2018-2019
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Maybe this report should be posted in the Summer Experiences section since it is June 1st! When I heard that Sommet St-Sauveur confirmed their opening for this weekend, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to ski in June. I had never done that before. Last year was close, at May 27th. I left Sherbrooke at 6 and arrived at the mountain at 8:20. I just squeaked through the Turcotte construction just in time as it was down to 1 lane entering on to the Decarie Northbound. The temperature was already 10 degrees by this time with blue skies, a few clouds, and bright sunshine. I noticed that there were about 8 or 10 Atomic Express Quad chairs leftover in the lot. The 7…
Last reply by Shane, -
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With a sunny bluebird sky in the forecast for today, the place to go was Owl's Head. This would make my second visit of the season here. I arrived at the mountain at 9:00 with a beautiful sky and a temperature of -10 degrees. The main parking lot was already half full by then which was a sign that everyone else was going to take advantage of a nice day like this. With getting ready, and recharging my RFID card, I was on the lift by 9:30. There was a bit of a line up to start, no more than a couple of minutes. The Main, Baby, and Black Quads along with the learning zone's Magic Carpet were in operation. 49/50 trails were open. The conditions were fantastic! Groomed packed …
Last reply by Ocean, -
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The forecast was originally +16 and full sun, but of course things shift. I worried as I drove up that the sprinkles of rain would mean they'd close early, but I was pleased to arrive in the parking lot around 2:30 to one of the busiest afternoons I've seen in about a month! I fact it is the first day in about as long that I had to wait in a line to get on the lift. As everything near the Atomic lift had melted, lift service was via Etoile. I always enjoy the lazy spring rides on the Etoile to the sound of melting water underneath. Conditions were both slush bumps and ice, take your pick, scrape or get stuck. A fresh wax would have been of help that day, for sure. While m…
Last reply by Ocean, -
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To end the 2018-19 season, a trip to Sommet St-Sauveur was in order today. Leaving Sherbrooke at 6am with overcast skies, I actually drove through some snow by Mont Orford and there was a dusting on the ground. We have not had the best of weekends in the townships lately, and the 4 major areas are now closed. It was a smooth drive through the city and arrived at the mountain a touch before 8:30 to overcast skies and a temperature of +4 degrees. The dismantling of the Atomic Express is in progress as all the chairs are now off the lift line and placed in the lot behind the lift. There were racers training on the Nordique early, and the Etoile lift was spinning not yet open…
Last reply by Ocean, -
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Yes Camp Fortune is closed for the season but there is still loads of snow on the hills even after the rainfest of the last couple days. Since I missed the last official weekend I figured I better get my fix. Taking my snowshoe skis which have a built in skin under foot I climbed Sparks on the Skyline line side. The main runs still have plenty of snow and even the north facing glades are skiable. I skinned to the top of Pineault then went down Paradis on the Meech side. A quarter of the way down I ducked into the new but unnamed glade that feeds down under the lift and onto North American. The trees were skiable and the snow was soft though there was loads of debris. …
Last reply by Ocean, -
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SURPRISE!! It's unexpected powder day! I woke up far too early this morning and saw some fat flakes falling but kind of assumed it was just a tease. The snow continued falling and picked up in intensity. So much so that my partner called me from the office just to tell me how much it was snowing!! I had returned my (compact SUV: snow driving appropriate) rental car the previous night, and was kicking myself for not having checked the weather. Just before noon, I sprang into action and booked myself a compact at the shop down the street, and off I went. I should mention, because renting in Quebec, you normally get winter tires, compacts have served me just fine this …
Last reply by Ocean, -
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Made it up to Mont Ste Marie for one last spring rip. The hour drive north from Ottawa was an easy one, though many fields were full of deer. The coverage on the two mountains is still impressive with all of the 20 groomed trails still open. Even the off-piste runs had good coverage but they were mostly closed. The snow was just to sticky in the glades. The groomed trails ripped though. The snow was soft and fast in the morning then became your typical spring skiing conditions in the afternoon. I missed the sun of Saturday but with no wind and temperatures just over zero I couldn't complain. Dustin Cook and Formidable were the best bets on the Cheval Blanc side. On…
Last reply by Gordo, -
