I went to Magic this morning to grab my pass..

The new black chair looks great.  They did crush a water pipe when putting up the towers, so that needs to be replaced before they can blow snow.  Still looking/hoping for a Thanksgiving weekend opening.

There's also a new ski/consignment shop down at the entrance, nice to see a ski-centric business in the neighborhood.

Looking forward to getting back there soon. Thanksgiving weekend might be perfect

Should be a great season.  2 summit lifts with the standard daily ticket cap still in place will mean no lifts lines.

They won't raise the cap?

Harvey wrote

They won't raise the cap?

I hope they don’t. The cap diminishes trail crowding as much as it does lift lines, right? I promise to drink two beers in the bar every time I visit.

I agree. I hope they don't either.  I'm pretty sure that the cap has been in place since the 60's.

Harvey wrote

They won't raise the cap?

Hopefully not.

My experience with a cap is in Utah.

Powder Mountain has not only a cap on day tickets, they also limit the number of season passes.  Empty slopes and no lift line is one reason to go there over the other options around SLC.

Deer Valley raised their cap several years ago, well before the sale to Alterra.  Still have one but only reach it during holiday periods.  Ikon passholders have to reserve a day ticket in advance to be sure.

Alta had cap at some point, but it's been quite a while.

Per Geoff on the Storm Skiing podcast, the cap isn't changing this season (2500 tickets).  With the green, red, and black all running, lifts lines should be under 5 min on the busiest of days.

If they do have a cap, they should raise it in light of the quad. This ownership group is improving Magic and if they are able to sell more tickets, there is a better chance they remain open. I doubt anybody would notice more people unless there was a perfect storm of a Thursday 20" blizzard that ends Friday morning on a 3 day weekend.

Saratogahalfday wrote

Per Geoff on the Storm Skiing podcast, the cap isn't changing this season (2500 tickets).  With the green, red, and black all running, lifts lines should be under 5 min on the busiest of days.

Any idea how many days the cap was reached last season?

That is cool.

I've been to Magic 3 times, never felt the lines were bad.

I just wondered if owners or investors would expect more skier visits after the investment.

I would expect that after the Black Chair is up and running for a while that they would increase the limit. That mountain can easily absorb all three chairs running full without crowding the slopes if they are close to 100% open.
From my experience, they had increased visits last year over previous years just from all of the press they are getting.

True, but you have to take into account the size of the base lodge, and parking lots.  To increase beyond 2500, they would have to expand those.