Offer made to buy Burke

[snoseek]

Having a single owner with deep enough pockets would be a good scenario. Get on with indy to bring more people. The amount of good sized areas not gobbled up by the large companies is dwindling fast and for the people that are tired of all that Burke would be a great alternative.

 

[Hawk]

I've been up to Burke only durng the summer to MTB. There is a faily good crowd there for bikng in the summer. The trails are very good. I bet that offsets some of the down winters.

 

[thebigo]

Interesting tidbit: apparently, the bidder only wants the ski area and not the Hotel.

In addition, the Receiver was forced to close Burke Mountain for a week in February 2023 due to a failure of the hotel heating system precipitated by record low temperatures on February 4 and 5. The heating system failure resulted in a major water incident that continues to impact resort operations. When the hotel re-opened after a week, roughly 70 percent of rooms were off the market during the critical month of February. The result included mass cancellations and impacts on all resort revenue centers for the remainder of the Reporting Period. As of April 30, repairs continue and available rooms have increased to 104 out of 116.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://jaypeakreceivership.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/DE-745-Receiver_s-Tenth-Interim-Status-Report.pdf

 

[snoseek]

I've been up to Burke only durng the summer to MTB. There is a faily good crowd there for bikng in the summer. The trails are very good. I bet that offsets some of the down winters.

Trails are good for sure but it doesn't really equate to the ski area making tons of year round money. The bike park is a fairly small sliver of the mtb scene up there the rest is kta. Town does pretty solid business that tiki bar prints money all summer.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yep. That cold snap really effed up the Hotel and Sherburne Lodge.

 

[Edd]

Yep. That cold snap really effed up the Hotel and Sherburne Lodge.

I was unaware that the lodge took damage. I stayed at the hotel maybe two weeks after the flooding occurred. I‘d guess the number of workers on site to fix the damage outnumbered the guests by 5 to 1.

 

[ss20]

Interesting tidbit: apparently, the bidder only wants the ski area and not the Hotel.

That makes sense to me. That hotel ruined what Burke could be... a very low risk ski area, imo. Only 2 lifts! 2!!! Limited snowmaking, limited grooming, limited lodge operations. With good management it could make a little money or lose a little money each year. The operation is so small it's limited in how much money it could lose.

How much money does Burke lose on a rainy day operating 2 lifts compared to Sunday River on a rainy day operating 12+ lifts?

 

[thetrailboss]

I was unaware that the lodge took damage. I stayed at the hotel maybe two weeks after the flooding occurred. I‘d guess the number of workers on site to fix the damage outnumbered the guests by 5 to 1.

I'm staying in the Hotel next week and will report. Apparently there are still rooms not in service due to the damage. It sucks because it is a nice building and it was closed during high season.

 

[abc]

BW does get a little bit more snow, but the terrain at Burke is so much more compelling for all but the novice skier.

Always amazes me that Burke isn't more popular. Only an hour further drive from metro Boston than Lincoln. 30 minutes further than Bretton Woods. Arguably better terrain and snow than both.

“Better” for whom? ”More compelling“ for what?

BW is a family mountain precisely because in a family there will be kids! So quite likely at least one novice skier. A mountain that doesn’t have room for novice will lose the business of the entire “family”.

I’ve only been to Burke twice. Both during holiday period, influenced by what people here proclaim it being un-crowded during holiday periods. Instead, I found lines just as long, if not longer, than lines for the advance terrain chairs on more popular aka “crowded” mountains!

Perhaps Burke has shorter lines for some specific group compare to BW. But for many others, it’s either a mountain with limited terrain or a mountain with limited uphill capacity.

Mind you, both time I went, condition was not all that good, both on and off piste. So I failed to find sufficient motivation to give it another try.

Never skied Loon so can’t compare.

 

[deadheadskier]

Cool story abc

Thanks

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I've been to Burke a grand total of 5 times. 5 out of 5 times their main high speed quad went down for some issue or another.

They also cater way to much to racers, who are consistently assholes to all other patrons. That isn't unique to Burke (ski racers being dbags), and I understand that keeps them afloat, but it severely limits the appeal to other customers and ties up resources at a mountain of that size. The other notably ski race mountains (Cannon, Loaf, Whiteface) are much better at managing these interactions.

Burke and Jay being tied together actually really doesn't make a lot of sense in today's modern ski industry, both for Indy affiliation and ownership. I think it does make sense for whoever lost out on Jay to try and gain a piece of the NEK market share.

amen. racers are the biggest little shitheads at any ski area on any day.

 

[Smellytele]

ABC how long ago were your horrible lines? Before Q they had the 5 minute guarantee. if you waited for more than 5 minutes your ticket was free. I have skied there 20 times or so and have never been close to 5 minutes in line.

 

[drjeff]

ABC how long ago were your horrible lines? Before Q they had the 5 minute guarantee. if you waited for more than 5 minutes your ticket was free. I have skied there 20 times or so and have never been close to 5 minutes in line.

I skied there 1 Saturday a few years ago on a 6-8" powder day and the mountain was hosting the VT U14 slalom Championships. The liftie on the upper Quad said it was their longest lines of the season thus far (and this was in early March) and I don't think the line was 3 minutes long.

Such a good mountain. Kind of reminds me a little of Magic, but with high-speed quads

 

[thetrailboss]

So I talked to an insider and know who is the group putting a bid on the Mountain AND the Hotel. The Receiver required it to be a package. The group is made up of three individual stakeholders and the thoughts about "who" would be interested is partially correct. The third stakeholder is a current resort operator and one who is not a stranger to AZ.

 

[djd66]

amen. racers are the biggest little shitheads at any ski area on any day.

The only thing worse than racers are their parents

 

[ss20]

So I talked to an insider and know who is the group putting a bid on the Mountain AND the Hotel. The Receiver required it to be a package. The group is made up of three individual stakeholders and the thoughts about "who" would be interested is partially correct. The third stakeholder is a current resort operator and one who is not a stranger to AZ.

Jim Schaefer? I've definitely read direct comments of his somewhere... can't remember if it was here or NESH or liftblog.

One of our Magic guys?

Suspense is killing me lol.

 

[cdskier]

So I talked to an insider and know who is the group putting a bid on the Mountain AND the Hotel. The Receiver required it to be a package. The group is made up of three individual stakeholders and the thoughts about "who" would be interested is partially correct. The third stakeholder is a current resort operator and one who is not a stranger to AZ.

That certainly limits the potential stakeholders a bit... Was saying "operator" instead of "owner" intentional?

 

[BenedictGomez]

I wouldn't be suprised at all if when the bidder is disclosed, if they have ties to Burke Mountain Academy as either an alum or a parent of a BMA athlete current or past.

RPT (Rich Person's Toy) was always my answer. Still is.

 

[thetrailboss]

That certainly limits the potential stakeholders a bit... Was saying "operator" instead of "owner" intentional?

Not intentional. That stakeholder was also owns multiple ski areas.

 

[RichT]

Not intentional. That stakeholder was also owns multiple ski areas.

GOD don't let it be Fail!!!!!