Magic Mtn 01/09/05

[loafer89]

Based on the 6" of snow that had fallen in Ludlow by about 8:00pm, I decided to take a quick trip to Magic Mtn and ski a few runs before going home yesterday. When I had checked the conditions report on Saturday night, they were reporting 8" of new snow and 10 trails open. We arrived at Magic at 9:00am and I purchased a morning ticket for $39 good until 12:30 as we wanted to get an early start back home. To my suprise the trail count had grown to 25 trails allowing for more mtn exploration. My first run was down Sorcerer which had an easy 10" - 12" of very light powder. While there were tracks on the trail, they were from Saturday and they had been about 75% filled in by new snow, so my new tracks were the first of the day.

My second run was down Wizard which also had deep powder that was more tracked out, but still alot of fun. After those two powder runs I skied with my son down Magic Carpet from top to bottom and the trails had perfectly groomed packed powder with NO ice anywhere on the entire run.

The staff at the mountain are extremly friendly and curtious. It is really a shame that the mountain only had about 50 cars in the parking lot when we left at noon as the conditions were stellar and probably the best of the year so far. While the red chair to the summit is very slow, this allows for powder skiing to remain for a long time. I guess that most skiers preffer the groomed
spit and polish of Bromley and Stratton.

The mountain has a new grooming policy of leaving powder on both sides of any trails that they groom, so any skier from begginer to expert can enjoy fresh tracks.

 

[skijay]

It is refreshing to hear positive comments about Magic! I hope to ski there early in February.

 

[loafer89]

Yes Magic Is a fun place to ski with some REALLY steep terrain, unfortunatly there was no pre-existing cover on most of the steep terrain and my ski's are only a few month old, so I skied on the conservative side, this and I was also skiing alone and I do not know the mountain that well. If anyone has the chance to go there today or before the rain hits this week, you will NOT be disappointed.

On a side note, we drove home on route 30 past Maple Valley which was totally abandoned with high weeds/grass on the trails. Also the rain/snow line on I-91 is around the former Mtn Tom area, with massive amounts of freezing rain north of Hartford.

 

[loafer89]

I just posted two pictures from Magic, this is my first time posting pictures and I somehow posted the same two pictures twice, oops.

 

[Greg]

I deleted the duplicates for you. Thanks!

 

[loafer89]

Thanks Greg, I also added some pictures from Okemo. It's hard to take pictures with a four year old, but at least you can get some idea of the weather/conditions.

My one gripe with Magic Mtn by the way, was that they indicated a chair lift on the lower left part of the mountain servicing begginer terrain. Apparently that lift is only partially built with just the top and bottom terminals and two lift towers installed. This lift was supposed to be finished this year, but they "ran"
out of time before winter came, or so I was told. Anyway my son had fun skiing from the top on Magic Carpet even though the trail was a bit long for him.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Glad you enjoyed it. I was supposed to be there today, but my truck made other plans for me :evil:

Maybe with some luck, I'll be back up tomorrow. Magic isn't perfect, but terrain isn't one of it's problems!

 

[loafer89]

You will enjoy a trip there tommorow is the weather holds, just beware of hidden undergrowth and stream beds on some of the steep terrain. I hit a stream bed at the junction of Wizard and Sorcerer and I kept on going while my ski's did not, I did a double binding release and a 4' forward face plant. Luckily nothing was injured or damaged and I resumed skiing after composing myself and brushing off lots of snow.

 

[Talisman]

I was at Magic on 1/9, Loaf and probably saw you or at least your traks. Sunday was a fantatstic ski day with fresh snow, sunny, no wind and warmed up to the 20's. Magic had the Red Chair running with 6 to 8 inches of fresh powder. I didn't see any ropes, but did see some Thin Cover signs. The light powder was over virtually no base, but I had planned ahead and brought my nastiest rock skis.

