The NEW Magic Mountain

[Hastur]

Very helpful and great to hear. Sounds like the forecast has improved a bit over past 24 hours (i.e. bit more tilted to snow vs heavy rain). My wife and I are debating between this weekend vs. maybe Fri+Sat next week at Magic. Any thoughts on this? I know it is all speculative, but you guys have much more knowledge and expertise on this than I do, so appreciate any insights!

FWIW I'm skipping this weekend. The reality is that with snow in the forecast and it being MLK weekend, there will be quite a line up on Red.

Sat and Sun on MLK weekend with heavy snow it will be packed. Covid or not.

It will be 2 of the 6 days a year that they need Black spinning.

I'm not saying don't go, I'm just saying be prepared for 20 minute lines on red. Of course every other mountain is So VT will have the same lift line problem, except at magic on the way down it will be much less crowded and less tracked up throughout the day

Next friday should be great with a possible refresh next week and cold conditions.

 

[Hillwalker95]

if the forecast holds, magic will get most of the mountain open tomorrow and/or sunday. it will still be thin as fuck and you will hurt your skis, but the high density wet nature of the snow will help cover most shit up. based on the extended forecast, magic should be fair/good thru the end of january, and hopefully beyond if we avoid any more thaws.

ok that's brutally honest - thanks Fri+Sat next week it is then ...

 

[JoeB-Z]

Green is still being repaired as of 4PM today. Red had some sort of problem with wiring on the electrical cable. Rectified. Cost me a run. The snow was quite good today.

 

[ne_skier]

Wow, what an amazing day. Can’t say I’ve been in anything like it, the snow was much better than Saturday and got a chance to ski some runs I haven’t been on before/in a while. Definitely one of the days they would have needed black, but it was tolerable. Red got a 1hr-ish late start because a Brittle Bar needed to be replaced (To anyone wondering: they are sensors on the towers that detect if the cable slipped off the sheaves and into the cable catchers, they are little metal things you’ll see with an Orange cable coming from them.). Overall, a great day

 

[slatham]

Great pics. I love Magician and HOM. This storm and what is coming up is just what we needed.

 

[JoeB-Z]

That was mighty heavy snow and varied as you went. People would not quit. Red started late, Green needed repair after lunchl (for half an hour as accurately informed to me). Something was funky with my ability to put load on the uphill right ski after a right turn so I stopped early. Tomorrow is another day.

 

[JoeB-Z]

I forgot to say the lower part of Trick had cool snow. Hero conditions for that stretch.

 

[ne_skier]

Probably some great groomers today. Avoided most of the usually-groomed runs yesterday as they were mostly packed powder with occasional bumps and ditches, but groomed flat packed powder is the best snow for groomed runs that wont get icy.

 

[ss20]

At magic today. Skied under black and found a few chairs touching each other on the cable (see picture). I couldn't think of a reason for this in the construction process, but kept an open mind. A few hours later I ski by again and there's a dude on a snowmobile taking pictures of the chairs. Naturally I ask, "chair spacing a little tight, huh?" and the reply was "you think you're funny...I recommend you keep on going sir". Tough response but sounds like someones having a bad day, lol. I don't want to speculate but things don't seem positive. that's my story, take it with a grain of salt.


Skiing is off the hook. Black line is my favorite. 4-6" of soft stuff on top of a solid base.

 

[jimmywilson69]

I found it funny...

I could see how that wouldn't be received well from the ops crew though

 

[tumbler]

Must have been a Friday afternoon when that chair was hung...Meh, tight enough

 

[ss20]

I found it funny...

I could see how that wouldn't be received well from the ops crew though

Yeah I don't fault the guy. I thought I was gonna get "oh we do this this on purpose so we can do...xyz"... guess not. Hey at least I got called "sir". I thought I was at deer valley or beaver creek for a second!

Hope they can fix whatever issue it is with black and get it done. Still a good amount of work to do....unload ramp, safety bars, and maybe go back and re tighten some of the grips lol
Nuking now. Free refills for the final couple hours? Love magic

 

[Keelhauled]

Must have been a Friday afternoon when that chair was hung...Meh, tight enough

Torque wrenches are for nerds!

 

[urungus]

Wednesday’s Alpine Update said “Work continues on the Black Quad with communications line work and further drive work this week. It is still a couple weeks away but it will be operating this season and we will let you know when we are ready for state lift testing and certification.”

 

[Hastur]

Great day today. Plenty of lightly tracked trees shots remaining in unmarked woods. Marked woods pretty tracked out. Still decent coverage on most everything. Probably by end of day tomorrow steepest stuff will be beaten to rocks/dirt. steeper Natural pretty much all bumps by end of the day. Lower angle natural still lovely. Groomers will be wicked retahded good. snow showers on and off all day. Pb —> Blackline was Rotd.

 

[ne_skier]

At magic today. Skied under black and found a few chairs touching each other on the cable (see picture). I couldn't think of a reason for this in the construction process, but kept an open mind. A few hours later I ski by again and there's a dude on a snowmobile taking pictures of the chairs. Naturally I ask, "chair spacing a little tight, huh?" and the reply was "you think you're funny...I recommend you keep on going sir". Tough response but sounds like someones having a bad day, lol. I don't want to speculate but things don't seem positive. that's my story, take it with a grain of salt.

I know chairlifts and their operations well, but I've never seen anything like that. It's either some construction practice that I've never heard of or seen before, or serious grip slippage. It looks like you took that photo on Pitch Black, which is by far the steepest section of the lift. I've only see slippage this bad on the Utah Quad at Tussey Mountain, when multiple chairs piled up a year or so ago. Other than that, only on a certain brand of faulty detachables (Yan), all of which have been retrofitted. This lift line is significantly steeper than the one it was on at Stratton, however I struggle to see how that could lead to slippage. Black Line is a very common model used in a large variety of terrain types, and I'd have to believe that it can be adjusted to fit the terrain it serves. Magic is pretty honest about this stuff compared to most resorts, and if you don't hear anything from them, it was likely done on purpose.

 

[ne_skier]

I know chairlifts and their operations well, but I've never seen anything like that. It's either some construction practice that I've never heard of or seen before, or serious grip slippage. It looks like you took that photo on Pitch Black, which is by far the steepest section of the lift. I've only see slippage this bad on the Utah Quad at Tussey Mountain, when multiple chairs piled up a year or so ago. Other than that, only on a certain brand of faulty detachables (Yan), all of which have been retrofitted. This lift line is significantly steeper than the one it was on at Stratton, however I struggle to see how that could lead to slippage. Black Line is a very common model used in a large variety of terrain types, and I'd have to believe that it can be adjusted to fit the terrain it serves. Magic is pretty honest about this stuff compared to most resorts, and if you don't hear anything from them, it was likely done on purpose.

Looked at it again, the place where this photo seems to have been taken was above Pitch Black, so not too steep. Still, not sure, it could be either-or

 

[ss20]

Looked at it again, the place where this photo seems to have been taken was above Pitch Black, so not too steep. Still, not sure, it could be either-or

The only sets of chairs I noticed like this were above Black Pitch. 3 sets of chairs iirc. Both on the downhill and uphill sides.

 

[kancamagus]

Could they have had to temporarily move chairs off a certain patch of cable to check the spicing? The original splicing was two ops (to add in a bonus section), and if they had to shorten the haul rope, could that be a third splice? Or would they "undo" one of the prior splices, cut it shorter, then redo that?

Three splices, three sections with no chairs....

 

[ne_skier]

Took this photo on Sunday of MLK weekend, must have been recent. Same spot you’re talking about