Burke Mountain, VT: 02/14/07

Ehm.

Now that I got that out of my system...

Boot to knee deep untracked all day with heavily snow fall filling in tracked lines within an hour or two for essentially untracked every single run from open to close. The snow (as Sharon noted in the Greek Peak thread) was a very dense type of precipitation falling in small, tight, dense crystals. Definitely not fluffy but powder all the same. It made keeping tips up a change and was certain doom if tips got submerged. After much consideration, today tipped the scales, and I am officially in the market for something fatter than my current 89mm waist Inspired Bigs.

Since Burke is very uncrowded even on a powder day and competition for trees shots is stupidly low, I spent the first hour ripping powder on the open slopes. Big Dipper \:D/ Warren's Way \:D/ Willoughby \:D/ All fantastic boot deep powder on top of a groomed surface. Open em' up and let em' fly. Ledges to Fox's was \:D/ and then into the trees I finally went with Dixieland opening things up with more \:D/ boot to knee deep with deeper drifts. The balls deep drifts were a pain though due to the dense consistency of the snow. Point em' steep!

The Jungle \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ was awesome. Approaching what I later estimated was at least a 15 foot cliff, I wondered how the landing was that I could not see and just how big the drop was. I didn't wonder long. That was about twice as big as I have ever gone and I stuck it with style :D More knee deep, a face shot, and my first trip into the powder room.

How about Birches? \:D/ How about knee deep? How about so deep I got stuck because it was only about 15-20 degrees on some knee deep sections with particularly deep snow. How about who even needs to go off the map when I am going knee deep untracked in an on the map glade at noon time!

I found a particularly amazing tree shot that got a few repetitions. The quotes from above mostly were screamed in that glade with knee deep and amazing lines between some fine upstanding birch trees. Hiking in the Summer sure pays off \:D/

My pot of gold was an elevator shaft like run off the map that I have been eying for a while now. Steep and Deep! I left it until 3 P.M. so it was a great way to end the day. Speaking of ending the day.... Willoughby, one of Burke's most well known and frequently skied trails, for my final run skied just like my first. Boot deep untracked. I could not even tell other skiers had been on the upper section.

So it looks about like two feet of snow so far at Burke with the storm still cranking. Everything is open except for the middle section of Fox's Folly. Watch out for snow snakes in Birches and The Jungle as the snow has covered up many obstacles not yet buried.
 
Impressive that you would stop long enough to take pics on a day like this. I was too piggy 6 years ago at Baldy to do that, once I got on the mountain at 11:30AM.
 
Indeed. I get winded quite easily though, so stopping for pics occasionally both allows for deeper breathing to control the heart rate and also to fully enjoy the experience. If I stopped for pictures a half dozen times for two minutes each, that may or may not be one additional chair. Besides, not like I had to worry about any one else tracking up my lines :lol:
 
It was definitely as good as Riverc0il is making it out to be. My Dawn Patrol at Burke this morning was amazing. I wish I could have stayed all day :D

River... was it getting pretty tracked out by the end of the day?
 
I assume you are referring to today? :lol: Completely tracked out. I dropped through those trees I PM'd you about that I thought would be really good in the A.M. for your dawn patrol and they were completely tracked out. Couldn't believe it! Pretty much everything was well tracked by end of day including the lesser known stuff. No worries, I still found some and got mine for the day! :D
 
awf170":b0hbxgp8 said:
Wow...
http://thesnowway.com/gallery/main.php/ ... 9.jpg.html

I'm scared of what the skiing was like if even that picture doesn't do justice.
Well considering that shot was taken around 3:15 P.M. on a marked in bounds trail... :D I think that is the most impressive aspect of yesterday. I have skied deeper powder and I have skied knee deep blower which is a much better consistency and more fun for powder turns. But I have never skied open to closed untracked every run.
 
Those trees you were refering to in the PM were where we went this morning so there were 6 sets of tracks going down them before the lifts even openned. It was SWEET! Sounds like I have to get REALLY creative this weekend :)
 
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