The NEW Magic Mountain

[Bosco DaSkia]

Hugh Conway can not be defeated…..

 

[BenedictGomez]

Why does hughconway exclusively post the sniping on this thread? If he is in the industry, it is very unseemly.

My guess is he's either a former employee or got passed on a gig. That said, he does make some accurate points, even if it's done somewhat passive-aggressive & douche'ily.

 

[ne_skier]

By far the worst thing Magic did with this installation was the nonstop promises that could never be met. I’ve said multiple times on this forum that I support Magic and that they will always be one of my favorite mountains, but that they should not be giving out dates until they get the lift completed and inspected. The MLK weekend deadline was a total disaster and it appears that they gave up on deadlines until they said multiple times this year that they’d be having the lift completed for this season. Either they’re convinced that this lift will defy all of the odds and run this season or it’s unwarranted confidence. From the looks of it there is a possibility this could get done. The mountain is set to receive the machinery needed to install the sheaves some time after Labor Day and there’s no way they’ll let Pfister make them push the rental back. After that it’s putting safety bars on chairs, loading/unloading ramps, electronics and signage, not to mention the certification. 99% of the problem with this installation lies in the ambition of the management team which don’t get me wrong is great when you are 100% sure you’re going to get the lift done, but can come back to hit you in the face hard when you can’t make the deadline.

 

[ne_skier]

My guess is he's either a former employee or got passed on a gig. That said, he does make some accurate points, even if it's done somewhat passive-aggressive & douche'ily.

He makes some good points that I’ll take into consideration, but it seems that there is an agenda at play when every single post he has made on this forum has been trashing on Magic. I mean shit, I’ve said that what they’re doing with the nonstop promises is just short term ambition in exchange for long term failure (read my rant above), but I haven’t made every single post on this forum about some tired rhetoric that while true, everyone has heard before.

 

[tumbler]

I think that Magic's overpromising and underdelivering was from their lack of experience in the industry and their optimism about turning the place around. They have certainly turned the place around and made it better and have learned a lot the hard way- that's experience. Their more recent updates have been more tempered and realistic.
As for Hugh it is an odd take to be trashing a small mountain repeatedly. They are installing a ski lift not making a vaccine. Lighten up Francis. Instead of bitching, why don't you offer to invest and help? I'm sure they would love to decline your investment.

 

[cdskier]

Overpromising and underdelivering certainly was an issue in this case, but I also don't think there's many people out there that would have (or could have) ever anticipated all the issues they ran into. Compound the engineering issues with a global pandemic (which caused numerous lift installation postponements from major ski resorts with deep pockets) and I really just continue to find it hard to criticize Magic too much. Some people also forget that this lift sort of just fell into their lap so they decided to jump on the opportunity when it wasn't something they had really planned to do so soon. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I really question whether other people/mountains/etc could have done a better job if they had the exact same set of circumstances.

 

[deadheadskier]

I guess the one thing I'd question is the availability of funding to complete the project in a timely fashion. From the outside looking in it would appear they are doing the work as operational profits allow for the investment. Not uncommon with small independent businesses that have a small appetite for debt

 

[Hastur]

I guess the one thing I'd question is the availability of funding to complete the project in a timely fashion. From the outside looking in it would appear they are doing the work as operational profits allow for the investment. Not uncommon with small independent businesses that have a small appetite for debt

I have read in a couple of articles and I believe previously on this thread ( don't have time to search sorry) representations that the ownership group is 'well capitalized'. I hope that's not a lie.

If its not they should be capable of easily throwing in the additional funds to complete this lift asap. I hope that is what is happening.

 

[Dickc]

All need to keep in mind that COVID caused major problems with this install. Yes, they have been over optimistic on the install, but some of that came from a promise by Pfister that ended up not working out Re: the major tower work needed. Also, they have had significant problems getting any type of priority from Pfister. I understand one PAYS for priority, and Magic is not in a position to pay for that, but..... Give 'em a break. It WILL get finished, inspected and passed. It'll just take time. Once done, I'm going to buy a weekday ticket and make the 2.75 hour each way day trip just to see how its all working.

 

[slatham]

My 2cents. Funding is not the issue. Overpromising/underdelivering is easy to criticize with 20/20 hindsight. Not sure you can anticipate rock ledge issues, cement contractor not showing (ok, maybe you should have anticipated this one), and above all engineering error in the 21st century. I mean ski lifts have been going in for almost a century. Oh, and Covid, with a complete shut down of work for a while and then ongoing delays.

Right now they need to be careful because they have to fabricate the pieces, which with supply and other covid delays is a wild card. Then install. Then finish. Test. etc. And meanwhile they are working on Green and Red. It'll be close. Fingers crossed for them.

