The NEW Magic Mountain

Snow Report Update 4/15:

There is a major “winter” storm hitting Magic Thursday night through Friday. While Red Lift is already in off-season repair mode and can’t operate, if there is enough snow on lower mountain, we may open Green Chair to mid-mtn for Saturday April 17th, just for the heck of it. Since there is no base snow left, it would be all-natural, no grooming, whatever it is type stuff. There would be no lodge or take-out food or rentals etc. Just the T-BAR for refreshments, chili and dogs, and Tavern for a few bevies. Laid-back, take a few indie bonus runs. Tickets at the window would be $39 if it is a go. Won’t know that until late Friday as we see how much falls at base of Green Lift. Since we are closed for the 20/21 season, I guess this would be the unofficial earliest opening for the 21/22 season–IF it can happen. Stay tuned here.

Snowstake at base reading about 3.5-4"

Mt Snow summit, 10". As predicted, wide spread. Need it to stay accumulating snow at base today. Gonna be close for a bit this afternoon.

1PM 6" at the stake and about an inch an hour. Maybe.

Would be nice to get a couple runs in and a drink

Looks like it is snowing a t a pretty good clip at 2:30 ish! Wind is howling just south of Boston all our snow is about gone.

Looks like a no go unfortunately.

4/16 Update 4:20pm: Snow is tapering off and while most of the mountain is good to go, the lower access to the Green Lift is just not passable due to lower amounts of snow, warm ground, two water bars heading down to the lift area that are not passable with constant running water, and a slush field that won’t last more than an hour at the base of Green. So close, but unfortunately, no opening for Saturday. Appreciate every one who was thinking of being here with us.

Anyone care to speculate on the odds of Magic's quad being completed this summer?

I'm putting the likeliness pretty high. And yes, I actually believe this, it isn't just some sort of tribalistic chest-beating on my part. There really isn't all that much left to do, with the "re-engineering" supposed to be completed over the spring. The main thing that needs to happen from the looks of things is swapping out two assemblies with combo assemblies. I'm no engineer myself, if you want more on my thinking, check out the comments section: https://liftblog.com/black-line-magic-mountain-vt/. Otherwise, there isn't all that much to do. 2020 seemed to be the most productive summer in terms of construction, and it looks like Magic is committed to getting it done this summer.

As long as its completed before xmas week next year, who really cares if its summer, fall, or 12/23

No question that it will be completed based on outstanding work.

No double they get the re-engineering work done. But Devis advocate, if the re-engineering doesn't work then there is risk. I am confident that is why this work is scheduled for May. I hope the engineer nailed it this time and they're done.

NY DirtBag said:

Question on uphill routes - the current mandatory uphill route follows the timberridge return trail (a popular snowmobile route) for a bit before it turns back towards magic at the intersection. Can get a bit too exciting getting buzzed by snowmobiles for a short bit because have bought awesome tracks for them here.

Are there any plans to create a route through the woods up there at some point that doesn't follow the old Timberridge return trail?

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It would be great to have a couple runs there dream to get there in the foreseeable future *fingers crossed*

Weather forecast predicting thunderstorms on Friday when the fireworks/band etc is scheduled, has Magic said anything about what will happen if that's the case?

We’ll probably talk about that tomorrow. More than likely we’ll have the band inside. As for the fireworks, I’m not sure if the town has a contingency plan. The company they use was fully booked for the 3rd & 4th. Which is why we host them on Friday 7/2.
Stay tuned…

ne_skier said:

Weather forecast predicting thunderstorms on Friday when the fireworks/band etc is scheduled, has Magic said anything about what will happen if that's the ca

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Fireworks cancelled for tonight due to rain. Also to whoever it may concern, appears that the Chalet motel has been bought by some larger chain, the signs were swapped out for new ones advertising the parent company

from today’s Alpine Update:

Lifts, lifts, lifts....As I mentioned in a recent update, we hired a new head of Lifts Operations, Dan Diaz who has experience both at Stratton and Bromley and lives right here in Londonderry. His first day was this week and Travis will be helping him transition this Friday. Boy, is there a lot to do.

Red Lift will be getting an expensive overhaul this summer and fall with a new drive, new haul rope and replacing top bullwheel bearings. The haul rope comes as a surprise as we thought it had a couple years left in it. But with a recent inspection, we believe it better to replace it now. So a new 2-mile long haul rope is now on order to be manufactured, with a delivery time in late October and then installation/splicing in mid-November prior to our mid-December opening. The Red Chair is 50-years old this winter, and so for its Golden Anniversary, what better present to give her than extending its life for another few decades of legendary service! (We may even sell cut off small sections of the original haul cable as mementos of the last 50 years of Red to help defray some of these upgrades.)

Green Lift is getting a haul rope splice next Wednesday which is typical after a couple of year of service as a new rope tends to stretch when newly installed as it was in 2018. Green will be ready for fall leaf rides to Sunshine Corner on Saturdays in late September and early October!

And, now the Black Quad. There's always something and we just keep plugging away for it to be ready this season. Some of the "pre-owned" Poma lift parts that Pfister Mountain Services had found to support the re-engineered sheave assembly design on a few towers are not to the exact specifications of the lift engineer for two of the lower mountain towers. So for those two towers, we will now have those assemblies custom-manufactured to spec. These are not "off-the-shelf" products and Poma no longer makes them, so those will take some weeks to create the engineering drawings, then manufacture, and finally install on the two towers by the fall. Work on Tower 13 to modify it per new engineering specifications will take place and be finished by the end of July. It's in a very difficult spot and a tracked crane will be used to do that work up high. We had meetings this week with both Pfister and the engineer and these are the last hurdles to overcome, other than me losing my hair, with everything else lined up for the Quad to begin operations this December. As always, we will keep you posted.

Finally, we are looking at new "soft start" modifications to the drives for the two handle tows (one in Terrain Park and the other in the newly expanded beginner area) for less jerky re-starts and easier customer rideability.

Lifts, lifts, lifts. Welcome Dan Diaz. At least next year should feel like a walk-in-the-park!

Happy to see someone new in the Magic team!
Nice to hear that Red is getting some maintenance done, new haul rope, new bullwheel bearings, and a new drive (Electric command center, basically). Hopefully the quad is all ready to go for ski season, I can happily say I'm not losing hope yet

Man, it just keeps coming - needing a new haul rope isn't exactly welcome news - but that's a known quantity at least. Needing custom parts for Black isn't great either. Here's hoping those are the last of the complications.

Going back a few Updates, it's great to hear there'll be more snowmaking online this year, between the upper mountain work and the new pipe in the beginner areas!