says.“ And then, maybe four or five years ago, in the heart of COVID, Jon and Jim Schaefer reached out to me and said,‘ Hey, I know, you know, the mountain ' s going to have to sell. We own Berkshire East.’ We knew each other casually through ski racing; we all ski raced growing up, and they said,‘ How do you see this going down? We would be interested.’ And from that point on, I just ended up talking to Jon a lot. We would spend long mountain bike rides together when he’ d come up and we’ d talk about the mountain, what it needs, and how do you fix it? I introduced Jon to Ken, and then, over the course of a few years, the three of us kept talking about it. Ultimately, it was pretty obvious that this was the right ownership group.” Graham and Jon Schaefer, along with Booker, would meet over beers at the Bear Den and dream about taking the mountain back for the community. In May 2025, the dream materialized with their purchase of Burke Mountain.“ Our mantra is skiing like it used to be,” says Graham.“ That’ s the
Ski lesson at Berkshire East in Charlemont.( Courtesy of Berkshire East)
Holiday 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 89