bdfreetuna
New member
If anyone here is counting, yes I am back way too early for a day of skiing in Vermont. The machines made me do it.
I woke up at 5:20AM and I was pretty sure I was going to go to Killington. So sure, in fact, that I grabbed my K express card voucher and took I-91 to Route 103.
Then I noticed the sign, where I could either turn and go towards Okemo/Killington or the sign said "Magic Mountain 20 miles" (or something very similar). Well, shit! I could, in fact, be at Magic Mountain well before they are even open. That was my original plan anyway. I didn't realize how easy it is to get to Magic for the first chair. Only 1h30m from Northampton Mass.
So I kept going straight and soon enough I pulled up to Magic. This is my first time at Magic. And I was the ninth car in the parking lot. And it was snowing and the mountain looked fantastic. The lodge was empty. Fortunately the doors were at least unlocked. So I went in there and ate a couple bananas for breakfast and waited the next 45 minutes until ticket window was open, as people slowly trickled in.
As this is my first time at Magic.. which is currently unbelievable to myself.. some observations here may seem obvious to those who frequent the mountain. Perhaps this will be of more use to newcomers. The lodge is relatively quaint. As I feel a lodge should probably be.
Got my ticket which I felt was $59 well spent as it's the least I've paid for a full price all day pass in a while. Got in line for the Red Chair and was probably on the 6th or 7th chair up. The Black Chair is currently waiting for it's yearly inspection so it is not currently running. This would later prove to be a real bummer.
First run down I took Upper Wizard to Broomstick. Upper Wizard was beautiful luxurious corduroy, the likes of which I had yet to see this season. Broomstick is a narrow fairly steep trail, all bumped up and the bumps were mostly soft but starting to get hard packed. There was a guy with a chainsaw skiing ahead of me. Joking, I said "That looks kind of dangerous". He said something back like, "Yeah, that's why I gotta clear it out."
What? Oh, that tree which is fallen across the trail right ahead of us, you must mean? So he fired up the chainsaw and cut up the tree while myself and a couple other skiers who came along cleared it off the trail. We thanked each other and moved along.
From Broomstick I got a nice view of Magician, which I guess is one of their steeper trails because it's actually really steep. Considering Magic Mountain's criteria for opening trails -- which is apparently if it has any snow on it, it should be open -- I'm surprised it was one of the few closed trails. Oh well, next time. I took Black Line down to some turn off where I ducked in the woods for a bit and that was that.
The snow was awesome and most runs... at least the runs I skied in my short time there.. were nicely bumped up. Some cool narrow trails and legit steeps and semi-steeps and variable pitches making their way down the mountain in unique paths. Slide of Hans, Sorcerer, Witch and Goniff Glade were some of my other favorites. Slide of Hans was really fun, only wide enough for one skier, steep and windy. Sorcerer was really cool like that too. Windy narrow steeps seem to be in abundance here.
Here is a quick video with my new Contour ROAM2 camera of me on a section of Goniff Glade. The video is short because right after this section I decided to duck into the woods which turned out to be pretty slow going.
So the woods right after this were whatever woods are on the East Side of the Red Line. Almost nobody had been in there so it was heavy powder. These woods are probably some of the nicest woods in Vermont... except the way the snow was today, and me not knowing them at all, I had to make my way down them fairly cautiously. The trees are tight and there is brush and things hidden under a coat of snow. The snow being heavy as it was made floaty turns rather difficult and jump turns nearly impossible. So I decided to turn off the POV camera so as not to have people watch me suffer my way through some woods ;-)
I got in a few more runs maybe 5 total and took the chair up again. About 1/3 of the way up the chair stopped. Bummer. I was riding up with a former lift attendant and one of Magic's investors, and he turned out to be a great person to ride up with. Because this chair wasn't going anyway for a while. I don't know but it felt like 45 minutes... meanwhile the chair would occasionally go forward a few feet, and then roll back suddenly, sending the chairs bouncing up and down. So we had some interesting conversation about the lift and how "that's not good" when it rolls back, and how if it rolls back more than 20 feet we're basically all screwed, etc.
Eventually it did get moving again, forward, and very slowly. We all thought we were getting evacuated with ropes, so this was a cause for some celebration on the lift.
They were just unloading it though, it was obvious this chair was barely getting us to the top. I forget what my last run was but like all the others it was incredibly awesome both in conditions and character of the trails.
Got back to the lodge and people were lining up for vouchers. Really, giving up so easily? Soon I heard the lift "might run in an hour" so I stuck it out. No such luck, an hour and a half went by and I heard someone say they were getting the parts they needed from Bromley and it was going to be another couple hours at least.
Oh well, I got a voucher for another day.
In summary, I loved this mountain. The people there are super friendly and down to earth. The terrain is wicked it really is like MRG of southern VT. And just like MRG apparently their chair lifts are the weakest link. Magic is now my go-to mountain in southern VT, which means I'll probably be there a lot. Yep, liked it that much, even with a day cut short by machines.
