The partners— ski industry veterans Jon Schaefer, Ken Graham, and Willy Booker-— adopted the bar’ s namesake as a way to bless their union. The ethos of Bear Den Partners seems to echo a memory from partner Ken Graham’ s childhood.“ I grew up near Amish country in Pennsylvania,” Graham says.“ When I was a kid, I saw an Amish barn raising. It always stuck with me. That’ s what we’ re looking to do right now, is another Amish barn raising, to collaborate with the community so we all benefit together.” That feeling of communal effort, instead of a corporate mission statement, defines their project— a collective lift to save the mountain they all love.
This spirit of shared effort connects Burke Mountain’ s future to the proven, sustainable model of its partners, the Schaefer family. The family, including majority owner Jim Schaefer and CEO Jon Schaefer, owns and operates both Berkshire East in Charlemont and Catamount Ski Area in South Egremont / Hillsdale, New York. Their track record is one of innovation and energy independence. Berkshire East— recognized as a leader in summer operations with its mountain biking, zip lines, and mountain coaster— is also an environmental pioneer. It is the first and only ski area in the world to generate all of its electricity from on-site renewable resources: a 500 kWh solar facility and 900 kWh wind turbine. The family’ s playbook, successfully applied to revitalize Catamount, is now being tailored for Burke. Nearly 50 years earlier, Roy Schaefer, an experienced ski area manager, took over a bankrupt Berkshire East( then known as Thunder Mountain), offering to run it for the bank. He purchased the mountain out of bankruptcy in 1976 for a single dollar, with big plans to revive it. His youngest son, Jon, grew up in the shadow of that revitalization project, spending much of his childhood on skis, with the mountain as both playground and classroom. His early education was hands-on; he was around lift repairs from a young age, as the family stripped used lift equipment from shuttered ski resorts to keep Berkshire East running. Roy’ s hands-on philosophy became the foundation of the family business. In 2008, Jon moved to Charlemont to learn the business from his father. His own influence soon manifested into tangible improvements. After he was introduced to zip lines on a surf trip to Costa Rica, Jon outfitted Berkshire East with two lines built by 2009 and a third zip line added in 2010. The focus on four-season diversification increased with the launch of Thunder Mountain Bike Park in 2018, which would become the East Coast’ s number-one-rated bike park the following year. That same spring, another well-known Berkshire County resort,
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