Oh, oh, oh, it's Magic!

If anyone ever wondered why they call it Magic Mountain, consider last Saturday. BACKGROUND: The Ski the East Freeride Tour event scheduled for March 3rd was in serious jeopardy as the result of insufficient snowfall which had already wiped out our own Black Magic Challenge. DPS skis had agreed to hold a customer demo of their new product on Saturday, as well, bringing a sales rep all the way from Utah for the event. It looked like the world's most advanced skis could only be tested on a few snowmaking trails, providing little sense of their true capabilities. Meathead Films, no strangers to making world class movies from less than world class conditions would be at Magic facing another professional challenge. Then on Thursday the 1st an 18" dump arrives, as if by...well, you know. The forecast for Saturday? Warm rain. Saturday arrives with only a bit of rain and temps not as warm as expected. Low clouds and fog that wreathed the summit when the lifts started turning at 9AM were totally gone by late morning, well before the start of the contest. 70 competitors tore through the perfectly consistent snow-covered hits on Red Line that a few days earlier and a day later would have been impossible to safely negotiate. The DPS demo was a huge success as skiers unleashed these exquisite tools in snow stashes everywhere on the hill. The Meathead guys were stoked (an eternal condition, I believe, when taping at Magic) about their Saturday footage. The vibe was amazing as first timers, including the DPS guys and competitors from great mountains around the state, ripped fresh (and admittedly not so fresh) in brilliant sunshine on the steepest terrain and sweetest woods in southern Vermont. It makes any Magic lover proud to hear ripping skiers from Jay, Stowe, the Bush and especially Mad River (those big things that look like so much fun are called snowboards) praising our mountain. Magic may be 50, but it never gets old. It must be...well, you know.