Photo above, schist is the silvery/grey stuff they had to dig out at Magic Mountain VT in order to pour tower footings for their new quad summit chair. Magic has a few more footings to go, as well as work at the base, but it’s coming along nicely and they’re talking about smashing the champagne in early January. They’ve got a “Friends of Magic” day scheduled next Saturday if you’re interested in lending a hand. Don’t worry, you won’t be stringing cable — ski area work days tend to be all about painting buildings, clearing brush, and having fun with good people…remember that’s next weekend, the 12th. Means you’ve still got this weekend to travel up the road a few miles to Pico VT where the Pico Ski Club will be holding their annual swap & sale…reminder that Wild Mountain MN hosting their annual swap and sale this weekend…appears we might have a new entrant in the Colorado first-to-open honors, usually a friendly see-saw battle between Arapahoe Basin and Loveland. But now that A-Basin has opted out of the Epic Pass deal, the Broomfield Borg is no longer part of the publicity run-up to the season. Or is it? Guns went on at Keystone yesterday, which caused a bit of a buzz in Summit County. First week of October is quite a bit early for any Vail property, so I suspect they’re trying to make some hay in the season opening sweepstakes…back to New England, another lift install causing some excitement is the new gondy at Bretton Woods NH. It’s on, it’s under test, and it’s expected to be online when the season kicks off.