Jisch
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- Dec 15, 2008
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I went solo to Magic today. I've never skied solo before, the last three years I've been going primarily with my son, and he went to college this year. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. It was a great day, warmish temps, great snow and surprisingly great conversations on the lift - generally I'm pretty quiet. I went xc skiing yesterday for 3 hours, my legs felt cooked on the first couple runs, but they loosened up after the third run. That said, I didn't ski great today, I would guess that my legs were just plain tired, I just didn't have much pop in them.
Conditions were perhaps the best I've ever skied (or at least the best since I started skiing as an adult). There were two parts to the mountain - the top 2/3rds was soft and pillowy, there were plenty of moguls around, but they were nice and soft. Any powder in the woods and on the edges was about boot deep and easy turning. I lost my pole in the snow a few times - glad it was strapped onto my arm, but for the most part I floated on top of it rather than sinking all the way down - even the soft powder had some density to it. At one point I sunk my pole, it got stuck and I slid into it instead of around it, I whacked my head pretty good on that fall - so glad I had a helmet on!
The bottom third of the mountain was not icy, but the snow was pretty dense and solid. The chatter as you cruised over the hard snow was a pretty good contrast to the soft stuff up top. Crossing into the untracked snow was not good on the lower third, I suspect this was the "manky" snow from yesterday that had solidified. You could turn in it, but it broke into blocks as you skied through it - I'm sure there's some name for this kind of snow - crud maybe?
I hit most of the trails on the mountain, but I thought the West side was in better shape - since it was ungroomed, it seemed to be a bit looser. I had a lot of great runs, it would be hard to pick one as the ROTD, but Talisman, Slide of Hans, Sorcerer and Broomstick were all great - with Trick as an honorable mention. Being solo I didn't spend a lot of time in the woods, but the stuff below Broomstick (I _think_ that's where I was going in) was pretty damn good. I didn't look at the map much, just kind of pointed down hill and took different trails each time - it might have been the Hallows, but now that I look at the map, I think they would be too far down the mountain to be as soft as the woods I was skiing. While I don't know if you could get an untracked line from the top to the bottom, there were plenty of untracked lines available.
I rode the singles line all day, but it turns out there aren't a lot of singles when its a double chair - so I waited through the regular line a few times as well. There were lift lines a few times during the day, but I never waited for more than 10 minutes for a chair. Most of the time I waited less than a few minutes. The trails seemed to be empty all day. I can only think of one or two times when I waited for a minute for a group of people to go by so I could have the trail to myself again.
I got there at 8:30 and skied to literally the last chair, taking my last run down Talisman - awesome run to end the day, even with my now over-cooked legs. The vibe at Magic is pretty great, everyone I rode up with was uber cool and happy to be skiing Magic over any of the other large places nearby.
I found that skiing solo I tended to go slower than I do when I ski with my son. Once I realized I was going slow, I found faster skiers to follow for short sections, that seemed to get me back up to speed. I'd do it again in a heartbeat...
John
Almost forgot - I saw two amazing things today - 1) a guy hit the big drop on the Red Line while I was going over it in a chair - 12-15 footer? He hit it like it was nothing (in contrast to what I expected based on how he skied up to the drop!). 2) somewhere on the East side I saw someone try to clear a small gully in the untracked off to the side of a trail (forget which one) and he didn't quite make it, both his ski tips went straight into the wall on the far side of the gully and he double ejected. Luckily there was a lot of powder there to break his fall, but it looked like something out of a cartoon!
Conditions were perhaps the best I've ever skied (or at least the best since I started skiing as an adult). There were two parts to the mountain - the top 2/3rds was soft and pillowy, there were plenty of moguls around, but they were nice and soft. Any powder in the woods and on the edges was about boot deep and easy turning. I lost my pole in the snow a few times - glad it was strapped onto my arm, but for the most part I floated on top of it rather than sinking all the way down - even the soft powder had some density to it. At one point I sunk my pole, it got stuck and I slid into it instead of around it, I whacked my head pretty good on that fall - so glad I had a helmet on!
The bottom third of the mountain was not icy, but the snow was pretty dense and solid. The chatter as you cruised over the hard snow was a pretty good contrast to the soft stuff up top. Crossing into the untracked snow was not good on the lower third, I suspect this was the "manky" snow from yesterday that had solidified. You could turn in it, but it broke into blocks as you skied through it - I'm sure there's some name for this kind of snow - crud maybe?
I hit most of the trails on the mountain, but I thought the West side was in better shape - since it was ungroomed, it seemed to be a bit looser. I had a lot of great runs, it would be hard to pick one as the ROTD, but Talisman, Slide of Hans, Sorcerer and Broomstick were all great - with Trick as an honorable mention. Being solo I didn't spend a lot of time in the woods, but the stuff below Broomstick (I _think_ that's where I was going in) was pretty damn good. I didn't look at the map much, just kind of pointed down hill and took different trails each time - it might have been the Hallows, but now that I look at the map, I think they would be too far down the mountain to be as soft as the woods I was skiing. While I don't know if you could get an untracked line from the top to the bottom, there were plenty of untracked lines available.
I rode the singles line all day, but it turns out there aren't a lot of singles when its a double chair - so I waited through the regular line a few times as well. There were lift lines a few times during the day, but I never waited for more than 10 minutes for a chair. Most of the time I waited less than a few minutes. The trails seemed to be empty all day. I can only think of one or two times when I waited for a minute for a group of people to go by so I could have the trail to myself again.
I got there at 8:30 and skied to literally the last chair, taking my last run down Talisman - awesome run to end the day, even with my now over-cooked legs. The vibe at Magic is pretty great, everyone I rode up with was uber cool and happy to be skiing Magic over any of the other large places nearby.
I found that skiing solo I tended to go slower than I do when I ski with my son. Once I realized I was going slow, I found faster skiers to follow for short sections, that seemed to get me back up to speed. I'd do it again in a heartbeat...
John
Almost forgot - I saw two amazing things today - 1) a guy hit the big drop on the Red Line while I was going over it in a chair - 12-15 footer? He hit it like it was nothing (in contrast to what I expected based on how he skied up to the drop!). 2) somewhere on the East side I saw someone try to clear a small gully in the untracked off to the side of a trail (forget which one) and he didn't quite make it, both his ski tips went straight into the wall on the far side of the gully and he double ejected. Luckily there was a lot of powder there to break his fall, but it looked like something out of a cartoon!
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I've never seen a single line at Magic. A great problem to have - how busy was the place - how long were the lines?
those cliffs on the redline like they were anthills. ...saw him run that twice on separate lift rides...compared to how I rode the red and black lines this dude was a pro.