I woke up at 5:20AM and I was pretty sure I was going to go to Killington. So sure, in fact, that I grabbed my K express card voucher and took I-91 to Route 103.
Then I noticed the sign, where I could either turn and go towards Okemo/Killington or the sign said "Magic Mountain 20 miles" (or something very similar). Well, shit! I could, in fact, be at Magic Mountain well before they are even open. That was my original plan anyway. I didn't realize how easy it is to get to Magic for the first chair. Only 1h30m from Northampton Mass.
So I kept going straight and soon enough I pulled up to Magic. This is my first time at Magic. And I was the ninth car in the parking lot. And it was snowing and the mountain looked fantastic. The lodge was empty. Fortunately the doors were at least unlocked. So I went in there and ate a couple bananas for breakfast and waited the next 45 minutes until ticket window was open, as people slowly trickled in.
As this is my first time at Magic.. which is currently unbelievable to myself.. some observations here may seem obvious to those who frequent the mountain. Perhaps this will be of more use to newcomers. The lodge is relatively quaint. As I feel a lodge should probably be.
Got my ticket which I felt was $59 well spent as it's the least I've paid for a full price all day pass in a while. Got in line for the Red Chair and was probably on the 6th or 7th chair up. The Black Chair is currently waiting for it's yearly inspection so it is not currently running. This would later prove to be a real bummer.
First run down I took Upper Wizard to Broomstick. Upper Wizard was beautiful luxurious corduroy, the likes of which I had yet to see this season. Broomstick is a narrow fairly steep trail, all bumped up and the bumps were mostly soft but starting to get hard packed. There was a guy with a chainsaw skiing ahead of me. Joking, I said "That looks kind of dangerous". He said something back like, "Yeah, that's why I gotta clear it out."
What? Oh, that tree which is fallen across the trail right ahead of us, you must mean? So he fired up the chainsaw and cut up the tree while myself and a couple other skiers who came along cleared it off the trail. We thanked each other and moved along.
From Broomstick I got a nice view of Magician, which I guess is one of their steeper trails because it's actually really steep. Considering Magic Mountain's criteria for opening trails -- which is apparently if it has any snow on it, it should be open -- I'm surprised it was one of the few closed trails. Oh well, next time. I took Black Line down to some turn off where I ducked in the woods for a bit and that was that.
The snow was awesome and most runs... at least the runs I skied in my short time there.. were nicely bumped up. Some cool narrow trails and legit steeps and semi-steeps and variable pitches making their way down the mountain in unique paths. Slide of Hans, Sorcerer, Witch and Goniff Glade were some of my other favorites. Slide of Hans was really fun, only wide enough for one skier, steep and windy. Sorcerer was really cool like that too. Windy narrow steeps seem to be in abundance here.
Here is a quick video with my new Contour ROAM2 camera of me on a section of Goniff Glade. The video is short because right after this section I decided to duck into the woods which turned out to be pretty slow going.
So the woods right after this were whatever woods are on the East Side of the Red Line. Almost nobody had been in there so it was heavy powder. These woods are probably some of the nicest woods in Vermont... except the way the snow was today, and me not knowing them at all, I had to make my way down them fairly cautiously. The trees are tight and there is brush and things hidden under a coat of snow. The snow being heavy as it was made floaty turns rather difficult and jump turns nearly impossible. So I decided to turn off the POV camera so as not to have people watch me suffer my way through some woods ;-)
I got in a few more runs maybe 5 total and took the chair up again. About 1/3 of the way up the chair stopped. Bummer. I was riding up with a former lift attendant and one of Magic's investors, and he turned out to be a great person to ride up with. Because this chair wasn't going anyway for a while. I don't know but it felt like 45 minutes... meanwhile the chair would occasionally go forward a few feet, and then roll back suddenly, sending the chairs bouncing up and down. So we had some interesting conversation about the lift and how "that's not good" when it rolls back, and how if it rolls back more than 20 feet we're basically all screwed, etc.
Eventually it did get moving again, forward, and very slowly. We all thought we were getting evacuated with ropes, so this was a cause for some celebration on the lift.
They were just unloading it though, it was obvious this chair was barely getting us to the top. I forget what my last run was but like all the others it was incredibly awesome both in conditions and character of the trails.
Got back to the lodge and people were lining up for vouchers. Really, giving up so easily? Soon I heard the lift "might run in an hour" so I stuck it out. No such luck, an hour and a half went by and I heard someone say they were getting the parts they needed from Bromley and it was going to be another couple hours at least.
Oh well, I got a voucher for another day.
In summary, I loved this mountain. The people there are super friendly and down to earth. The terrain is wicked it really is like MRG of southern VT. And just like MRG apparently their chair lifts are the weakest link. Magic is now my go-to mountain in southern VT, which means I'll probably be there a lot. Yep, liked it that much, even with a day cut short by machines.
unless it's retro day) and I could give you a little tour of the woods if you want.
