Magic 12/22/08 Opening Day - Pics

[pepperdawg]

Hit up opening at Magic day after a weekend of 22"(?) of fluff.....WOW. I forgot how good east coast pow can be....

Typical Magic - Opening day w/phenominal snow and didnt wait for a lift once....good for me...sad for people trying to keep this secret open for biz....

Temps were cold, but not unmanagable (8 when I got there after 9 and 12 when I left at 1230).....winds were ok in the morning, seemed to get stronger, more persistant later in the morning....sun showed up midmorning for a nice treat.

Not too many pics as it was cold and there was way too much pow to be screwing around with a camera in single digit temps...

Knee to thigh deep fluffly light goodness was everywhere - serious - no really serious. legs are toast...now need to figure out where to head to tommorow.....back to magic? use freebee at flatton? Killington? Need to read some TRs tonight....

Couple of random pics:

 

[2knees]

love reading the magic reports. thanks for taking a few pics, i know it sucks in cold weather. never mind stopping when the snow is that good.

 

[bvibert]

Damn, I knew I should have made a drive north this morning...

 

[gus]

winds certainly picked up in the afternoon, it was cold...but over knee deep was everywhere. no waiting for the lift, however employees were very pleased with the turnout. really was Magical!!!

 

[Johnskiismore]

Nice report and pictures, that's how the snbow looked at Cannon today too! Except I was too loazy to bring my camera

 

[billski]

Geez, why didn't all you guys make your presence known? I posted a note with my general ugly outfit critera, was there from 10 to 4pm. Sounds like a lot of us were there. Must be how ugly and repulsive it am, right G?

Anyways, this had to be a top-ranked first day of the season for me of all time. Knee deep. The winds didn't really come into play (thank you not NWS) . Even in the PM, there were only gusts. The pow was entirely ungroomed. Matt says it's too fluffy to groom right now, all us skiers packed it down better. Some water bars were nasty.

The best part, was NO ROPES. Everything except upper Magician was OPEN. Talk about feeling freedom. This was it. Knee deep was de-riguer for the day. I bagged the woods because I was making fresh pow tracks all day, until 4pm in knee deep stuff. My legs are gonna remember this openers.

Great base for Magic to finally have a good year on. I'm thrilled for them.

Now, you guys posted a lot - I see my tracks in a couple of them. Here are mine.
Now I have to decide for the morrow. Maybe Loon to meet some friends.

 

[billski]

Nice report and pictures, that's how the snbow looked at Cannon today too! Except I was too loazy to bring my camera

Me thinks everyone was a winner out of this one. Bravo Ullr!

 

[roark]

turn out was actually decent. some cars in the second lot. quite a few folks in line for tickets the first couple hours. saw quite a few people on rental gear. the hill is actually bigger than it seems, people just seem to disappear there.

 

[roark]

hope to meet up with you sometime bill. drop me a line next time you're up.

hans was technically roped. which I always appreciate.

 

[billski]

turn out was actually decent. some cars in the second lot. quite a few folks in line for tickets the first couple hours. saw quite a few people on rental gear. the hill is actually bigger than it seems, people just seem to disappear there.

The thing that amazes me about magic is that most people are there for the opening bell, but gone by 1 or 2. In most cases I just believe they are burned out:razz:

To your comment about people disappearing, that is one great benefit of a slow lift. I never complain about the lift speed - I usually need all the recovery time I can get between runs.

What a great place.

 

[tirolerpeter]

Magic Mt.

Glad to see that East Coasters can enjoy a powder day like this every so often. When I lived in the east and had long drives to get to the snow, it was always an unexpected pleasure to hit something like that. Did they leave the stuff ungroomed on the trails or did they knock it flat for the "skid skiers?" Anything over a foot usually leaves eastern skiers "toasted" after a few runs. I'm in NY for a couple of weeks, but will be back to Alta/Bird by Jan 2nd. Hope you guys get lots more days like this over the remaining season. Enjoy!

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Glad to hear some folks got up to enjoy it. I was at the Big House, chained to a Big Red Truck.

My phone rang about 18:00 last night. It was Magic's patrol director. Now this is a guy who has skied 120+ days every season for the last 18 seasons. I won't say he's jaded, but he does get a few more days in then most of us. He reported his best day of skiing in 10 years and still getting face shots at trail sweep.

I got to shovel hydrants.

 

[pepperdawg]

Glad to hear some folks got up to enjoy it. I was at the Big House, chained to a Big Red Truck.

My phone rang about 18:00 last night. It was Magic's patrol director. Now this is a guy who has skied 120+ days every season for the last 18 seasons. I won't say he's jaded, but he does get a few more days in then most of us. He reported his best day of skiing in 10 years and still getting face shots at trail sweep.

I got to shovel hydrants.

I saw a couple of patrol at top of red lift mid-morning and was wondering if one was you....

Total bizarro world today from yesterday at Magic to WaWa and groomers today.....heaven and hell?

 

[billski]

I saw a couple of patrol at top of red lift mid-morning and was wondering if one was you....

Total bizarro world today from yesterday at Magic to WaWa and groomers today.....heaven and hell?

I know. It was like the big let down. I was at loon Today. From the wild and untamed to gentified brutally groomed. I even saw iCe on very hardpack.

 

[billski]

Glad to see that East Coasters can enjoy a powder day like this every so often. When I lived in the east and had long drives to get to the snow, it was always an unexpected pleasure to hit something like that. Did they leave the stuff ungroomed on the trails or did they knock it flat for the "skid skiers?" Anything over a foot usually leaves eastern skiers "toasted" after a few runs. I'm in NY for a couple of weeks, but will be back to Alta/Bird by Jan 2nd. Hope you guys get lots more days like this over the remaining season. Enjoy!

I was there on Monday. I think there were only a few groomed trails. Everything I was on was not groomed (blue, black, 2xblack. It seemed the vast majority was not groomed. I believe they were going to go after it all to pack it down, fill in the voids, basically get it set as base for the season.