Burke, VT: 03/05/05

riverc0il

New member
i have been long overdue on hitting up burke this year. unfortunately, a combination of being drawn to cannon and noticing the NEK didn't get a lot of snow this year kept me away. i hit up burke on an amazing day and was rewarded time and time again throughout the day with excellent views and superb conditions. visibility was great with bush, mansfield, and jay all visible. weather started cold but warmed up good by noon time.

morning started on impecable groomers: top to bottom on the dippers and willoughby. perfect groomed conditions that would rival even sunday river's legendary grooming. seriously folks, burke is THE BEST ski area in new england if you like cruisers at any speed. i am one to normally head for the trees and the bumps ASAP, but even i was lapping up the perfect groomed with perfect railroad tracks in the AM.

east bowl had recently been leveled, so there wasn't much natural snow to play in. but east bowl is of course a must when skiing burke regardless of the conditions, one of the best rolling trails around.

the dirt on the woods is this: :D :lol: 8) :mrgreen: \:D/

yea, i think that about sums it up. but here's some more details: there still is occasional thin cover and a few rocks showing, but for the most part, it's delightful packed pow with occasional untracked if you stuck to the edges or ventured off the beaten path. i nailed a few fresh tracks and they were heaven. hit up all the marked glades except y-knot and little chief, and hit up a few unmarked too.

outside of the woods, wilderness had some nice bumps while upper dougs was a bit scratchy. lower dougs was to die for with perfect PP bumps and great lines everywhere. wow.

back on the groomers, things got a slightly scratched off by late PM on the steeper sections, but no where near what you would experience at any other mountain. the fact that you could still find occasional shots of untouched coudoury speaks volumes. lift lines were the longest i have ever experienced at burke peaking at about 4-5 minutes! wow! most chairs were going up loaded with 4 people each, what an amazing site. i was loving it. it was pass holder appreciation day, or else the likely less than one minute wait average would have prevailed. overheard by a fellow skier was one local saying that were packing up and heading home because it was so crowded!! LOL. :lol:

probably my best non-powder day of the year with exception of mad river glen late january which was also steller.
 

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I met up with Steve and skied a run or two with him and the AZ crowd. Thanks for some woods guiding, riverc0il! Jason and I appreciated the pointers early on.

The groomers were in absolutely outstanding shape. Corduroy can be your friend, and it was a blast to let 'em run on the perfect surface. I'm pretty sure I linked up my own tracks on Lower Willoughby (!). Not something you expect to do on wide groomers... Playing SuperGS guy on the Dippers was also ridiculously fun and fast... They CARE about the 'steep blue groomer' at Burke, and make you remember how much fun such runs are..

Then there were the woods... Steve led us down the 1000' vert of Wilderness/Dixiland. Now THAT'S tree skiing. I finally got my legs under me as the day went on, and had a blast in Birches and had the best snow of the day in Throbulator. With a little poking around, it wasn't too tough to find fresh lines in the trees all day. We hit pretty much everything that was open save one or two shots.

The morning was completely bluebird, and then some wind picked up later in the day (we had a 'Welcome to Cannon' moment up top, getting pushed back a tad). Plus the comedy of the locals turning away/complaining aboute of the lines... Steve mentions that all the chairs went up full... well, riding the singles line ensured literally ZERO wait... on a 'crowded' day. Ahhh, the Kingdom.

Three times we were going to quit and head to the car, and each time one of us peeled back over to the quad instead of the Mid-Mountain lodge.

What can I say? There are a few evangelists for Burke on this board, and they're all right. See ya in the trees...
 
Great report!
I was there as well on Saturday. I was on the first chair of the morning (tall guy in the yellow coat). Like you said the groomers were great! I headed right to the Dippers and tore down that trail as fast as I could :D (first chair means there's no one below the headwalls, right?). The trail was even still lined with the fences from the races held there last week. What a rush!
I then proceeded to get lost in the many unmarked glades around the mountain. What a day. 8)
 
We must've been lazy, as we only made the third chair :wink:

I was a tad surprised that they weren't loading people up sooner.
 
I was at Burke on Sunday Feb 29. Not nearly as much snow as MRG and Stowe, but the woods there deliver.

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I also skied Burke on Saturday and all of the above is true, a fantastic ski day!

On a sad note though a Burke employee (Brian Lukas) suffered a severe arm injury while repairing the J-bar (Burke's bunny-hill lift) on Saturday. A tragic accident! I don't know Brian personally, but when seeing him around the mountain he was always very friendly.

I wish him the best in his recovery.
 
the NEK has had a really off snow year this season, and jamesdeluxe is 100% correct that other areas such as stowe and mrg have way way way more snow this season. normally burke is a jackpot for fresh tracks but this season has been tough. that said, if you weren't familiar with burke's average snowfall, you wouldn't know it was an off year skiing the woods as they are holding up great.

i found the best snow in cave man for the record, don't think i mentioned that earlier.

great to meet and ski with you TroutBum! picked a fantastic day to sample the burke woods that you missed on your last visit to burke.
 
D'OH!

That's the only one I missed over there in the 'falling off the east side' section of glades...

Oh well... I'll just have to get back up there soon..... :D
 
Great Photos!!! Pisgah, the woods, the snow!!! It's like going to a Patriot football game and then watching it on the Tube.
 
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