Magic Mt., VT 2/13/00

[GregB]

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/14/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>My Youth Corp. card took me to Magic Sunday for my first time there. From the access road I could tell that this place was going to be fun. Lots of gnarly stuff could be spotted though the windshield. I was on the red double at 8:45. I took a groomer to warm up. Betwixit to Trick to Showoff. Off the summit the groomers were packed powder but as you lowered in elevation the snow turned to hard pack with some ice and death cookies here and there. It was time to find the natural snow trails. T-Zone, Goniff Glade, Redline, Master Magician, Upper Heart of the Magician (needs lots of pruning this summer), and Slide of Hans were all roped off. You could see from the few tracks that went down them that it was an inch of crust on top of the powder with lots of saplings sticking through. I took Wizard to Sorcerer. Sorcerer was pretty scraped off in the middle with mounds of rider made death cookie, small moguls, rocks, ice, and saplings. Very entertaining. I was racing the death cookies I got rolling when I turned. Next was Broomstick, a 30' wide bob sled ride down to Lucifer. Both were left ungroomed and lots of fun. Lucifer was similar to Socerer's conditions. The headwall on the bottom of Lucifer gave me a few problems with lots of ledge sticking though. Next was Witch, scratchy, rocky, powder, cookies, saplings, it had a little bit of everything. Upper and Lower Talisman had small bumps that were spaced too far apart with chalk and ice in between them from the man made snow. I switched back and forth from Wizard/Sorcerer to Witch/Lucifer until 2:30 without stopping for lunch. I was totally rubber legged. There were no lift lines all day. Maybe every third chair was empty all day. This is definitely the place to go to avoid the crowds. Plenty of room in the lodge. Friendly people everywhere. Two thumbs up!