Greensboro, News, Skiing, Sports

Family Appreciates the Burke Mountain Experience

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GREENSBORO – Colin Koch and his family live south of Boston and regularly make the trip to Burke Mountain, bypassing closer Vermont and New Hampshire ski resorts because they appreciate the small size and family atmosphere offered at Burke.

Nelle Koch, 6, (front from left) has just finished making art with her sisters Viv, 12, and Celia, 9 and their grandmother Nancy Riege (left rear) in the Greensboro Town Hall studio Riege shares with The Hardwick Gazette. Colin Koch (right rear) and his family were headed to Burke where he had an appointment to talk with a realtor about purchasing a place of their own. photo by Paul Fixx

Koch’s three daughters, who had just finished making art in their grandmother’s Greensboro studio, agreed, “we love that mountain,” said Nelle, 6, the youngest of them. Her sisters Celia, 9, and Viv, 12, agreed.

Colin Koch grew up south of Burlington, in Charlotte. His wife Emma grew up near Brattleboro with her parents Nancy Riege and Anthony Acheson, who now live in Greensboro. The Koch family has been making the drive to ski at Burke on winter weekends for the past five or six years, where they’ve stayed in rented accommodations.

Before discovering Burke, the family stayed at Highland Lodge, then the Lakeview Inn with other couples, often having the place to themselves.

Ideally the manager of Burke would be someone who knows the mountain and wants to keep it like it is, but has the financial resources to keep it going, said Colin. “We’d rather not have someone like Vail Resorts come in and create some kind of monster development. . . Leaving it like it is, but building it up where necessary and taking care of it,” would be his preference.

“It’s a unique, special mountain, he said. Riege added, “but don’t tell people to come to it,” because she likes it that way, adding that Burke is “kind of like a smaller Smuggs.” Smuggs is great, she said, “but nothing like Burke.”It’s a matter of finding the right entity” to take it on. “All the local skiers should go there.”

“Finding the right person who wants to take care of it and financially gain from it, but not go over the top and change the kind of culture there,” would be ideal, Colin said.

He’d signed a petition on change.org to which 750 signatures have been added, urging the Miami, Fla. judge controlling the property’s finances to change the manner in which the resort is being sold to “a more conventional market listing, allowing a fair and impartial ground for potential buyers.” The petition had gained another 55 signatures over the weekend, showing 805 Monday evening.

Friday afternoon, the family was headed to Burke from Greensboro where they had an appointment with a realtor to talk about purchasing a condo as a place of their own, or perhaps a piece of land and building a small house at Burke.

Brigitte Offord writes for the Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.

Brigitte Offord

Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.

2 Comments

  1. Bonita Best

    Such a personal view of the Area and the People that want and should be apart of Vermont ❤️

    • The Hardwick Gazette

      Thanks. Bringing a local perspective to news from the rest of the state and nation is our goal here at the Gazette

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