Burke Mountain Touring Center

Burke, Caledonia County, Vermont

“Burke Cross-Country Ski Area, East Burke, VT 05871. www.burkexc.com . 802-626-8338. 80 km trails, 70/55 km machine tracked/skating terrain. Instruction, rental. '...the miles of trails, among the best groomed in the state head into some of the prettiest and least tamed woodlands and hillsides in the Northeast Kingdom.' Here the atmosphere is noncompetitive, our focus is the quality of skiing and your awareness of the surrounding countryside. Eight main loops make up 80 km of trails to accomodate all skiing abilities. ” -Ski Vermont Magazine, 2004

Burke Mountain from Burke Hallow Area, c. 1960/1970s

Photo from UVM Landscape Change Program; submitted by Jay Taylor, source East Burke Club

Location: 753 Pinkhan Rd., East Burke, Vt. 05832

Alternate names: Burke Mountain Recreation; Sugarhouse Touring Center at Burke Mountain; Burke Cross Country Ski Area

Directory listings:1971-2008

Known operators: Gary Darling; Stanley Swaim

Today: Burke Mountain still operates an Alpine area; the ski touring center has since partnered with and operates as Kingdom Trails Nordic Center

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Cross Country Skiers in Burke through Darling State Forest, Burke Mountain in background, 1971

from UVM Landscape Change Program; originally submitted by Shelley Snyder, source Vermont State Archives and Records Administration

History

Burke Mountain has been in operation as an alpine area since 1956 and the Burke Mountain Touring Center was one of the first areas to offer commercial ski touring in the state. It has been listed in directories regular from 1971 on, only three years after Trapp Family Lodge opened the first full service ski touring center of its kind in the country. From its early days Burke hosted Fun and Sun tours and weekend-long ski clinics both led by William Lederer, author of Complete Cross Country Skiing and Ski Touring with co-author Joe Pete Wilson, and the bestelling novel turned Marlon Brando film The Ugly American which Lederer co-authored with Eugene Burdick. Burke Mountain and its Sugarhouse Touring Center also played host to numerous NASTAR races and hosted the 1977 National Cross Country Ski Championships from January 23-29, 1977.

Burke steadily maintained a 50-60 km trail system through the 1970s and 1980s and peaked by the 2000s with 80 km of trails making up eight main loops. By 2008 Burke Nordic Center had partnered with Kingdom Trails a charitable, non-profit conservation organization whose goal, according to their website, is to encourage recrational use of the Northeast Kingdom that is ecologically sensitive and promotes the natural beauty of the region. Today Kingdom Trails maintains and grooms 50 km of the former Burke Cross Country Trails, now called Dashney Farm, and an additional 20 km of trails at Darling Hill. Burke Mountain still operates as an alpine ski area and maintains a close relationship with Kingdom Trails for year round recreation along the base of the alpine area.

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See the full listing of directory entries for Burke Mountain Touring Center here.

View 2011-2012 Kingdom Trails map for Burke Nordic Trails here.