<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/23/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>A stellar few days at Magic. Friday was hard-pack ground-up frozen crust skiing, but it gave me a chance to reconnoiter the real conditions before the big snow started, i.e how much rock and stump was really showing, where the major stuff would rip you under the powder. General assessment: more cover and better mowing than last year at same time. Magician has been cleaned out but not finished in all sections, and those I would not touch without another 2 feet of snow, as the sapplings and lying sticks were obvious hazards. By Friday at 3, I and son Forest (now 9 yrs.) were skiing in blessedly quiet conditions with about 2 to 3" new snow. <BR> <BR>I met Scott Morrison, who had watched me pick my way down Lucifer (old liftline) after I had missed the last groomer cut off, forcing me to ski on insanely slick, but sometimes breakable crust, over the steepest ledges. He suggested I try the Black Magic extreme contest on Sat. <BR> <BR>Sat. dawned with a foot of new light powder. I was up early, the kids all wanting to stay at the house in Andover to play in the snow for the morning . Like I've said before, they're are snow starved. I had to dig out my 2 wheel drive van and real carefully drive to the mountain. The house we stayed at is way the hell out in the hills, one bad move and you're in the ditch. Got the mountain at 8:20, got stuck in the ticket line behind some guy purchasing some extraordinarily complicated package of lessons and rentals. Didn't get on the Red chair till 8: 40, it had been open 20 minutes. Redline (liftline under the red chair) only had 3 or 4 tracks on it, so I hit that, a magnificent, float down, even without a warm up. After that it was to Lucifer in all its varied lines, and getting face shots down the ledges. <BR> <BR>Signed up for the extreme contest, qualifier was on Lucifer, which was close to heaven at about this time. Picture: no wind, big hunks of cut up powder and bumps, and the sun starting to shine. Only 13 contestants, all laughing and joking. Everybody qualifies. <BR> <BR>Sunday I had obligations to ski with old friends and family. Anyway conditions remained primo, the mountain did not groom much at all, although by Monday they got a lot of the cruisers buffed out. But in general the skiing public has to look and feel, and ski slowly, on old fashioned irregular surfaces. More customers than I have ever seen since Magic re-opened. Still, plenty of powder hours after the lift opened on Sat., and max of 8 min liftline. Judging by the comments I over heard, some by what appeared to be well healed Stratton types, people really liked the challenges. Lucifer was pretty populated on Sunday and Monday, and it ain't easy for the average Joe (or Biff, or Muffy ). Geez I remember as a kid, you'd see 1 or 2 skiers a day on that cocked slope, and it was always blown to shit. <BR>Hans Thorner has been redeemed.
Magic Mt., VT 2/19-21/00
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