2. Take chairs and haul rope down
3. Bring in Heli
4. Fly towers 1 by one to new resting places
5. Base and summit terminals moved by surface vehicles.
a. The summit terminal would only have to move ~350 feet
6. Restring the rope and chairs

It would make for a rather fun double falline liftline trail

 

[thetrailboss]

Currently, it is staying where it is and it will probably run on "busy" weekends. The rumor (and IMHO, what makes sense) is that it will be moved to East Bowl when that phase of "expansion" starts. I don't think they will need that much capacity over there, but it is probably cheaper/easier than buying a new lift.

Move process =
1. Get the new lift line prepped and footings set.
2. Take chairs and haul rope down
3. Bring in Heli
4. Fly towers 1 by one to new resting places
5. Base and summit terminals moved by surface vehicles.
a. The summit terminal would only have to move ~350 feet
6. Restring the rope and chairs

It would make for a rather fun double falline liftline trail

I'm not sure it would be even moved or reused. A good number of the towers are from the original 1966 Willoughby Double, so they are now 45 years old. Assuming that they pass x-ray inspection for fatigue cracks and are deemed worthwhile, they will need to be modified for the new route. I was actually interested to learn, from the Ascutney debacle, from other folks that each lift is uniquely engineered for the terrain it covers. As we learned that any relocation and modification ends up being an expensive proposition. The rumor has always been that the old quad would be relocated. I just don't know if it is worth it now.

A good case study I think would be the Middlebury Worth Mountain Double that was completely replaced in 2009 with a brand new lift, top to bottom. In that case the concrete foundations were giving way on this lift built in the 1960's, even after some rebuilding by CTEC in the 1980's. Sound familiar? The lift, and all components, were scrapped. I imagine the same foundation problems will eventually plague the Willoughby and the mountain will just take it down altogether. I'm not a lift engineer, so Telemechanic, please set us straight! :wink:

That said, the recent ownership, including Burke 2000, have done a good job maintaining it. Previous creditors...err...owners did not know WTF to do and caused problems.

 

[from_the_NEK]

I actually kinda liked Powerline being off the map... always a better option for hitting the glades in the bowl than Sasquatch. The new liftline will be fun though... should be a longer steep pitch than Fox's and easier to open with less rocks.

On a related note, Fox's Folly may no longer get scraped into oblivion as badly as it did now that it is no longer under the primary lift. This may result in cleaner, powderier lines there

 

[from_the_NEK]

I'm not sure it would be even moved or reused. A good number of the towers are from the original 1966 Willoughby Double, so they are now 45 years old. Assuming that they pass x-ray inspection for fatigue cracks and are deemed worthwhile, they will need to be modified for the new route. I was actually interested to learn, from the Ascutney debacle, from other folks that each lift is uniquely engineered for the terrain it covers. As we learned that any relocation and modification ends up being an expensive proposition. The rumor has always been that the old quad would be relocated. I just don't know if it is worth it now.

A good case study I think would be the Middlebury Worth Mountain Double that was completely replaced in 2009 with a brand new lift, top to bottom. In that case the concrete foundations were giving way on this lift built in the 1960's, even after some rebuilding by CTEC in the 1980's. Sound familiar? The lift, and all components, were scrapped. I imagine the same foundation problems will eventually plague the Willoughby and the mountain will just take it down altogether. I'm not a lift engineer, so Telemechanic, please set us straight! :wink:

That said, the recent ownership, including Burke 2000, have done a good job maintaining it. Previous creditors...err...owners did not know WTF to do and caused problems.

The Ascutney lift line had a concave shape. Ascutney HSQ lift line Elevation profile:

Burke Mtn has a generally Convex shape.
Mid-Burke Express lift line Elevation profile:

Willoughby lift line Elevation profile:

East Bowl (proposed) lift line Elevation profile:

I totally believe that each lift is specifically engineered. However, in the case of trying to re-use a lift with a completely different overall geometry is more difficult than re-using a lift that is pretty much exactly the same required length and has nearly the same geometry. Granted those towers are old and a couple may need to be replaced. A few of the sheaves sets may need to be redone/replaced as well.

I don't know much about the Middlebury Worth Mountain Double but i don't think that it is a good example of the overall picture here. You're talking about a 50 year old lift vs a 20 year old lift (other than the towers and footings). Obviously the concrete footings would not be re-used in the East Bowl. If the current Willoughby footings are becoming unstable, it would be in the mtns best interest to move the lift before it becomes a costly repair or complete decommissioning of the lift.

 

[steamboat1]

I'm not an engineer & don't know squat about the feasibility of moving lifts. I do however know of a few lifts that were moved from there original location to another location. I'm sure there are more examples that I either don't know or forgot about. Just off the top of my head.

*Original Killington Peak double chair was moved to & was the first chair installed in the Needles Eye area.

*Original Green Mountain Express at Mt. Ellen was moved to & became the North Ridge Express.Lift names may be wrong but I'm sure some know what I'm talking about.

*The replacement triple chair for the Green Mountain Express ( the one that only went as far as the bottom of the North Ridge Quad at Mt. Ellen) was moved to & replaced the upper poma on the south side of Sugarbush.

SurgarLoaf re-installed the old Wifiltree fixed grip quad to the top ridge of the mountain. I think it's call Timberline lift now.

*Hunter Mountain is re-installing this year the old HSQ on the front face of the mountain over to the West Side after replacing the lift on the front side with a new six pack last year. They removed the 2 old slow double chairs that were on the West side

These are just a few examples & like I said I'm sure there are more.