As is normal for November 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 according to the
local papers had even started skiing and riding before the Thanksgiving weekend
melt. 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.
Tom B