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Well this weekend was almost a mirror of last weekend. Ottawa got mostly rain while the hills north of Gatineau got mostly snow. Camp Fortune got only 5cms but Mont Ste Marie got 25cms over two days! On Sunday, I made it as far Edelweiss as the roads were not great. They got 10cms of fresh snow overnight with only a couple trails groomed in the morning. I arrived at 9 to find out there would be a delay on the start. The high-speed quad could not run because of ice build up on the wires. They were trying to get the Streif quad going. I guess they hadn’t run the Streif in a few days as the seats were covered in a thick layer of snow and ice. This meant they had …
Last reply by Ocean, -
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I had based this trip on the long rage forecast about a week ago where it was supposed to be a mostly sunny day and mild, so I planned to have the day off. As the week progressed I watched the forecast deteriorate day by day to a mild day of mostly cloudy and rain. Well at least that part the forecasters got correct! I had gotten in touch with a friend of mine earlier in the week to tell him I was coming down, so this venture was not a solo one. Friday morning wake up, and true to the forecaster's word it was lightly sprinkling. Holding to my commitment to my buddy, I packed up the truck and headed off in the rain. I don't normally ski in the rain but if I didn't go, then…
Last reply by Shane, -
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I woke up early this morning to a beautiful sunny bluebird sky, so I made the decision to head out to Mont Orford. The mountain had received up to 40 centimetres of new snow Friday and into Saturday, so today was the day to go and see what they had. I arrived at the mountain a few minutes after 8 and the main parking lot was already filling up. The temperature was pretty mild at -2 degrees at the base of the mountain. It was quite windy as I was walking across the parking lot to the chalet, and was wondering what would be on wind hold. When I bought my ticket I was informed that the Alfred Desrochers double and the Rapido Triple were the only lifts open because of the win…
Last reply by Gordo, -
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Well I had an airmiles ticket for Tremblant burning in my pocket and figured Friday would be the day. The weather was looking a little suspect but while it rained in Ottawa, Tremblant got 15cms over night. Heading out in the morning it was raining pretty hard but just after the turn off north on highway 323 it turned to snow and would snow for the rest of the day. We arrived just past 9 after a easy drive. What luck 15cms of semi-dense powder, no lines, no wind and temperatures around zero! We did some north side trails before hitting the Edge for its 9:30 opening. Conditions were amazing, so soft, so fun. Later in the day things would get a little more sticky as t…
Last reply by Gordo, -
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Wow bonus powder day. I went up to Fortune right after work and it was snowing a little. By 4pm though it was a white out and would snow heavy for over three hours dropping 10cms. Every run was refreshed. We may be at peak snow pack. This may have been my best night ski in a long while. Conditions we perfect, everything was open and zero crowds. Hero snow, enough said. You better have googles. Hegg was open till 7pm Tree paths/runs between Sparks and Bud Clark Top of Heggtveit This may have been a mistake. Chilly Poutine! Killer night
Last reply by Ocean, -
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For some crazy reason we decided to pack three adults into a Nissan Micra with all our ski gear and a BBQ then drive through a snow storm to Mont Chilly in the Pontiac. Taking the Ontario side we crossed the Ottawa River at the Chenaux generating station. We arrived at Mont Chilly around 10:30 and they were just firing up the T-bar which is powered by an old tractor engine. Snow would fall on and off all day resulting in a little over 10cms of new snow. Mont Chilly does not make any snow so all the runs have a natural base. Conditions were good with about 5-10cms of fresh snow over a firm but deep base. All the trails were open including #5 which is a steep …
Last reply by Gordo, -
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Station Touristique Baie des Sables was today's destination, and also was a re-discovery for me as the last time I had skied here was back in 2014. I left Sherbooke at 9:30 and took my time getting there and arrived at the hill at 10:45 under mostly cloudy skies and a nice temperature of -4 degrees, and snowing very lightly. Baie des Sables is located at the top of Lac Megantic, a drive of a touch more than an hour. The trails here are narrow with one wide trail with a snow park. The hill is not very large, and the only lift available is a t-bar. All trails and glades were open today. The conditions were fantastic with groomed packed powder over a firm base all with natur…
Last reply by Paul, -
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Another beautiful day at Camp Fortune. Full sun, zero wind and a temperature around -5c. Conditions are loose granular over a hard base. Fortune has done a great job of dealing with the rain then flash freeze of last Sunday. The groomers are fast and smooth. By the afternoon some on the steeper runs on Skyline were getting scrapped down to the base but the Valley and the Meech trails were still very natural and softish. The non-groomed runs and glades are still closed and the snow is cement like. We either need a warm up or more snow, lets hope for both. The next two weeks will be perfect for March break though as the snow pack is still impressive. Ski on!
Last reply by Ocean, -
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I was long overdue for a road trip to somewhere, so a couple of weeks ago I had contacted an good ski buddy of mine to plan something out, and we had decided on visiting Tenney Mountain, NH. Today was the day. I had been mentioning to him on a few occasions that I had visited Tenney late last season, and that I was impressed with what had been done to re-open the mountain as it had been closed since 2010. A lot work had been done then just to get it up and running in a limited stage. Now it's 11 months later, and there is only one word to describe what we saw and skied today. WOW! That seemed to be the key word today. WOW! It was full on discovery mode. We left Sherbrooke…
Last reply by Ocean, -
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Well, all the snow from the storm last Tuesday/Wednesday has held up great at Camp Fortune. The conditions are killer with nicely groomed snow, perfect for high angle carving at high speed. We arrived in time to get a bunch of runs on Heggtviet and Duffy before the sun went down just before 6. The bumps and cliff drops on Duffy were super fun. Hegg you could just rail on. Swan Dive was a little more of a technical ski as the bumps were huge and rather unforgiving. Pretty much all the other groomed trails were in excellent shape with the exception Bud Clark which was getting a little scrapped down to the base at the top section. Overall another great night of skiing wi…
Last reply by Ocean, -
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I got in a quick morning ski at Mont Cascades which is about 20mins from downtown Ottawa on the east side of the Gatineau River. The weather was perfect with a high around zero and the sun coming out around 10am. All the main trails were perfectly groomed with soft snow under your skis. Fun Run, Crazy Creek, Detour and the Facade were left natural with loose snow and moguls. Cascades was busy, its a top to bottom park trail with jumps, rails and a twisty ski cross like section. Exhibition had race training on it but there was still space to blast down the middle under the old triple chair. Exhibition, Promenade, Gratton, Fun Run, Facade and the Cascades were my picks…
Last reply by Gordo, -
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While sitting at my desk in the office today looking out the window, and watching all this white powder fall from the sky I knew a tough decision had to be made. Shovel the driveway when I got home or go skiing. Well you know what that decision was........and here is the report. I arrived at Bellevue at opening, 6pm, and the parking lot was already filling up quickly. Looked like a lot of other people had the same thought on their mind. To ski the 30 some centimetres of snow that fell last night and during the day today. The temperature was a comfortable -2 degrees upon arrival. Getting my lift ticket was quick and easy, as it is ladies night tonight, and It usually …
Last reply by Ocean, -
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Welcome to the white room. 35cms of fresh light powder had fallen over night and it was still snowing when we arrived at Mont Ste Marie. Only a single run was groomed everything else was left as virgin powder. Total nirvana. The temperatures were mild at around -5c and hardly anyone had made the hour drive up from Ottawa. In fact the lifts started a little late because there was so much snow to shovel out from the entrances and exits of the quads. The new glades are killer and add so much to the terrain. Deep Purple and Vertigo fall through a steep pine forest before exiting at the bottom of Crescendo. You enter the three runs (also the old Klotz trail) from the left…
Last reply by Ocean,