Wizard was reasonable, but has some water bars with water in the ditch that had to be hopped. Broomstick was fun with a few manadory stream hops. I didn't ski Master Magician or Red Line, but others laid down some tracks. Heart of the Magican and Sorcerer held some nice powder. Lucifer was reasonably well covered and fun skiing. Talisman had some great lines. All of the West side trails had some p-tex shredding rocks, but it was worth it.

Most of the East side trails had been groomed (still lots of powder shots along the sides) and were legitimate packed powder. Some of the grooming tilled up dirt, rocks and twigs which added to the challenge provided by the water bars.

Magic had the snow guns going on Kinderspiel and were making a whale where Lucifer joins Video Blvd.
A weekend powder day at last! I need to get busy with a p-tex candle and a scraper to repair two core shots.

 

[loafer89]

Yes there were several water bars on Sorcerer and one that was buried that I did not get the chance to "hop" over. My son had a hard time when we took the trail to the left that lead to Kinderspiel. He did not feel comfortable at the trail junction where the snow cannon was on and I took off his skis and he walked down a bit to where the trail was not so steep to continue skiing.

I did not get to ski alot more of the powder because my son was desperate to ski with me so we had fun on Magic Capet which was WAY WAY better conditions wise than anything at Okemo.

Why does Magic not utilize more of the 87% snowmaking capacity that they have? Do they not have the funds for such large scale snowmaking? I think that they should try to groom as much of the snow that they have before the rain and 50+ temps come this week or they will lose alot of their cover.

I also noticed a groomed trail on skiers left off the top of the red chair, does this lead to the abandoned area that I have read about?

This was only my second time at Magic in 5 years, but It's much more fun and challenging than anything in S Vermont, they should really advertise the fact that they have a half day AM TICKET, this would bring in alot more people on sunday that are looking to leave for home early in the day.

 

[Talisman]

Magic doesn't have the funds or the compressor capacity to run their snow making system. Pipes cover 87% of the mountain but there is rarely base snow made on most trails which is a shame because the terrain is magnificent.

The groomers at Magic were awesome and the lack of crowds makes skiing fun.

The abandoned area at Magic is Timberside and is on skiers right and there were snow mobile tracks on the connector trail at the summit. There is also grooming done near the communication tower at the summit. There is a poorly marked trail called White Out that had been groomed that was also fun.

 

[loafer89]

I was just looking at the NELSAP website about the Timberside area on the other side of Magic Mtn. Is it possible to ski this area safely from Magic or have the trails grown back in again? How do you get back to the base area from any of those trails?

I agree that it is sad that Magic cannot make more snow on the steeper trails, especially with the snowmaking pipe already in place. Some of the pipe looked on the rusty side and if it had not been used in a while that might cause problems.

Perhaps a judicious investor may come along and revitalize some of the facilities like what happened at Saddleback. It would be nice for the mountain to remain fully functional but rustic as that area of Vermont does not need another Stratton/Okemo.

 

[Talisman]

To get back from Timberside you either need to spot a car or find a friendly snow mobiler. It is possible to ski across part way to Timberside and then return on the old come back trail. Timberside is fairly grown in and has a fair amount of snow mobile activity.

For Magic to be successful either there needs to be more natural snow or the snow making needs to cover some of the steeps with base snow. Rusty pipes aren't an issue, it is damaged valves and piping damaged from freezing that are the issues besides lack of snow making water and compressed air capacity.

 

[loafer89]

I think that what I meant by the rusty snowmaking pipes was that they did not look like they had been used in quite some time, so you may be right with damaged valves and pipe stress due to freeze up. The flip side to no snow making base was that there was no ice underneath most of the snow, unlike at Okemo.

Honestly Magic Mtn is not a place that I would ski without a major dump of snow occuring beforehand like yesterday, because the 10 trails that they had opened on saturday would not justify a visit. The last time that I skied there in March of 1999 they had recieved a 16" storm and the skiing was excellent. I went there yesterday looking for powder and no crowds and the mountain deliverd both.

