Category: Magic Mountain

2009-2010 Season, January, Magic Mountain, Powder Day

Rediscovering the Magic

 

Magic delivered on MLK Day with the most new snow in Vermont. And while some locations in New Hampshire received the same or more new snow, Magic offered up the best combination of cost, terrain, and lack of crowds on a holiday weekend. Magic is always a safe (and cheap!) location on a holiday weekend for crowd avoidance. So this storm could not have been better timed.

Having said that, this was my first time skiing Magic during which they had a lift line attendant checking tickets and organizing the lift line. The two line coral backup up to a ten chair wait at one point. Wow! There were no chairs going up empty at Magic today until very late in the afternoon. It seems like the word is finally getting out about Magic.

Magic received half a foot of fresh. Powder consistency was fairly high moisture content but still rather of powdery. Great snow for packing down and improving the already ample base. My observations are that Magic did not receive rain prior to the snow. The new snow fell on a bomber but rather crusty base. The new snow was definitely much needed. Base is good but great conditions on a good base is better. All trails were open and skiing very well!

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2008-2009 Season, January, Magic Mountain, Powder Day

Magic Mountain Boot to Knee Deep Powder!

Lots of uncertainty about a storm and how much would fall in Vermont. Storm projections decidedly favored southern New England with storm totals rapidly diminishing to the north. With a rare drive to southern Vermont tipping the day trip meter at two and a half hours on dry pavement, I only wanted to make the drive if it was going to be worth the effort.

And it definitely was! Words can not describe but I will do my best. After a harrowing drive that lasted more than three hours and involved knuckles from a virtually unplowed I-91, I got to Magic at 8:45am and hooked up with Kingsley. Magic opens at 8am on the weekends which I totally dig but did not work in my favor today!

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2004-2005 Season, AlpineZone Meet Up, Magic Mountain, March

AlpineZone.com Meet Up at Magic Mountain, VT

Brian & Steve on Magic Carpet

Another successful AlpineZone.com Meet Up was staged for Magic Mountain in Southern Vermont for late March. Bob, Brian, and I met in the lodge and we ran into MrMagic on the slopes. The morning began with beautiful weather and good conditions though it was cloudy most of the day with clouds burning off to allow for decent views towards the afternoon. Magic Mountain had 100% of its terrain open with about somewhere between a quarter to a third left ungroomed.

We begin with a warm up run down Medium to Vertigo with nice packed powder opening up to some big arcs near the bottom. Next we skied Trick to Wand to Showoff; getting in Trick before it scraped up too much. Over on Talisman, a thin groomed track was run down the center with natural and bumps on either side. I liked skier’s right up top and skier’s left down low while Bob and Brian tended to stay on the rough groomed patch. I wanted to show the guys Broomstick which is a great narrow trail off the top of the mountain. However, Bob’s knee was recovering and needed a stress free day of skiing. Despite Broomstick looking flat, I feared Heart of Magician and Lucifer were likely bumped. I volunteered to inspect by way of Master Magician (a guys gotta have his fun ). I took Master skier’s right and I think I overheard a fellow skier mention the words sick and nuts in the same sentence but I wasn’t sure. Skier’s left was fantastic! I only hit three rocks but I scored nearly untouched snow which was by far the best on the mountain. Later I hit Master again skier’s right through the trees which was dust on crust and dust on ice. Not so good. I found out Broomstick was unfortunately not doable without hitting very user unfriendly bumps on Heart or Lucifer.

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2004-2005 Season, Magic Mountain, March

Magic Mountain, VT

Master Magician

Awesome day done up proper at Magic Mountain. All trails were open despite some thin cover. Action on the groomers got the morning off to a fine start. You could say I began my morning by turning a Trick. Lower sections of the mountain featured ripping groomed snow great for opening up the turns and picking up some speed. Magic is extremely underrated for their groomed terrain. All the groomers except Wizard were great in the morning and stayed great all day. Wizard featured frozen granular surfaces that were not enjoyable in the morning but finally corned up late in the afternoon.

While riding the lift, I spoke with a college kid racing in the Thompson Division (my former racing division when I attended UMass Lowell). The kid skis Stratton all the time due to his girl friend having a Condo at the mountain. He had never skied Magic before and he was raving about the mountain! Another convert, I love it! You just have to ski it on a good day to understand.

For natural snow, things started out very hard with frozen granular surfaces. My legs were not moving quick enough as I was tired and undernourished. Essentially, I was making it look like amateur day on Talisman, Sorcerer, Twilight Zone, Heart of Magician, and Goniff. Talisman and Heart were pretty nice at lower elevations but I did not care much for the unforgiving frozen bumps of Sorcerer. Goniff was significantly better Twilight Zone which is rarely the case.

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2004-2005 Season, January, Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain, VT

Goniff Glade

One week after a legendary blizzard slammed into Southern New England, I ventured forth towards Magic Mountain to sample Southern Vermont’s finest and most challenging terrain. Originally, I planned on driving to Magic the morning of the now infamous Blizzard of 2005; however, Salem Massachusetts received three feet of powder which left me snowed in. Nothing can be worse for a powder lover than being stranded at home by the magical substance said powder lover desires most.

Unfortunately, the snow from the previous week’s storm fell on uncovered trails lacking any base what so ever. Even more unfortunately was that after one week’s time, most of the powder had blown off the mountain and what little consolidation that occurred still left trails incredibly thin covered. However, Magic Mountain opened 100% of it’s legendary terrain for those skilled or desperate enough or both to attempt to brave their rocky trails.

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