The NEW Magic Mountain

[ne_skier]

This season was a weird one, amazing from mid-Jan to late Feb but a delayed snowmaking season and a lack of a March snowstorm combined with a vicious thaw freeze cycle

 

[slatham]

Except the past 2 weeks has just been thaw. Rain tomorrow. This is the end in SoVT.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

my plan is to do cannon/maine next weekend, and then one final hurrah at killington/sugarbush in mid april. what a whimper of an end to the season

 

[ThatGuy]

Red Line looking totally sendable lol.

 

[slatham]

Well it might have been the last day but it was a great day. Snowmaking trails holding strong with a bare spot here and there and even all natural Up Your Sleeve skiing well. Sad it’s over and if March had been closer to normal it wouldn’t be. But it is the last weekend of March so not a disaster. Magic did a great job with COVID and the weather and I think has set themselves apart in a lot of ways. Can’t wait for next year.

 

[ThatGuy]

Was a beautiful day, skied right to last chair.

 

[keyser soze]

I was talking with someone who had a Magic pass this year, but did not use it because of COVID and was deferring it to next year. He said they allowed him to ski one day recently without activating his pass. That is excellent customer service and super cool.

 

[Tonyr]

Skied Magic for the first time on the last day of the season yesterday. I can tell this place must be really fun fully opened. Reminded me of MRG in Southern VT can't wait to go back next year.

 

[ne_skier]

Alpine update's projections for this coming construction year:
-Black Line Quad re-engineered and completed for 21-22 peak season
-Snowmaking pond enlarged, pipe repair on Black Line & Witch, snowmaking added to Little Dipper, maybe Rabbit Run
-Handle tow on the upper 2/3 of Little Dipper completed, restoring lift access to the full beginner complex for the first time since 1991
Can't wait to see this materialize

 

[urungus]

-Black Line Quad re-engineered and completed for 21-22 peak season

Fingers crossed, but it’s concerning that they’ve already slipped past the start of next season.

 

[skithetrees]

Fingers crossed, but it’s concerning that they’ve already slipped past the start of next season.

Greetings from Londonderry,

Another dose of rain Sunday and unless we get a snow storm of 8"+ (and we don't see one right now with how Wednesday is playing out), then last Saturday's Spring Fling was our final day. And a fun one it was with plenty of soft snow by the afternoon on both East & West Side snowmaking trails. Beautiful views from the Sunshine Corner bar and T-BAR added to the festive times as well as Flamingo Tosses from Red and live music at the BLT.

We are already planning for the 21/22 (non-pandemic) season which should be a blow out! We can finally finish the re-engineered Quad Lift this spring and enlarge the snowmaking pond this fall, with pipe repair on Black Line and Witch to add more snowmaking with our larger pond. Plus, more snowmaking in our expanded beginner area with the handle tow there ready-to-go. The work goes on to #makebettermagic.

Season Passes, with Early Bird spring pricing that saves up to $200/pass on regular rates and up to $100/pass on summer rates, go on sale by April 15th-June 15th. We continue to put the emphasis on our less crowded experience here in lift lines and on trails by limiting capacity here. We've done this for 5 straight seasons with a cap on day tickets. Now we are also doing it by adding a cap on Season Pass sales!

We've quadrupled our pass holders over the last 5 seasons, and we are comfortable with where we are, and want to keep unlimited daily access available for our Magic pass holders, while also keeping some capacity available for day ticket buyers and Indy pass holders who want to ski here (advanced online sales and reservations will continue to be needed to guarantee a spot with our capacity restrictions for day tickets/Indy passes). On peak Saturdays we will plan on maximum lift lines of 5-10 minutes with all lifts operating, including the new Quad.

< Skier experience is greater than sales volume >

Specifically, we will be limiting our usual high growth in season passes to just 5% over this last season.

It's definitely different here.

Thank you for making Magic happen.

- Geoff

—————/
the full update. Ne_skiers summary was helpful but the wording of the update is more optimistic. The season pass comment is surprising to me. They must have had a great season. I think the added crowds midweek (from my observation) probably helped as well. Good for the magic team.

