Magic Mystery Mountain and Middle Berry's Bowl of Snow

[EdBacon]

I saw the weather has been good in Vermont recently. It's been snowing and its cold and I wanted to get after it so I told my boss I needed to take off work Friday and he said well don't come in Monday then so I have a four day weekend. 

 

Yesterday I used my Indy Pass for independently owned and operated ski areas to redeem a day ticket at Magic Mountain. I haven't been here in like ten years. I liked it a lot the first time I visited. I liked it the second time too. I rode the lift with a guy who made his own snowboard out of wood. Wow. 

 

Magic reminds me what a wuss I am. It's a very difficult mountain. Sadly it is a little low tide right now. They haven't had a major snowfall in two weeks now although last night they might have gotten a bit of a refill. 4-6 inches and enough to freshen the groomers. But Magic is the place with some very very difficult terrain that really needs A LOT of natural snow to get into. Black Magic, Magician, Red Line. That stuff just is not going to hit unless they get 2ish feet more snowpack. As it was, it was hard and bumped. Magic don't groom most of the mountain and you gotta have your legs in shape, son. Mine were hurting. The groomers were in great shape though and cruising Medium and some other blue squares was great. I tried part of Black Line and Twilight Zone and they were bumpy and HARD. I remember that Talisman was good but that whole side of the mountain is natural snow only and ungroomed and is HARD to me.

The lodge at Magic Mountain is probably my favorite. Their chili is pretty good. 

Today I used my Indy Pass for independently owned and operated ski areas to redeem a day ticket at Middlebury Snowball. I have never visited but heard good things. I think this place would be fun. They are having a great snowfall year and everything is open. Middlebury is probably sitting on 2x or 3x the snowpack Magic has right now. They also have some very difficult looking terrain. I'll do it next time if someone from PASR goes with me as witness. 

High temps today were -2F so my time was limited. Lasted about two hours. Got to see a fair amount of Middlebury Snowball in that time. I really liked it. Reminds me of Plattekill. Very simple. Two lifts. Lifts were slow. Some very gnarly looking lift line runs. Lots of tree skiing. They don't seem to get much traffic. Lots of fluffy chop and pow. The side under the quad chair was dust on hard pack on the black diamonds but I enjoyed it. 

 

Made it about two hours and went inside. Warmed up with some mozzarella sticks in front of the fire. They had live music today. No bar at Middlebury. I liked Magic's lodge more because it has a bar. 

 

Drove back to my room and stopped at a Goodwill in Rutland. Picked up Black Mask and Missing In Action on VHS, starring Jet Li and Chuck Norris, respectively. 

 

Anyway it snowed some up in the hills today so tomorrow may go to Prospect.

 

 

[EdBacon]

Edit: a correction: Middlebury I said the side under the quad was wind scoured but that is actually a triple lift. The other side is also a triple. I think the windier side is the Worth Mountain side. The other side is the Falls side and has less wind exposure.

Edited February 8 by EdBacon

[PSUFrankenstein]

Nice report.  Magic is a great place...i hit it last year on a good day, maybe I'll get back there next month

[Icecoast]

Can’t wait to Indy both those mountains next season. Good report!

[Johnny Law]

Sick trip ! Middlebury has excellent terrain for being so small and if you go when the college is there no worries about the bar, they bring it to you

[EdBacon]

Will need to spend more time at Middlebury another year. Looks like some fun times in there. 

Edited February 10 by EdBacon

[trackbiker]

Middlebury is great and never crowded even on weekends and the parking lot is full. When the Bailey Falls chair is running and the snow is good it's great on the back side. All natural snow over there.