I REALLY want to get to Magic this year. A few weeks ago I subscribed to the Magic Newsletter. I just found this in my spam folder. Sounds like a big dump and some extended cold is critical to capturing some Christmas cheer. Fingers crossed for Magic.
Alpine Update 12/4/14
Dear Friends of Magic:
As is normal in Londonderry, we are getting natural snow storms soon followed by warm rainy days that melt all the snow. The surrounding areas are well into their snowmaking cycle and have even started skiing and riding. It is true that manmade snow is denser and survives a melt better than natural snow, but that said this year Magic Mountain is very short on funds and we could not have afforded even a limited loss. Since we had not turned on our guns we watched none of our limited money turn into mud. Another year I very much hope that base area snowmaking can start prior to Thanksgiving thereby having something for us to use on that weekend.
The mountain is looking very ready for winter. Because the trails are all mowed, it now takes little snow to cover the short grass and the little bit of natural snow we had did make the trails look white. The folks that hiked up and skied down reported a smooth ride down with no grass sticking up through the snow to help them estimate snow depth.
I’ve said this before but I’ll repeat, early season pass revenue plays the major role in funding pre-opening snowmaking. Throughout the note I’ve used the ‘we’ word meaning it to include myself, the mountain staff and you the customers. Magic is special in that its customers are every bit as interested and invested as are other mountain’s investors. As such you deserve and will get the level of detail that other mountains might reserve for the “insiders”.
A lot of this year’s season ticket revenue (that sold between March and July) was spent cleaning up costs for last year’s operations. That cleanup was necessitated by the extensive high interest rate loans taken out in the fall for mountain opening. We are not doing that this year. But if we are not going to take out loans for opening and I’ve invested all I can afford then snowmaking will depends upon how fast we can sell season passes. Comparing ticket sales this year with last year it seems that many are either not going to buy season passes or are putting off the purchase until Christmas week. If that is what customers are planning then we will have to be slow starting snowmaking. It might not be important, huge natural snowfalls could get us open without snow making, but all should recognize the risk that entails. Even with huge natural snowfalls between now and Christmas a bit of ‘buy season passes now’ would do wonders for fixing the Black Chair and getting compressors on order for west side snowmaking. If you are planning to arrive Christmas week and then buy your tickets and you can possibly buy sooner please do, you will be investing in December snowmaking and enhancing your Christmas week skiing and riding.
"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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