 

[ne_skier]

Ne_skiers summary was helpful but the wording of the update is more optimistic

Was actually typing an update just as you posted that. I somewhat had a "do my eyes deceive me" moment reading that, but it's good news nonetheless
Another thing I was wondering about was the lift operation schedule. When the project was originally announced the plan was to have Red primary midweek and Black primary on the weekends with Red as a backup, but now it sounds more like the opposite is happening on the weekends. Wouldn't surprise me, as it can take some speed to get up to Black from the trails that spit out onto Lower Magic Carpet and dump you downhill of the T-Bar

 

[kancamagus]

Wouldn't surprise me, as it can take some speed to get up to Black from the trails that spit out onto Lower Magic Carpet and dump you downhill of the T-Bar

It's be great if there was a rope tow from near the base of red up to black to help in this situation, like the short Lazy J rope tow at the summit of Arapahoe Basin that helps you get over to the back side Montezuma Bowl.

 

[Hastur]

I can't see there being any lines at all if they run red and black at the same time. They'll run out of parking before lift capacity.

 

[skithetrees]

I can't see there being any lines at all if they run red and black at the same time. They'll run out of parking before lift capacity.

They do have the lower lot, but not sure what shape that is in. Regardless, between the parking limitations and limits on sales, I can’t imagine too much of any lines once everything is running. I think in a lot of ways, Magic is becoming more unique and sought after every year, which is great to see. Sitting by the fire pit having a drink after a great day of skiing and having ski patrol, Geoff, and even total strangers saying hello and stopping to chat makes the place truly unique and great. How far the mountain has come is reflected in the real estate market with hardly anything for sale. No two bedrooms in Trailside and nothing in Mountainside that I have heard of. Last I checked, there wasn’t even anything on the circle. Glad we got in when we did 30 years ago. All the drama along the way makes it that much sweeter now.

 

[slatham]

Was actually typing an update just as you posted that. I somewhat had a "do my eyes deceive me" moment reading that, but it's good news nonetheless
Another thing I was wondering about was the lift operation schedule. When the project was originally announced the plan was to have Red primary midweek and Black primary on the weekends with Red as a backup, but now it sounds more like the opposite is happening on the weekends. Wouldn't surprise me, as it can take some speed to get up to Black from the trails that spit out onto Lower Magic Carpet and dump you downhill of the T-Bar

Where did you see a change in planned operating schedule between Red&Black?

My guess is when everything settles out and conditions are good it'll be Red, Black, Red & Black, Black (Th-Su)

Lower parking lots very usable and fairly large (not to mentioned more car pooling next year I presume). Also they have the bus to transport people form lower lot.

 

[ne_skier]

Where did you see a change in planned operating schedule between Red&Black?

Here's a liftblog article written in 2018 when the project was announced, note the end bit talking about Black being the new primary lift: https://liftblog.com/2018/05/09/magic-mountain-to-build-two-new-lifts/
Meanwhile, here's a quotation from the recent alpine update:
"On peak Saturdays we will plan on maximum lift lines of 5-10 minutes with all lifts operating, including the new Quad."
Neither mentioned anything about weekdays, but I recall Magic saying a year or so ago that Red would remain primary on weekdays and non-peak weekends

Red and Black will have a combined capacity of 3000 PPH, compared to Red alone (1000 PPH) and Red and the old Black chair (1620 PPH). Those two lifts will have nearly the same out-of-base capacity as all of Magic's (excluding Timberside) lifts in the late 80s (Red, Black, Sun Corner, Green) so there will be a massive reduction in lift lines. Also of course keep in mind that unlike last year, lifts will be operating at full capacity (That is if covid is mostly gone).

 

[slatham]

Ok I thought they had recently said how they will run. In my discussions its been very much "have to see" with it fairly likely that only Red will be needed on Thursday, while both Red & Black will run on Saturday. Friday/Sunday more a question. In any event, a good problem to have: "Which summit lift shall we run today?"

 

[Hastur]

As the mountain gets more passholders, have there been any thoughts about adding an extra day to the operating schedule? Monday or Wednesday would be awesome.

 

[ThatGuy]

As the mountain gets more passholders, have there been any thoughts about adding an extra day to the operating schedule? Monday or Wednesday would be awesome.

On the Storm Skiing Podcast last year Geoff said it doesn’t make sense financially to be open midweek. Though I agree an extra day open would be nice. Maybe they’ve reevaluated the possibility since then.