Magic Mountain, Vermont

We finally got out to Magic Mountain this week.  We skied Mount Snow on Christmas Day and then Magic on the day after Christmas, hoping to avoid the post-Christmas crush.  

The Red Line Lift at Magic Mountain

This turned out to be a great idea.  Magic was awesome!

Magic Mountain is a small, family-owned resort located just a few miles from Bromley and Okemo.  In fact, we could see both of those mountains from the slopes.  Magic is definitely a smaller, decidedly old-school, locally-oriented resort.  The peak rises to 2,850 feet with a vertical drop of 1,500 feet, accessed by a mere handful of chairlifts.  There aren’t a ton of trails, but the ones they have are steep.  

That’s the mountain’s selling point.  Magic is the place where locals and legitimately good skiers go to push themselves and to escape the crowds at the bigger resorts.  Magic’s owners just bought a quad -- traditional, not express -- from one of the other nearby mountains, but they’ve had to add a few towers to finish installing it, so that it was not yet in service when we were there.  As a result, there were just three lifts in service the day we were there -- and just one that went all the way to the top -- along with maybe seven total trails*.  Given this, I honestly wasn’t expecting much of our day on the mountain, but it turned out to be fantastic.

Magic Mountain Trail Map

With Emma on the Red Line Lift

Magic is steep.  Like, for real.  We saw signs the day we were there warning that there was no “easy” way down the mountain, and that beginning skiers should avoid taking the chairlift all the way to the top.  The trails are all wide open and gorgeous, but even the greens are reasonably challenging in spots and the top of Trick, the single blue-black that was open the day we were there, was the equal of any of the single blacks over on Mount Snow’s North Face.  It’s worth noting, too, that though there weren’t many trails open that day, the ones they did have all had fantastic snow.  They weren’t gonna put a bobsled track out there and let you hope for the best.  This was a decidedly limited but extremely high-quality day out on the mountain.  This enhanced the experience immeasurably.

That seems to be what’s on offer most of the time.  Magic is not a big place, and the lifts aren’t fast.  However, they only sell 1,500 daily lift tickets even on peak days, so it also never gets crowded, and the snow never gets skied off.  We parked maybe 100 feet from the base lodge on the day after Christmas and had the best skiing day of the season on just seven trails.  It was really fantastic.  I literally cannot wait to go back once they’ve got a bit more snow.

Sally took this shot just down from the chair lift.

Heading down the mountain.

Panorama of the base lodge

Magic has just one lodge, its base lodge.  The lodge itself is fine -- like the rest of the mountain, it has a very old-school, throwback, 1970s feel -- but the real reason to hang out there is the Black Line Tavern, an awesome slopeside pub that serves truly excellent burgers and a huge selection of local craft beers.  They have live music in there as well sometimes but not the day we were there.  As with the rest of the mountain, I really enjoyed it.

So.  I strongly recommend Magic to folks who can ski well, who hate lift lines, and who aren’t afraid of a challenge.  I have no idea how many folks that is, but the folks running the mountain seemed optimistic about the future, and it’s a good sign that they’re installing a new chairlift.  As I said, I cannot wait to get back up there and ski the rest once they’ve got a bit more snow.

The Black Line Tavern

* Open the day we were there: Upper Magic Carpet, Lower Magic Carpet, Wand, Show Off, Medium, Trick, Little Dipper.