Waterville Valley and Burke 12/28 and 12/29

NeedhamSkier

New member
Skied Waterville Valley the day after they got what look liked about 6-9” out of the last storm. Coverage was good, with hero snow in most places. It was a little more blown off and icy on the (looker’s) right side of the ridge, down Tippecanoe. A few crowds – probably 10-15 minutes waits for most lifts, but not too bad. A family trip with the kids, so all easy trails. Oblivion was fun early in the day, but bumped up later. Valley Run is just a great green trail – everybody’s a downhill superstar and there are a ton of variations to keep the grown-ups happy. We did it 4 or 5 times as a family and enjoyed every second of each run. My 9 year-old was hating skiing before one of those runs and loving it after…

Headed to Burke on Saturday. No lift lines, even though it was Saturday in a peak week. Apparently it was crazy busy the day before, after the new snow, when they also had to evacuate the lodge in the middle of lunch due to a fire alarm. Kids had fun on Deer Run and Lower Dipper, and the wife and I really enjoyed Willoughby – full of character and variety. Conditions were very good – mainly packed powder (the real stuff, not the New England marketing invention of “packed powder”) with the occasional scraped-off patch. I didn’t go in the trees, but they looked a little thin still. They’ve opened up one of the mountain bike trails (trail is called Jester) on the lower mountain, which the kids wanted to do and we all thought was a blast. This is a mountain which I could definitely spend some more time at, whenever conditions are right, as it seems like it would reward some exploration, but may be a little limiting if you’re only looking for wide, easy blues. (Stayed at the Comfort Inn in St Johnsbury – they have a $189 rate with 2 lift passes for Jay or Burke which is a great deal for families)
 
NeedhamSkier":2wugs134 said:
This is a mountain which I could definitely spend some more time at, whenever conditions are right, as it seems like it would reward some exploration, but may be a little limiting if you’re only looking for wide, easy blues.
I always thought that the rolling blue-square trails are one of Burke's biggest selling points. My wife hasn't skied with me there in more than six years, but she still remembers Burke's intermediate groomers as some of her favorites in the East.
 
Agreed. Blues seem to be the trails which vary most from mountain to mountain - I was just saying that most of the blues at Burke tend towards the steeper and narrower compared to Waterville, for example, or Mount Snow/Stratton are other examples which come to mind. Which makes Burke a good hill if you enjoy that kind of trail, but maybe not so good if you have kids who are just graduating to blues, for example, when the options on the upper mountain would be limited. (I think you were saying the same thing).
 
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