emmaurice2
Member
Location: Stratton Mountain, VT
Date Skied: 1/20/2012 (Free Facebook Friday)
Conditions: Powder, Packed Powder, Hardpack
Got on the road at about 6:45, a little behind schedule but not too bad. We were nearly out of CT when I realized that our windshield wiper fluid wasn't squirting, not good since we were getting sprayed with salt as we drove. Stopped off at a gas station, bought some fluid and went to fill up the fluid tank in the car, but it was already full. Uh oh. Rather than bagging the trip we decided we would just stop occasionally to manually clean the windows. Halfway up Rte 22 got the bright idea to fill a squirt bottle with fluid and spray the windshield while driving. This kind of worked, at least well enough that we didn't have to stop every 20 minutes.
Finally pulled into the Sunbowl parking lot at 10:15 and parked pretty close to the lodge. We unloaded the car; Paul took my stuff upstairs while I waited 10 minutes for my free pass. Suited up pretty quickly and was at the lift by 10:35. I rode to the top and hit Black Bear to Polar Bear which was already bumping up. It wasn't my best decision for first run. I was a little shaky and nervous from the harrowing drive and I didn't have my boots on the right settings. I made it down to the Ursa lift, fixed the boot issue and rode back up. This time I stayed on Black Bear which was seeing some pretty heavy traffic, but there was nice snow off to the sides, I just kept skiing and ended up in the lower Tamarack area which is always eerily quiet. No one was skiing over there; only green trails but the snow was so nice I stayed for a couple more runs. I headed back over to the SunBowl side and hit Polar Bear again, with much better results. Upper Middlebrook skied nicely. At about 3pm it was getting a little to scratchy so I called an end to a nice free day of skiing.
We stayed in Bennington at the Hampton Inn since we had a promo and they combined it with an AAA discount. Our windshield wiper fluid squirters miraculously started working again and we had an interesting dinner at Bennington Station restaurant. It was like eating at a supper club in the 1960s. Decent food, but a definite time warp. It's in an old train station, so the architecture is actually quite beautiful.
Location: Magic Mountain, VT
Date Skied: 2/21/2012
Conditions: Powder, packed powder, weeds, hardpack
We woke on Saturday morning to falling snow and got on the road at about 8am. It was slow going from Bennington to Londonderry. Got to Magic at about 9:45 and parked in Lot B, which I had never seen before.
We headed up to the second floor; Paul took my picture with the red chair plaque while I pointed at my chair number.
I had snagged the last online discount ticket, so got my ticket, suited up and headed out to the red chair. For the number of people there for the race program, there were no lines. The west side was closed for snow-making and general thin cover--okay by me as I don't ski very much over there. I took my first run down Upper Magic Carpet and Lower Trick to Hocus Pocus which was the most popular route so it was pretty scraped off early on. I repeated this run, but stopped to watch the races on Show Off. I was really impressed with how well those young ones skied, much more exciting than I had expected. On my third run I stopped at the top of Medium and Up Your Sleeve which appeared to be roped off, but I followed a skier's tracks with my eyes and realized that the rope was actually only blocking off a deep gully near a water pipe. My observation skills rewarded me with fresh tracks down Up Your Sleeve and then Lower Magic Carpet.
By my third run on this area of the mountain, others had figured out how to get over there, so I ended up skiing with a father and his two sons who had never been to Magic before. The two young 'uns had never skied on ungroomed trails before and were ecstatic about it. On another run I followed a husband and wife, who were really good skiers and kind of picked up on some of their technique, which helped me more than I would have thought. Those blue and green trails were definitely much more difficult than normal, and offered me just the right amount of challenge. I stopped and talked to the couple I had been following after watching the husband take a short detour through the woods above Mystery then launch of a nice rocky ledge with ease. They were super nice and said it was their first day out this season, and apparently Magic regulars.
It was nice to see Magic so busy, and everyone was friendly as always. I hope Magic gets a nice boost from Mother Nature soon; I really miss watching people tackle Red Line from the lift.
It was my first trip to Vermont this season and definitely a memorable one.
