Burke, VT: 12.20.03

riverc0il

riverc0il

New member
wait wait... did i just type 12.20.03 in the subject line? the sickest december ever continues and i pointed my vehicle towards burke mountain in VT figuring they'd have the second best snow in new england this weekend, bested only by jay. i was not disappointed with the snow nor my wise decision. <BR> <BR>all trails were open except big dipper (blowing snow) and warren's way (racing). cover was incredible for december after only one week of operation. the woods were incredible, the natural snow trails were great... just awesome snow quality. i just wish i was in mid-season form!!! much sucking of wind and burning thighs were had! <BR> <BR>arrived at 9:30am and warmed up on some cruisers which all had excellent groomed snow. willoughby earned best snow on a groomed trail honors, just awesome. <BR> <BR>after warming up, hit wilderness to lews leap with awesome snow! light powdery snow over a solid base! awesome small bump action and a quality steep. doug's drop hadn't formed quality bumps yet, but quality snow. lower dugs also featured natural snow and some nice small fluffy bumps. <BR> <BR>fox's folly was up next under the quad which kicked my butt. snow was variable between powdah, tracked fresh, and occasional scraped. found two guys i know from an online forum riding the lift up while skiing down! small world! <BR> <BR>we hooked up for some epic trips into the woods. sasqwatch was first up and is simply a wooded play ground! like seriously, it's a hall of mirrors with so many different lines to cut up. then dixieland which must have clocked in around 1200' vert feet non-stop of killer trees and bumps. <BR> <BR>after lunch at the mid-burke, to the other side of the mountain we went for back to back runs down jungle/birches (mislabeled on the slope or map?). incredible! cover was perfect with light fluff! nicely spaced trees for my newbie tree skiing lack of skills. twice my skiing companions called out for me "hello mr. tree!" <BR> <BR>back to the other side for cave man, featuring excellent snow and some geological treats. the only natural snow trail to feature incomplete cover, but still an awesome trail! then throbulator which had the least touched snow on the mountain, with occasional pockets of fresh. <BR> <BR>for last run, we spotted an unmarked tree stash just before doug's drop which was tight and unforgiving despite the good cover. then back to lew's leap for my run of the day. finally hit my stride and got the legs going for the last run and my run of the day! pssssssah!! <BR> <BR>only thing that stunk about today's snow was it was TOO good! i was sucking wind and not properly conditioned, so desipte the great snow... i was too busy sucking wind to be able to truly enjoy it! don't get me wrong... it was excellent snow and excellent skiing!! but i longed to be able to ski it like superman such as i might in a month or two. <BR> <BR>two more converts to the awesome skiing at burke as my skiing companions made their first turns there today. it was a wikked pissah day of skiing!
 
Very nice Riverc0il !!!! <BR> <BR>I guess the Dixieland is the long long glade between Caveman and East Bowl ? They put the names of the """new""" glades on their websites, but they didn't replaced the trail map... <BR> <BR>I skied this one last year on the FTO day and it was truly awesome ! <BR> <BR>This december is really crazy ! Too bad I missed the first part, but what an awesome day I got yesterday... and I hope to have the same kind tomorrow at Shefford (I more and more think that I'm going to go, before the <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> of next week) <BR> <BR>Alta finally just opens tuesday. I hope they won't be touched by <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> or fr <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> ! <BR> <BR>(gotta say that the red points are voluntary ! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)">)
 
if that line off of doug's is skiers left , i know which one u r talking about and it is a killer line if u can keep ur head up and see the line through, no doubt... that place has lots of killer unadvertised lines in the forest!!! i always thought burke was a nugget of n.england....it seems like it's in one of those areas that is to far from boston and too far from frank's country to bring in a lot of skiers .. good for crowds... bad for revenue... my only beef with burke is their tendency to not run the poma at all times and i'd be lying if i said it didn't bug the s*#t out of me...it's so much faster than that quad.. i don't expect burke to invest in a 1 to 2 million dollar hsq.. but not running the poma at all times for the public is , in my opinion not reasonable
 
As you say, Joe, there is quite a lack of crowd on the mountain ! <BR> <BR>95% ofthe people would prefer the quad to the Poma, unfortunately... especially as many trails are not accessible by the poma. So if they just have the money to operate 1 lift (which is probably their case, midweek at least), it's normal to only operate the quad, IMO (may be it's the university brainwash ?) <BR> <BR>Seriously, Sherbrooke, Rock Forest, Deauville, Lennoxville, Magog, etc (around 200-250K people with those neighbour cities) are not very far from Burke... the problem is more that this people already have Orford, Owl's Head, Jay Peak, Sutton, Bromont, Glen and Shefford to offer good skiing in the region.... <BR> <BR>Now that they accept canadian currency at par, they could attract more canadians !! <BR> <BR>Me too I took this glade last year and it was nice ! The one on right (looking down) of the Doug's Drop was quite nice too ... a wild one !
 
doug's drop is off carriage road before it turns off to doug's drop. it's above and skier's right of the poma. the tree shot was skier's right of where doug's begins. <BR> <BR>the funny thing is, burke is not far from boston! only three hours straight shot up 93! MRG, the bush, stowe, river, etc. are all further away! about the same drive time as the cat, kmart, okemo, etc. people look at burke on a map and see it on the canadian border, but it's all highway. <BR> <BR>fwiw, i've been to burke 6 times or so and never not seen the poma running. they usually have it turning for the racers. the BMA practices mid-week and the mountain usually hosts a race during the weekend. i actually prefer the quad even though it's slower since i like to sit and enjoy skiing from the summit. also, you get to met and converse with the friendly locals on the chair!
 