 

[slatham]

Finally got over to Magic for a hike today, beginners area, Wizard then down MC, Wand and Hocus Pocus. As I have not been there this summer some of this might be old news. Load test barrels are stacked at Quad base area. Beginner area pipe and hydrants done, skiers left side, on the right hand trail adjacent to tow. But they can be used to hit the trail to skiers left of the tree “Island”. Base and top tow terminals in place if not finished, and no line yet. Tons of mountain is mowed - basically every non-steep/rocky pitch from what I saw. There’s what appears to be a new tower gun (it had HKD wraps on base and top nozzle) on the ground at top of Wizard Chute. That would be a good place for a tower, to be used frequently IMHO. Pile of lumber in place for Quad offload ramp. Looked like a new valve house on MC just uphill from Sunshine corner. It looked like Green offload ramp being set up for fall rides, but otherwise hard to tell what was going on with the lifts.
A couple of pics. Top terminal of tow, new beginner area pipe tie in with Wizard, and my favorite view from Magician - always gets the adrenaline going no matter what the season.

Almost forgot- newly paved access road up to Magic, ending just after the entry to Lot A (probably Magic property line). Very nice. Lots of new roads in the area……

 

[Newpylong]

Gate valves, barf. Those things are going to suck to throw in the winter especially with no heated valve box. Hopefully one and done!

Looks like they still gotta pour the upper form for the tow.

So much cool stuff going on there.

 

[Do Work]

Gate valves, barf. Those things are going to suck to throw in the winter especially with no heated valve box. Hopefully one and done!

Looks like they still gotta pour the upper form for the tow.

So much cool stuff going on there.

Those valves are getting a heated & insulated valve house, it just hasn't been built yet. I actually really like the heavy gate valves, they may be more work to actuate but they are super beefcake and never leak/have no ambiguity on closure. As long as you can keep the ice out of them they're fantastic IMO. Also way cheaper than butterflies which are way more prone to leaking and generally have light enough duty parts to worry me when being employed by snowmakers that tend to get creative with breaker bars etc. Everything has safety drains and a big part of what we're doing in the summer is geared towards protecting key components through the cold season.

 

[ne_skier]

Looks like work on Red has begun, anyone know the status of those sheave trains scheduled to go up last Saturday?

 

[slatham]

Volunteer Day this Saturday. I am sure there will be updates provided on status of various projects. As of this moment I plan to be there.......

 

[Do Work]

Volunteer Day this Saturday. I am sure there will be updates provided on status of various projects. As of this moment I plan to be there.......

Nice to see you Steve! It was great to get back in the swing of things with the Friends group, that always gets me so damn jazzed for the upcoming season. We did some really great cleanups on some of my favorite intermediate glades and had a ton of families out stretching their legs and scoping out the best lines.

Tons of work crews on the hill right now, with the Red chair de-tensioned and rigged for the top bullwheel to be removed, NDT'd and have the new bearing installed, also all the parts for the vertical drive shaft replacement are either here on in process so that's great too- everything is lining up as it should for the new rope to arrive in October.

Green chair is wrapping up it's tension system refurbish, all the chairs have been relocated and slip tested and all we have left is line work for her to be 100% ready for foliage tours.

As for Black Chair, the crew has all the necessary heavy equipment (finally!) on site and are ready to go on that as soon as a bad solenoid on the skidder boom gets swapped- which just goes to show, sometimes the thing stopping you is a tiny, stupid issue that has nothing to do with the overall crew readiness or willingness and that's just reality. In any case, they are going to town on several jobs at once here and so far the work flow has stayed very productive and when one issue arises we simply jump on the next project while that issue gets straightened out.

If anybody has specific questions I'm happy to try to answer them as best I can. I knw there's an astronomical amount happening all at once and it can get confusing but we are doing our best, and we're here to try to keep you all as informed as we can.

 

[Newpylong]

Have you gotten muddy on Witch yet welding those breaks? Haha just kidding!

 

[Do Work]

Have you gotten muddy on Witch yet welding those breaks? Haha just kidding!

I am training a new welder, so I've been warming him up for that job lol- can't just throw him to the lions like that! As soon as our new welding machine shows up that's our first job with it- likely next week. Can't wait to try the new Fronius out, stoked to ski to a break and weld it without dragging out a whole huge work basket/ snowcat and a generator!

 

[Newpylong]

Hopefully that just doesn't happen during the winter lol. Not fun at all.

Were you guys planning to fix Vertigo or was that another year? It all runs together trying to follow. Maybe Mystery was in the future?

 

[Do Work]

Hopefully that just doesn't happen during the winter lol. Not fun at all.

It always does- which is why the new gear is squarely focused on fast response, minimizing our required gear packout and maximizing efficiency. The new gear out now seriously feels like Star Trek meets James Bond, it's amazing!