Indy Magic: Opening Day 2019

My younger son wanted to go to Plattekill on Saturday. He missed Plattekill, and he told me repeatedly. He wanted to eat chili and nachos for lunch and the Plattekill lodge was the best for playing hide and seek at the end of the ski day. I admit it was a compelling argument.

I told him he would like Magic. It was just as cool as Plattekill — cool trails, cool old lifts, cool and welcoming crowd. And considering the recent snowfall, there would likely be some cool powder to ski — just like at Plattekill. And, I assured him, Magic would have chili and nachos.

My son didn’t care, but Magic is on the Indy Pass, a selling point for me. And like Catamount — our first stop on our “Indy Tour” — Magic has upped its infrastructure game, bigtime.

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Doug Fish and Birth of the Indy Pass

Doug Fish of Indy Pass

Doug Fish and Nate Parr have spent most of their lives skiing and working in the ski business. Their latest venture — The Indy Pass — is designed to expose smaller independent mountains to a wider audience and help them compete in the current era of mega pass consolidation. Our interview with Doug follows.


NYSkiBlog: Doug, where are you from originally? When did you start skiing?

Doug Fish: I’m a native Oregonian and live in the shadow of Mount Hood in Portland.

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The NYSkiBlog Indy Tour

This season NYSkiBlog is stepping up our support of the independent ski areas that we feel are vital to the sport. As part of this effort, we’re embarking on a venture with Indy Pass, a multi-mountain pass that gives the holder privileges to ski 2 days at 44 independent ski areas across North America. More on that in a moment, but first, a bit of backstory.


In 1988, at age 30, I learned to cross country ski in the southern Adirondacks. In 1997, I bought land in the area and would camp to keep the cost of skiing down. In 2002, I married Zelda, and in 2006, our lives changed bigtime when we had a baby. Backcountry skiing became impractical, but my jones to slide on snow remained strong.

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