Date(s) Skied: March 1-2, 2006
Resort or Ski Area: Burke Mountain, VT
Conditions: PP/P/FG
Trip Report: Decided to take a few days on my break to head home to Burke. Two great days.
Wednesday, March 1st I pulled in around 10:45am or so and found the place to be empty :blink: This was odd considering that it was school vacation week for Vermont, but after boarding the Willoughby Quad I learned one reason why it was so quiet: it was frickin' freezing!
The first ride was a cold, dark, windy ride up. In my rush out the door, I had decided to grab Ms. Trailboss' new bootheater packs since my boots are pre-wired and was I so glad that I did :beer: They worked great. Even with my warm layers on, the cold air cut through the seams and drafts.
First run was down Carriage Road...in great shape...and then down Lower Powderhorn. The latter was getting scratchy, but doable. I then hit the POMA and did Warren's before the BMA crew arrived. Warren's was windblown, but edgeable. It was about this time that the sun began to shine and warm things up a bit.
Riding up the lift, I decided to hit East Bowl seeing that it had been groomed the day before. No regrets. Best snow on the mountain and great cover. The last pitch was scratchy, but skiable. This was the run of the day--hit it four times during the afternoon. I also managed to ski pretty much everything else that was open. The Dippers were in good shape and my Camper's Carry-Willoughby spin was nice. Lower Fox's and Bear Den were good as always and they did a great job blowing snow on Shoot and Upper Fox's.
I stepped into my rock skis and went nuts. Wilderness had some scratchy spots, but soft pow bumps to be had on the sides. Mountain Marsh had just reopened and was surprisingly soft and skiable. A few :blink: spots, but not bad. Little Dipper I guess is a complete loss this winter and I don't know why I also did not ski Sasqwatch.
It was cold and windy, but I managed to get some good skiing in. Good snow and no crowds. Took some pics and dropped the skis off at the mountain's shop for an overnight tune. Great guys down there in the shop and Ginn did a nice job renovating the rental and repair shop.
Thursday, March 2nd: I pulled into the Lower Mountain Parking lot with Big and Rich "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" blasting on the radio...I was back to my redneck roots I guess you can say :lol: Grabbed the boards from the shop, checked my bags in (all of them) and boarded the HSQ for MidBurke. The sun was breaking through the clouds and revealing some nice views, so I made a quick spin back to the lodge to grab my camera. Edge-to-edge groomed on the lower mountain...the place was in tip-top shape.
Headed to the top and took Shoot down to Upper Warren's. The view was incredible...and Upper Warren's was sweeeetttt. Soft groomed pow everywhere. I hit it three times...run of the day. Next was a quick spin down East Bowl, which was not as nice as the day before, and then Carriage Road-Dippers, which were in great shape. It was much warmer today and the sun brought people out in droves to ski Burke (well, relatively speaking :wink: ). The POMA was the way to go in the morning before the racers came.
In the afternoon I skied with my sister and her boyfriend, EC, a member of my high school alma mater's ski team. My school was fortunate enough to have Burke as their training grounds and there is quite a ski legacy at my school....with at least 10 state titles and another 10 New England Titles. Needless to say that EC and CS were great skiers. We first did Carriage Road and Dippers....which were nice. The sun was shining and the snow was soft. We found the same hero snow on Warren's. Not a better way to spend Spring Break Next run was down Willoughby (with me hitting Upper Bear Den first) before hightailing it to the lower mountain to check out the Dashney Terrain Park. EC and I then did a run down Powderhorn before taking a break.
We both grabbed our rock skis while my sister stayed to the very well covered groomed runs (in top shape). EC and I first hit Wilderness-Powderhorn-Mountain Marsh to find some soft snow in between some ice. The cover was a bit more tracked out than on Wednesday. We also did a run down Bear Den and Willoughby before they called it quits.
I did one last run down East Bowl and then two cool-downs on the lower mountain before leaving the mountain....with NPR playing I might add :wink:
Great couple days, great service, Burke is my mountain.
P.S. Though I was driving a green car and I was wearing my Burke hat on the way home, I WAS NOT the guy who ripped off the Rite Aid (radio said there was an APB out for a guy driving a similar green car with no license plates, and wearing a Burke hat!) :lol:
Resort or Ski Area: Burke Mountain, VT
Conditions: PP/P/FG
Trip Report: Decided to take a few days on my break to head home to Burke. Two great days.
