Magic Mountain in Londonderry, Vermont is where skiing still has its soul. Since purchasing the mountain in 2016, Ski Magic LLC has transformed the ski resort into one of the best independent ski resorts in New England. In spite of only getting 73″ inches of natural snow this season, the mountain still had a lot of terrain open thanks to their continued work on upgrading their snowmaking systems. This offseason, they will spend $1 million on the following projects:
New Lifts:Â The Black Chair, also known as the Quad Summit Chair, will finally finish construction this Spring. After buying the lift from Stratton in 2018, the lift has seen various delays due to Covid, mechanical quirks, and supply chain issues. The work on getting their Red Chair open during this season also delayed the Black Chairs’ completion to this Spring. Their lift maintenance partner, Pfister Mountain Services, is currently working on “new sheave assemblies on Towers 4, 5, and 11. Four more towers will get new sheaves per the engineering re-design (Towers 6, 7, 8, 18) and Tower 13Â gets a tower arm adjustment.” Work will also be completed on their new handle tow lift for their beginner area this summer.
Snowmaking Improvements:Â Various projects will be underway to improve their snowmaking capacity and product. These plans include expanding “the snowmaking pond with a new dam (doubling its water volume for snowmaking) and [creating a] state-required continuous stream flow around the pond to enhance the nearby river tributary system, [a] new larger volume pipe replacement from pond to pumphouse to gain significant snowmaking efficiencies, [a] new snowmaking pipe replacement in critical areas with repetitive ruptures due to old pipe (this will be ongoing upgrades over subsequent years as well), and connect [the] pump at Thompsonburg Brook for snowmaking pond water replenishment.” In other words, Magic Mountains’ on-mountain experience will continue to rapidly improve next season. 
Image Credits: Magic Mountain Ski Area
