New England Magic Mountain - Now, Recently

[Josh Matta]

yeah having skied both MRG has way more steep terrain. IF you liked magic, MRG is a bigger magic with snow. The single is probably one of the most sustatain vertical over 2k around.

I also think MRG has some the most easily accessible steep , hard terrain off lifts out of any place I have skied.

 

[Crank]

MRG beats Magic in terrain and in any "normal" season they will have more terrain open with better conditions. Northern VT just gets more snow than southern VT.

As far as infrastructure, MRG wins again. Magic has been having trouble keeping their 2 summit chairs running and has been experiencing financial and ownership turmoil...glad to hear they are still providing a good customer experience and I sincerely hope they can stabilize their financial situation. I tend to ski there when big storms hit southern VT. It is a great place to spend a power day and I can get there in about 3 hours from where I live in CT.

 

[dustyfog]

MRG does have more than one chair; they have at least three. There's the single, the double and the Birdland area chair.

Magic has some very fun terrain. They easily have the most challenging terrain in southern Vermont.

Like all ski areas, both MRG and Magic have trails that span the range from "beginner" to "expert". I think the "legend" of MRG makes it out to be more challenging than it really is. You can always find an "outlier" trail that gets heralded as an example of how difficult an area is. MRG has Paradise. Stowe has (upper) Goat. Magic has (upper) Black Line.

I haven't been to Magic in several years, as I get passes to Stowe now. It's simply a more reliable experience in terms of snow quality for me. Others have different perspectives on the "ideal" mountain. I hope Magic overcomes their perpetual financial difficulties and survives.

Cool, the legendary MRG has 3 chairlifts. And fair observation, all places or many have a trail here and there which are seriously dangerous.

yeah having skied both MRG has way more steep terrain. IF you liked magic, MRG is a bigger magic with snow. The single is probably one of the most sustatain vertical over 2k around.

I also think MRG has some the most easily accessible steep , hard terrain off lifts out of any place I have skied.

interesting, since you are the Stowe guru and have seen video of you skiing some Western-and-almost-Alpine risky-scary terrain off-piste at Stowe, in and out of bounds, that is a pretty weighty observation, duly noted, MRG lives up to its legend.

MRG beats Magic in terrain and in any "normal" season they will have more terrain open with better conditions. Northern VT just gets more snow than southern VT.

As far as infrastructure, MRG winds again. Magic has been having trouble keeping their 2 summit chairs running and has been experiencing financial and ownership turmoil...glad to hear they are still providing a good customer experience and I sincerely hope they can stabilize their financial situation. I tend to ski there when big storms hit southern VT. It is a great place to spend a power day and I can get there in about 3 hours from where I live in CT.

Understood, latitude counts. The folks at Magic who work there, ticket window, cafetaria, ski shop-boot tech, patroller Ted and lifties, all just very cool customers and always grinning, and so darned charmingly polite, was a pleasure being there and we wondered how that culture and terrain could be 'airlifted back to upstate NY/MA !! Asked patroller about pretty rough rocky terrain below lifts and was it inbounds, and a 'trail' as there is a sign saying 'NOT a trail' on a lift post/pylon - he goes , we have a policy, anything within the boundary is skiable, "just check out the burial ground we have out back" Funny dude!

 

[Josh Matta]

Most of the good skiing at Stowe is either above the lifts or behind the mountain. The backcountry from stowe's lift is better than MRG's Backcountry. The inbbounds wood are IMO better than MRG but MRG has tons of mini gulf steep lines and more things to jump off.

 

[dustyfog]

JM, at Stowe above the lifts, so the mountain peak rises above the top of the lifts, i.e. that would be Mount Mansfield ? Have never been hence the question.

By the way, a friend was at MRG while we were at Magic, and he reported today that "it was horrible, old skis are now most definitely my rock skis"; have to tell you though, for the uninitiated and new to Vermont like us, Magic was incredible even if they had 1.35 runs open (the decimal denotes an estimate ) and 1 lift which had bolt issues and lift-ie was repairing while we were on the lift. Just the charm of the place and the folks there, would go back if they got snow almost certainly. Magic even grooms well, better than DV!-)

All in all, reading the above, I guess MRG has to hit the proverbial "to go there in this life" bucket list too. In the past, we froze our collective rears off in upstate NY and MA so always felt why go further north and die a frozen death on a chairlift, but with sub-tropical temps prevailing in the North-Eastern seaboard, VT mountains may be infinitely more amenable to the likes of us, but that is modulo inbound snow, which we hope they get a lot of in March, and next year.

 

[KevinF]

Yes, the geographical summit of Mt Mansfield (ie, Stowe) is several hundred feet higher than where the lifts end. Above the lifts is, at first glance, nothing but cliffs, but there are skiable routes down from the "real" top.

 

[James]

I wonder if Magic will survive the next week.
Did you not ski either Stratton or Okemo? Both had decent terrain open. Way more than 1.35 trails.

 

[dustyfog]

stayed at Magic for the kids, friends went to Stratton Friday, we came back south