I agree with rivercoil, i have been about 6 or 7 times and the puma has always been running. Plus I like trail number 1(dont know the name) when it is not groomed. Along the edge of the trail there is some really nice fall line glades plus some nice drop offs(not as good as la reserve looked). But ya i like riding the quad because I can get to that trail. Plus you can cut from the main mountain to trail number 1 through a forest type thing that has some really good dense trees. Burke is one of my favorites right up there with cannon and ragged. Its the ski areas that dont try to be everything for everyone that turn out to be the best.
 
Ok, Steve... it's the one I thought... according to the description ! <BR> <BR>it was figuring on the trail map, so I tried to spot it, but I was sure it was beginning in the #5 (is it deer run ?)... so I had to hike back when I saw that there was no entrance. I finally found it in the Doug's Drop. Very nice wild spot ! <BR> <BR>Agree 100% with Salida for Burke... it's a very nice one, cause it's not a disneyland for ski. <BR> <BR>La Réserve... hmmmm <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)">.... <BR> <BR>The East Bowl (#1) is a super nice one. I loved it even though it was partially groomed. It should be AMAZING when it's not groomed at all. I don't care for the ¾ mile of walking after... <BR> <BR>FYI : the only time I went, the poma wasn't running.... but it was below 0F, so the crowd was really minimal !
 
Not only is east bowl awesome terrain if you drop in from number 2(wilderness) it is awesome skiing. Plus the view from east bowl is spectacular. I am a huge fan of burke just because it is so laid back with awesome terrain. It really doesnt matter that the tow takes 10 mintues because the skiing is worth it. There are so many unmarked tree shots at burke. Another good line is between 3 and 13 (powder horn and upper dipper) then if you follow that line it leads you to some nice unmarked glades. <BR>porter
 
I didn't know that one ! <BR>Hey... is it me or suddenly, we talk of off-piste spots right on the web ? <BR> <BR>View from "Wilderness" (near East Bowl) <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/2508/1843.jpg"> nice view !!</A> <BR>(from last year on FTO day !)
 
frank, the woods shot in question above is not on the map (not sure if we're all on the same page on this one). <BR> <BR>salida, east bowl is only accessable from the summit... unless you know a secret shot i don't know about! lol. from wilderness you can drop into some glades that dump you out at the east bowl run out, but not the trail itself. east bowl is definitely a GEM when ungroomed with fresh snow! so remote, and a nice rolling double fall line. <BR> <BR>in any case, some incredible terrain and snow and trees for sure!
 
thanks for the pic frank, and I talked of the off piste but the really good ones I dont give directions to. But if you look hard enough at any ski area you are bound to find some excellent off piste skiing. <BR> <BR>porter
 
Salida... those off-pistes are on the trail map this year, I think !! <BR> <BR>Steve : when I said "on the trail map", I meant that it was shown, but not marked as a trail... <BR> <BR>May be they changed the map... or it's not the one I thought, although it's looking quite similar, considering the description !
 
i only made it to burke 3 times last year.. 2 of the 3... the poma was closed.. 2 tuesdays and 1 wednesday... asked about it once and was told in a laughing manner... " there's nobody here " .. i gotta disagree with frank about what it gets you... i think it gets you just about everything on the front face with some traversing and maybe a step up or 2, with about a loss of about 15 to 20% of the vert ... i'l give that up for the 7 to 8 min ride up
 
You lose : East Bowl, The 2 super glades on the top of this area (dixieland and is it Sasquatch ?), Wilderness, Carriage Road (was cool last year), The top of Fox Folly with the 3-4 narrow runs in that place. I guess it's possible to reach the Willoughby to ski the 2 big glades almost out of the boundaries... Ok, you can access to most of the terrain, but missing East Bowl, Dixieland and Wilderness is a big miss, IMO.
 
the way burke is layed out, you miss a lot of trail possibilities by taking the poma. you could traverse and/or do some hiking to access those trails, but i hate traversing when a lift will suite me fine. <BR> <BR>wilderness, and the glades skiers right are reason enough to take the quad for me. also, burke skis big, so you miss more skiing than only a few hundred feet might indicate. but i could understand wanting to ski the poma as you get more runs in more quickly that way. but part of burke for me has always been slowing down a bit.
 
the slow q is not as problematic as it normally would be becasue of no lift lines, so i agree with you, slowing down is not really that bad... but that ride really is longer than most lifts in new england ... if that q was getting the terrain of mad river, i could take it all day no problem...i just like having the poma as an option to pound out some .... but i don't ski burke enough to really complain about the policy, i guess.. plus complaining about a still poma is like complaining about a lack of bump runs... too tough and too much work, so nobody cares... :-) .. ps next time ur there look to skier's left off of doug's for that line...you have to drop in about 250 feet down, and it's super tight goin in, but it's really nice if u can find the line
 
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