Still I look forward to skiing there again in the future, the terrain is challenging and the ticket prices are reasonable, I especially like the fact that they have an AM ticket. Maybe Magic will see better days ahead and hopefully they will do good this year despite the weather.

Will the begginer chair be completed in the near future?

 

[marcski]

This is such a pleasure to read a positive thread about magic. As Talisman and SLED know, there is way too much negative chat about magic.

loafter...Magic by far and away has the best terrain south of killington. Magic just needs snow...in a good snow year, i believe it was 2001-02 or perhaps the year before that. Magic was amazing. Most of the mountain was open for most of the season. And, the lack of crowds...and great snow makes it such a pleasure...the only noise i heard on the slopes was me.....screaming for joy!

 

[riverc0il]

Honestly Magic Mtn is not a place that I would ski without a major dump of snow occuring beforehand like yesterday, because the 10 trails that they had opened on saturday would not justify a visit.

i have skied magic on occasion not after a dump when it was fully open and it's still a rocking mountain to ski even if there are no recent dumps. once enough base has been built and the rocks are all covered and everything is skiable, it really doesn't need a dump any more than any other mountain. it's just getting up to the 100% open mark takes a lot longer than other mountains without the snow making factor.

 

[Talisman]

Magic holds snow for days after a storm if there has been no warm temps. Unlike many other areas Magic doesn't get tracked out 55 minutes after the lifts open on a powder day. I agree with River when most tarils are open Magic is worth skiing even if there hasn't been a dump. Magic also doesn't recover well from big thaws and refreezes.

 

[loafer89]

What I meant by not wanting to go without a big snowfall applied mostly to the conditions on saturday VS sunday as skiing there with only the snowmaking trails probably would not have provided good skiing conditions. I like the terrain and the rustic atmosphere, just like I find skiing at Plattekill, Bobcat and Saddleback appealing. I do not understand all the people who bash the place, if you want powder puff resorts and people who kiss your @ss, go somewhere else. I went there knowing that the lifts were slow, trails had thin cover and grooming was not imaculate and I had more fun than at Okemo at any given time on Saturday.

I was saddened by the complete lack of people there on one of the best days of the year. As I have said before they REALLY should adverstise the am ticket that they sell, as it is not mentioned on the website (I believe). The mountain is on the way home from Killington/Okemo. I am not advocating more crowds, but they look like they need all the extra money that they can get, and alot of skiers like a half day ticket on Sunday.

 

[riverc0il]

I was saddened by the complete lack of people there on one of the best days of the year.

i've said the same thing before.

I am not advocating more crowds,

i am!

 

[beswift]

what to do.

Magic has serious pro's and con's. I was skiing it every year until last. The year before I was up there on a 20 below day during the week and at the opening of the lifts shared it with one patroller and a tele-skier. They don't have much money and on the flip side sell the cheapest season passes for an expert mountain in the Northeast. The chairs are antiquated but not maintained like the single at Mad River. One day I was up there and they were sopping wet in the morning. Crusty snow'ice and no easy way to clean it off. With the way things are going at the nearby areas like Stratton, I wouldn't doubt that some day a big developer will take it over. Manchester is a N.Y. watering hole. Ascutney benefited from a new ownership and put in modern equipment. The real estate pro's in Vt. used to talk about the Bob Newhart syndrome when dealing with Inns. Often you see some N.Y. Metro area couple with grown kids buy up some resort real estate with their life's savings. That's what happened at Ascutney. Back to Magic, right now it doesn't attract the Manchester weekend crouds, but that will be the only way they could make good money. Access from Massachusetts and N.Y. is difficult. Day-trippers can make it to other areas more easily. It's a great part of Vt., though. Windham, Chester, Arlington and other towns have to be the best examples of rural New England you can find. The roads, though, can be trecherous. I discovered it for myself one spring back in the psychedelic 60's when hitch-hiking from Manchester to Brattleboro. The cars and rides in that area can be quite scarce. It's quite a lonely adventure and I did a lot of hiking. Lo and Behold, I found the Magic Mountain!!!!