The NEW Magic Mountain

[JoeB-Z]

The rain wound up around 1PM. I thought it would groom out after the freeze but I'm a dope about this stuff.

 

[ne_skier]

Opensnow showing 11" of snow for Magic in the next 5 days...this Monday storm could be an answer to our prayers

 

[IceEidolon]

Per socials they're going after Hocus Pocus next, not the West Side - at least that's where the portable HKDs are headed. They could in theory run the HKDs and fans off the 300 line and use extra air on the top of Wizard or on Sorcerer tower HKDs.

 

[ne_skier]

With the snow that's coming, I see no need to head over to the west side. They certainly won't be getting anything over there open for this weekend so it won't do them much good short term. The best strategy in my opinion is to keep filling in the gaps on the east side to spread out crowds as much as possible. The additions of Showoff, Carumba -> Lower Red, and Hocus Pocus should eliminate any lower mtn bottlenecks (LMC runout), and the terrain park will be a nice addition as well. If the snow turns out to be as much as OpenSnow is predicting, I could see most, if not all of the groomers open up (including west side groomers) as well as probably about half of the ungroomed/glade runs, with the exception of steep / super rocky stuff, a la Upper Magician.

 

[Newpylong]

Per socials they're going after Hocus Pocus next, not the West Side - at least that's where the portable HKDs are headed. They could in theory run the HKDs and fans off the 300 line and use extra air on the top of Wizard or on Sorcerer tower HKDs.

Sorcerer doesn't have fixed gear but Talisman does. I could be wrong but I think the system is designed to be used as you describe. I think it's a weird setup where the 250 HP pump only runs the "300" loop and the 400 HP pump only the "400" loop. Both don't operate off a common header. Need DoWork to confirm!

Should be a ton of air left if they're only using the HKDs and fans. Believe they have 4000 CFM with both of those rotaries.

 

[IceEidolon]

I believe Sorcerer got at least some towers fairly recently, could be wrong.

They'll run out of HKD sleds before they run out of air on one compressor - there are only ~15 portable Impulse/Vipers. If the team wanted to, there should be extra water to run anything off the 400 line and a whole compressor idle, it's just a question of where to go, with what, and of manpower at that point. There's a couple spots they could tie into 400 line water right around Hocus Pocus, and the beginner area is 400 line also so they won't be limited to just the small pump.

You're also right about the pump split, 300 line is Hocus Pocus and Showoff, 400 line is everything else. The pumps are separate.

 

[slatham]

Sorcerer doesn't have fixed gear but Talisman does. I could be wrong but I think the system is designed to be used as you describe. I think it's a weird setup where the 250 HP pump only runs the "300" loop and the 400 HP pump only the "400" loop. Both don't operate off a common header. Need DoWork to confirm!

Should be a ton of air left if they're only using the HKDs and fans. Believe they have 4000 CFM with both of those rotaries.

300 line and 400 separate. IIRC 300 was original installation back when they had lower mountain lifts, and 400 was later and done separately. Could be wrong.

I highly doubt they do Hocus Pocus/Terrain Park/ Beginner area AND try to get snow on west side. I say too much for crew and as noted, not enough time to get west side open for the weekend anyhow. With luck they get enough natural next week to cover at least run in/out and all they need is to focus on steeps.

No fixed guns on Sorcerer unless they put them in since October.

 

[Newpylong]

300 line and 400 separate. IIRC 300 was original installation back when they had lower mountain lifts, and 400 was later and done separately. Could be wrong.

I highly doubt they do Hocus Pocus/Terrain Park/ Beginner area AND try to get snow on west side. I say too much for crew and as noted, not enough time to get west side open for the weekend anyhow. With luck they get enough natural next week to cover at least run in/out and all they need is to focus on steeps.

No fixed guns on Sorcerer unless they put them in since October.

That makes sense thanks. That is a lot of mountain for only a single 250 and 400 for sure.

 

[ne_skier]

Update on the snow, for Sunday night into Monday (not counting potential little snowfalls later in the week) it looks like the low estimate is around 1 foot and the high estimate is 21”

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Reserved Magic on Indy Pass for Monday - which will be my first time there.. Doesn't look like any rooms are available too close to Londonderry so will likely have to book Sunday night in Manchester area. How bad are those roads gonna be and any travel tips? And would I be better of spending Sun night elsewhere to be coming from a different direction than Manchester?

 

[slatham]

Reserved Magic on Indy Pass for Monday - which will be my first time there.. Doesn't look like any rooms are available too close to Londonderry so will likely have to book Sunday night in Manchester area. How bad are those roads gonna be and any travel tips? And would I be better of spending Sun night elsewhere to be coming from a different direction than Manchester?

Yes, if you can, stay in Londonderry area or other towns in the golden triangle area. There is a significant and problematic hill coming up from Manchester which IF you can avoid, you should. Weston, Bondville, So Londonderry, even over in Chester.

Regardless, one should have snow tires....

 

[ThatGuy]

Reserved Magic on Indy Pass for Monday - which will be my first time there.. Doesn't look like any rooms are available too close to Londonderry so will likely have to book Sunday night in Manchester area. How bad are those roads gonna be and any travel tips? And would I be better of spending Sun night elsewhere to be coming from a different direction than Manchester?

The hill coming up from Manchester is pretty long as Slatham said, I wouldn’t want to drive it in a storm.

 

[Hastur]

I'd rather come in from chester than manchester, but 11 should be fine. Like slatham and thatguy said coming from manchester will require quite a hill climb and it will be a shitshow if you are following people without good tires. It will be pounding monday morning and 11 probably tops out at 2300 ish feet before you decend the hill to bromley.

Its certainly not unheard of for 11 to be closed between manchester and peru due to ice/snow

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Yes, if you can, stay in Londonderry area or other towns in the golden triangle area. There is a significant and problematic hill coming up from Manchester which IF you can avoid, you should. Weston, Bondville, So Londonderry, even over in Chester.

Regardless, one should have snow tires....

The hill coming up from Manchester is pretty long as Slatham said, I wouldn’t want to drive it in a storm.

I'd rather come in from chester than manchester, but 11 should be fine. Like slatham and thatguy said coming from manchester will require quite a hill climb and it will be a shitshow if you are following people without good tires. It will be pounding monday morning and 11 probably tops out at 2300 ish feet before you decend the hill to bromley.

Its certainly not unheard of for 11 to be closed between manchester and peru due to ice/snow

Appreciate the tips all. I do have a Subaru Forester with brand new Blizzak top of line winter tires, but there will no doubt be a lot of long weekend warriors out with poorly equipped vehicles creating extra hazards. Based on this feedback if I can't book a room somewhere with better access than Manchester, I will make a different plan for Monday at a place where I can get lodging more accessible to mountain. There should be great skiing about everywhere Monday. Maybe hit Catamount instead which would also make for a shorter drive home to NJ after skiing Monday, when I expect roads will still be rough.

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Anyone have experience to share about Snowdon Chalet Motel nearby?

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Reserved Magic on Indy Pass for Monday - which will be my first time there.. Doesn't look like any rooms are available too close to Londonderry so will likely have to book Sunday night in Manchester area. How bad are those roads gonna be and any travel tips? And would I be better of spending Sun night elsewhere to be coming from a different direction than Manchester?

lol. good luck with that.

i drove from manchester to stratton at 6 AM during that massive December storm last year. i barely got up the mountain. i wont do that again. skiing Monday is generally a dumb and dangerous proposition especially if you cant stay over Monday to tuesday, but at least magic is least likely to have wind holds.

i am going to montpelier Saturday night, jay sunday, then home before the snow and danger driving. magic next weekend for sure tho.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

these storms are when my 'stay in a shitty motel in a town 30 minutes away' just doesn't cut it. no way to safely ski this storm unless you can be within 5 miles of the mountain on Monday morning and stay over into Tuesday

 

[slatham]

Anyone have experience to share about Snowdon Chalet Motel nearby?

Not directly, but heard its OK and a viable option for sure. Pretty good commute to Magic too.

If you go with plan B, Catamount, keep an eye on mix line. TBH right now Magic is not clearly north of it either, but Catamount way more dicey.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

could really use a little eastward shift of the low. its tracking like right over the vt/nh/ma border now. we need that baby over the bay.

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Not directly, but heard its OK and a viable option for sure. Pretty good commute to Magic too.

If you go with plan B, Catamount, keep an eye on mix line. TBH right now Magic is not clearly north of it either, but Catamount way more dicey.

Thanks for pointing that out. Now looking at Greek Peak option, to ski Sun and Mon, which seems solidly in Snow belt and has advantage that storm will pass through there first so there will be more on ground Mon AM and less falling on drive home.