While at Jackson Hole, I received a comment on Facebook stating that I wasn’t missing much. As it turns out, I was missing something. I was missing some pretty shitty mid-winter conditions as evidenced by today’s attempt at skiing. Welcome home.

But don’t cry for me. After a perfectly timed trip yielded at least 6-8″ of fresh four out of five days, Jackson Hole’s summit today was in the mid-30s and the Village was in the mid-40s. I’ll take frozen hard pack over spending $1200 to travel more than halfway across the country to ski spring corn and have it freeze solid the next day. With an east coast storm lined up for later this week, the timing was as perfect as could be despite one weekend worth of setback.

Changes continue to occur at “Q Burke Mountain Resort” (hereafter to be referred to simply as Burke or Burke Mountain or Burke Mountain Resort). Despite Egomaniacs In Chief Ariel Quiros’s and Ary Quiros Jr.’s insolent changing of the official name (just try to find Burke on Snocountry.com), I am pleased to report at least one major improvement has happened at the base area, stripping away Ginn Resort’s worst efforts to clean up the riff raff. The lower floor of the Sherburne Base Lodge was gutted in favor of a day tripper and brown bag area sporting octagon tables and ample bag cubicles. The former mandatory bag check area on the main floor is now the gift shop.

Will this simple but effective change be the first and last of the positive things happening at Burke? Father & Son Quiros have big plans for the mountain following in the Jay Peak Resort “build-it-with-EB5-money-and-they-will-come” model. But at least they are self aware of the issue stating that “with big money, comes big worries about losing the mountain’s uniqueness–the Burke spirit.” The Quiros team are the latest in a long line of owners and managers that promise everything including retaining the authentic nature of the mountain. Only time will tell.

My time at Burke started late and ended early. Forgetting about the Day Light Savings time adjustment, my lazy morning turned doubly so as I didn’t leave home until the mountain had already opened. I assumed conditions were not that good so I opted to stay close to home and burn a voucher at Burke. Despite my low expectations, I still left disappointed after only a few runs.

The snow was firm and fast hard pack of a most despicable nature. Perhaps racers and those with pure carving boards might have enjoyed it. But on a pair of natural snow mid-fats that haven’t seen a tune all season, I was fairly miserable. I skied Big Dipper and Willoughby before sampling the natural snow on Fox’s Folly of which I still can’t decide whether it was better or worse. I finished the day by skiing Bear Den to the Ledges, again, not sure which was worse. Never a good sign when you are stuck trying to decide which run sucked the least rather than which one was the best. But at least it was sunny. Though not warm at all.