March 11, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Burke is a throwback with a future

by Tony Chamberlain/

Burke Mountain is also home to Burke Mountain Academy, with students called

Burke Mountain is also home to Burke Mountain Academy, with students called

This is the time of year when we hear more and more the term “winter mix” in the forecast, which means basically rain in the snow. And when it’s not winter mixing, the sun is blasting down on the snow creating that sometimes delightful condition known as corn snow.

At any rate, this is the season I head far north and look for trees. That takes me back to one of the biggest small (or is it smallest big) areas in New England: Burke Mountain in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Burke has come a long way since the days of surface lifts and crude warming shelters, though as it moves ahead with its new development plan that includes new lodging, lifts and terrain, Burke remains a wonderfully intimate throwback.

This is no insult or slight. Burke’s new management has made it very clear that despite the inevitable growth, the area will never be in a chase after Killington, Okemo or Stratton. Rather, skiers and riders have an experience that “feels like you have the trail to yourself.”

That is certainly how Burke felt to me the first time I skied it a couple of decades ago, and how it still feels. Sort of. But the point is this is no small mountain. With more than 2,000 feet of vertical and a diversity of 45 trail, slope and woods offerings covering 250 acres, you never have the feeling that you’re going to run out of new or challenging offerings.

Like the Carrabassett kids you find zooming all over Sugarloaf, here you’ll encounter the “Burkies” from Burke Mountain Academy, one of those remote mountain schools that turns out world-class and even Olympic ski racers.

Cruisers at Burke will already feel the benefits of the area’s new investment in snowmaking and grooming as they crank up the looping turns down Willoughby and Big Dipper. These are long, undulating runs that look out on the profound beauty of the Kingdom.

For bumpsters, give Fox’s Folly and Doug’s Drop a try and then head for the woods on Dixieland and The Jungle. It’s here that, as with Jay Peak and Smugglers, you find the real joy of those 250 inches of natural snowfall in the northern Green Mountains.

Of course, the academy — which bought the mountain when it fell into bankruptcy and then sold it to Ginn Development Company — makes sure the terrain park is up to modern competitive standards.

With all the new lodging, restaurants and retail shops, along with the health club expansion, doubtless Burke does not and will not always feel like ye olde days. In a way, Burke, like Maine’s Saddleback, is one of those sleeping giants that is waking up decades after Okemo and Sunday River made similar transitions.

Will all the reassurances that this unique area will not wake up to resemble every other modern mass-marketed area, growth is growth and will certainly alter the feel of Burke. But for right now, the spring sun is high, the snow is deep and the lift/lodging packages are extremely favorable this season.

E-MAIL PRINT