Interview: Geoff Hatheway of Magic Mountain

Magic Mountain logoOver the last several years Magic Mountain has been transformed from a marginal business with neglected infrastructure on the edge of extinction into a ski mountain that looks viable for the long term. Back then, it seemed Magic’s most valuable asset was its small dedicated following. Now, lifts and snowmaking, which were both in desperate need of investment, have been upgraded in a significant way.

The responsibility for this renaissance falls squarely on the shoulders of the new ownership group led by Geoff Hatheway, Magic’s President and outspoken public face of the mountain. What follows is our interview with him.


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Killington: Welcome to Vermont

I’ve been waiting so long to get back to Vermont. So long that before I even skied on Saturday, I’d written this piece, at least an outline of it, in my head. Welcome to Vermont. I was back.

But something happened on the way to the forum. My VT re-entry storyline had competition.

For starters, a critical mission for me, was a meeting on our land in the Adirondacks, late Friday, with our builder and designer. The objective was to finally and precisely stake out the site for the home we want to build. In the mountains or anywhere, it’s an important task, a lifelong decision. You really want to get it right.

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Mount Snow Chocolate Factory Tour

All week I watched its improbable trajectory, spiraling toward the New England high country, an asteroid of a winter storm set to detonate over what little remained of lift-served skiing in what had been a wet and warm spring.

I kept waiting for the storm to fizzle or transform into rain or blow north and out to sea. Instead it set a bullseye on southern Vermont. By late in the week, Open Snow was forecasting 18 inches at Mount Snow overnight Thursday into Friday.

Of course. This had been a great winter, snow falling somewhere across the region every day from mid-January to the end of February, the best un-ending stretch of real winter we’d seen in years.

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