Date Skied: 1/20/2012 (Free Facebook Friday)
Conditions: Powder, Packed Powder, Hardpack
Got on the road at about 6:45, a little behind schedule but not too bad. We were nearly out of CT when I realized that our windshield wiper fluid wasn't squirting, not good since we were getting sprayed with salt as we drove. Stopped off at a gas station, bought some fluid and went to fill up the fluid tank in the car, but it was already full. Uh oh. Rather than bagging the trip we decided we would just stop occasionally to manually clean the windows. Halfway up Rte 22 got the bright idea to fill a squirt bottle with fluid and spray the windshield while driving. This kind of worked, at least well enough that we didn't have to stop every 20 minutes.
Finally pulled into the Sunbowl parking lot at 10:15 and parked pretty close to the lodge. We unloaded the car; Paul took my stuff upstairs while I waited 10 minutes for my free pass. Suited up pretty quickly and was at the lift by 10:35. I rode to the top and hit Black Bear to Polar Bear which was already bumping up. It wasn't my best decision for first run. I was a little shaky and nervous from the harrowing drive and I didn't have my boots on the right settings. I made it down to the Ursa lift, fixed the boot issue and rode back up. This time I stayed on Black Bear which was seeing some pretty heavy traffic, but there was nice snow off to the sides, I just kept skiing and ended up in the lower Tamarack area which is always eerily quiet. No one was skiing over there; only green trails but the snow was so nice I stayed for a couple more runs. I headed back over to the SunBowl side and hit Polar Bear again, with much better results. Upper Middlebrook skied nicely. At about 3pm it was getting a little to scratchy so I called an end to a nice free day of skiing.
We stayed in Bennington at the Hampton Inn since we had a promo and they combined it with an AAA discount. Our windshield wiper fluid squirters miraculously started working again and we had an interesting dinner at Bennington Station restaurant. It was like eating at a supper club in the 1960s. Decent food, but a definite time warp. It's in an old train station, so the architecture is actually quite beautiful.
Location: Magic Mountain, VT
Date Skied: 2/21/2012
Conditions: Powder, packed powder, weeds, hardpack
We woke on Saturday morning to falling snow and got on the road at about 8am. It was slow going from Bennington to Londonderry. Got to Magic at about 9:45 and parked in Lot B, which I had never seen before.
We headed up to the second floor; Paul took my picture with the red chair plaque while I pointed at my chair number.
I had snagged the last online discount ticket, so got my ticket, suited up and headed out to the red chair. For the number of people there for the race program, there were no lines. The west side was closed for snow-making and general thin cover--okay by me as I don't ski very much over there. I took my first run down Upper Magic Carpet and Lower Trick to Hocus Pocus which was the most popular route so it was pretty scraped off early on. I repeated this run, but stopped to watch the races on Show Off. I was really impressed with how well those young ones skied, much more exciting than I had expected. On my third run I stopped at the top of Medium and Up Your Sleeve which appeared to be roped off, but I followed a skier's tracks with my eyes and realized that the rope was actually only blocking off a deep gully near a water pipe. My observation skills rewarded me with fresh tracks down Up Your Sleeve and then Lower Magic Carpet.
By my third run on this area of the mountain, others had figured out how to get over there, so I ended up skiing with a father and his two sons who had never been to Magic before. The two young 'uns had never skied on ungroomed trails before and were ecstatic about it. On another run I followed a husband and wife, who were really good skiers and kind of picked up on some of their technique, which helped me more than I would have thought. Those blue and green trails were definitely much more difficult than normal, and offered me just the right amount of challenge. I stopped and talked to the couple I had been following after watching the husband take a short detour through the woods above Mystery then launch of a nice rocky ledge with ease. They were super nice and said it was their first day out this season, and apparently Magic regulars.
It was nice to see Magic so busy, and everyone was friendly as always. I hope Magic gets a nice boost from Mother Nature soon; I really miss watching people tackle Red Line from the lift.
It was my first trip to Vermont this season and definitely a memorable one.
uke:. No windshield fluid so I had to grin and bear it for another 1/2 hour of using my windshield wipers to clean. It's pretty bad when you can see the dirt and salt streaming down the windshield as I had a build up on the edges. I never saw so much salt on my box I use to store my skis (granted, I usually travel 1/2 hour each way and let the bus driver do the work). It was all very much worth it in the end.
