rocojerry
Member
Where should I go on MLK weekend when my Loon-SundayRiver-Sugarloaf pass is blacked out?
Saddleback was in the running, but couldn't convince a crew to go along -- so opted for the solo trip out to Magic to meet up with some friends of my girlfriend.
Crowds late morning got pretty bad:
My first time ever at Magic, definately not the last... so I set out to explore the unknown mountain... First trip up red-line chair, and looking down at red-line... I like what I see already. Craggy, ungroomed, natural features, bumps and jumps! Some great tough trails open, when most other mountains would be afraid of opening to public. Spent the whole day getting around every corner of the mountain I could. Then heard rumblings of a snowstorm the next day... earlier I heard maybe 1-2 inches, possibly some sleet in there... hype on the mountain (and on my pocket radar) reached 6-12", ok, people were saying a solid foot! This change of events hapily cancelled my plans to head home Monday morning and transitioned the afternoon into a preparation for powder!
Over lunch I spoke with Gregg (RustyGroomer), asking him what trail has held snow well and is skiing good today? He mentioned under the black-chair...
So I've explored a lot of the mountain, seen some of what they called double-black terrain, and really without hesitation started down the top of Black Magic... Surprise! Cliff drops!!
Several of them... 5, 8, 10 footers.. some with not much of a runout at all until the next one hit... It was a bit of 'survival' snowboarding, testing some serious technical abilitities and the key-hones... I bailed on one of the larger drops, heading off into the woods for a turn or two instead... This is all before the 5-8" of sunday night too, conditions were relatively fantastic though, as the trail was not really ski'd much....
After getting down Black Magic, I turned around to see what the heck I just went down...
It actually looks a lot worse from this perspective as from the looking down perspective it was much more covered in snow....
Wanted to enjoy the rest of the day, but as I got off the top and buckled up my binding, *SNAP* the plastic strap broke! Rode down the easiest route with half a binding, and into the rental shop to try to find some spare parts... Worked with the junk pile and put back together a binding that would work for tommorow's (mondays) pow! Was excited!! I had ski's with me, but was not ready to spend this pow day at this mountain floundering on my tele's... After fixing, one test run to ensure they were good to go for pow!
Onto the bar, several Shot-ski's and then the snow started to fall --- and onto MLK monday...
Saddleback was in the running, but couldn't convince a crew to go along -- so opted for the solo trip out to Magic to meet up with some friends of my girlfriend.
Crowds late morning got pretty bad:
My first time ever at Magic, definately not the last... so I set out to explore the unknown mountain... First trip up red-line chair, and looking down at red-line... I like what I see already. Craggy, ungroomed, natural features, bumps and jumps! Some great tough trails open, when most other mountains would be afraid of opening to public. Spent the whole day getting around every corner of the mountain I could. Then heard rumblings of a snowstorm the next day... earlier I heard maybe 1-2 inches, possibly some sleet in there... hype on the mountain (and on my pocket radar) reached 6-12", ok, people were saying a solid foot! This change of events hapily cancelled my plans to head home Monday morning and transitioned the afternoon into a preparation for powder!
Over lunch I spoke with Gregg (RustyGroomer), asking him what trail has held snow well and is skiing good today? He mentioned under the black-chair...
So I've explored a lot of the mountain, seen some of what they called double-black terrain, and really without hesitation started down the top of Black Magic... Surprise! Cliff drops!!
Several of them... 5, 8, 10 footers.. some with not much of a runout at all until the next one hit... It was a bit of 'survival' snowboarding, testing some serious technical abilitities and the key-hones... I bailed on one of the larger drops, heading off into the woods for a turn or two instead... This is all before the 5-8" of sunday night too, conditions were relatively fantastic though, as the trail was not really ski'd much....
After getting down Black Magic, I turned around to see what the heck I just went down...
It actually looks a lot worse from this perspective as from the looking down perspective it was much more covered in snow....
Wanted to enjoy the rest of the day, but as I got off the top and buckled up my binding, *SNAP* the plastic strap broke! Rode down the easiest route with half a binding, and into the rental shop to try to find some spare parts... Worked with the junk pile and put back together a binding that would work for tommorow's (mondays) pow! Was excited!! I had ski's with me, but was not ready to spend this pow day at this mountain floundering on my tele's... After fixing, one test run to ensure they were good to go for pow!
Onto the bar, several Shot-ski's and then the snow started to fall --- and onto MLK monday...