Wednesday, March 1st I pulled in around 10:45am or so and found the place to be empty :blink: This was odd considering that it was school vacation week for Vermont, but after boarding the Willoughby Quad I learned one reason why it was so quiet: it was frickin' freezing!
The first ride was a cold, dark, windy ride up. In my rush out the door, I had decided to grab Ms. Trailboss' new bootheater packs since my boots are pre-wired and was I so glad that I did :beer: They worked great. Even with my warm layers on, the cold air cut through the seams and drafts. First run was down Carriage Road...in great shape...and then down Lower Powderhorn. The latter was getting scratchy, but doable. I then hit the POMA and did Warren's before the BMA crew arrived. Warren's was windblown, but edgeable. It was about this time that the sun began to shine and warm things up a bit.
Riding up the lift, I decided to hit East Bowl seeing that it had been groomed the day before. No regrets. Best snow on the mountain and great cover. The last pitch was scratchy, but skiable. This was the run of the day--hit it four times during the afternoon. I also managed to ski pretty much everything else that was open. The Dippers were in good shape and my Camper's Carry-Willoughby spin was nice. Lower Fox's and Bear Den were good as always and they did a great job blowing snow on Shoot and Upper Fox's.
I stepped into my rock skis and went nuts. Wilderness had some scratchy spots, but soft pow bumps to be had on the sides. Mountain Marsh had just reopened and was surprisingly soft and skiable. A few :blink: spots, but not bad. Little Dipper I guess is a complete loss this winter and I don't know why
I also did not ski Sasqwatch. It was cold and windy, but I managed to get some good skiing in. Good snow and no crowds. Took some pics and dropped the skis off at the mountain's shop for an overnight tune. Great guys down there in the shop and Ginn did a nice job renovating the rental and repair shop.
Thursday, March 2nd: I pulled into the Lower Mountain Parking lot with Big and Rich "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" blasting on the radio...I was back to my redneck roots I guess you can say :lol: Grabbed the boards from the shop, checked my bags in (all of them) and boarded the HSQ for MidBurke. The sun was breaking through the clouds and revealing some nice views, so I made a quick spin back to the lodge to grab my camera. Edge-to-edge groomed on the lower mountain...the place was in tip-top shape.
Headed to the top and took Shoot down to Upper Warren's. The view was incredible...and Upper Warren's was sweeeetttt. Soft groomed pow everywhere. I hit it three times...run of the day. Next was a quick spin down East Bowl, which was not as nice as the day before, and then Carriage Road-Dippers, which were in great shape. It was much warmer today and the sun brought people out in droves to ski Burke (well, relatively speaking :wink: ). The POMA was the way to go in the morning before the racers came.
In the afternoon I skied with my sister and her boyfriend, EC, a member of my high school alma mater's ski team. My school was fortunate enough to have Burke as their training grounds and there is quite a ski legacy at my school....with at least 10 state titles and another 10 New England Titles. Needless to say that EC and CS were great skiers. We first did Carriage Road and Dippers....which were nice. The sun was shining and the snow was soft. We found the same hero snow on Warren's. Not a better way to spend Spring Break
Next run was down Willoughby (with me hitting Upper Bear Den first) before hightailing it to the lower mountain to check out the Dashney Terrain Park. EC and I then did a run down Powderhorn before taking a break. We both grabbed our rock skis while my sister stayed to the very well covered groomed runs (in top shape). EC and I first hit Wilderness-Powderhorn-Mountain Marsh to find some soft snow in between some ice. The cover was a bit more tracked out than on Wednesday. We also did a run down Bear Den and Willoughby before they called it quits.
I did one last run down East Bowl and then two cool-downs on the lower mountain before leaving the mountain....with NPR playing I might add :wink:
Great couple days, great service, Burke is my mountain.
P.S. Though I was driving a green car and I was wearing my Burke hat on the way home, I WAS NOT the guy who ripped off the Rite Aid (radio said there was an APB out for a guy driving a similar green car with no license plates, and wearing a Burke hat!) :lol:
