Sommet St-Sauveur - April 28, 2019

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 to the public. The lift was opening at 9, so I took my time to get ready and have a nice wind down from the drive. 8 trails were announced as open along with 2 quads and the Magic Carpet for the beginners area. 

The first run was down the 70 West. The trail was not groomed, however the snow was a nice soft spring granular. It was a great warm up for the legs. The coverage was still pretty deep, and not ready to give up even with the rain received lately. Then it was onto the La Plagne. The trail was groomed with good coverage for this time of year. A nice coverage of spring granular, and a bit firmer with the cooler temperature at the start of the day. On the ride up the Cote 71 Quad, It was noticeable that spring is on its way as there were some spots that were bare on the edges and some of the cut over trails were roped off. The Cote 71 trail was also groomed with spring granular with a few touchy ice spots but nothing that one could not avoid. The Cote 72 was pretty much the same. These actually ended up being the favourites for the day.

The top of the Cote 70 West:

La Plagne:

Cotes 71 & 72:

The snow really started to soften up more by 10:30 and you were skiing on mashed potatoes, and any snow piles that were made, you were pretty much skiing though them they were so soft. Nothing slushy. The wait was non-existent at either lift which made it easy for making quick laps. By noon my legs were starting to feel it with skiing in the soft spring snow. Park Daze was rescheduled to today from Noon 'til 4:00 pm at the bottom of the Silver Park. This was a great end to the season which was a long one and still going strong here at St-Sauveur. Until next season!

Here are some additional scenes from the day: