Ski Reports

Station Touristique Stoneham - December 30, 2018

While in the Stoneham-Tewkesbury region this weekend for a family visit, I decided to take advantage of some time and head off to Station Touristique Stoneham for the morning to get some turns in. Staying at the Manoir Lac-Delage overnight, I was at most 10 minutes away from the hill. Manoir Lac-Delage is a popular hotel that had their own ski hill at one time and has since been closed for a number of years. All the trails are grown in, however there are some leftovers of the double chair and t-bar that they had. I arrived at Stoneham just after 8 am and there were already people rolling in. At that time it was mostly cloudy, and a balmy -18 degrees, luckily with no wind. 18 of 42 trails were open with all 4 Quad Chairs spinning and the 2 beginner carpets.

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The first rides of the morning were up the l'Alize Quad chair to ski the easy les Pionniers and the Chouette trails. Coverage was pretty good considering the what Mother Nature had tossed us these past couple of weeks. The skiing was fast on machine groomed granular with a hard base. With the freezing rain and rain that had fallen in the region, there were some icy spots to look out for, but with well tuned skis and sharp edges it helped out immensely.

Les Pionners & Chouette:

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The next few rides were up the new l'Eclipse Quad. This chair was installed for last season replacing an older Poma Double chair and a set of t-bars. Trips down the upper section of la Gonnet into the lower section of the Rock & Roll both nice intermediate trails, and a trip down the full length of the Rock and Roll where the upper section of the Rock and Roll is a single black diamond, and the lower section rated intermediate. Coverage here was good and again on groomed granular over a hard base with some scraping down to the ice underneath. 

Le Gonnet:

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The upper and lower sections of the Rock & Roll:

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After a small break to warm up it was over to the Tempete Express detachable Quad with bubble covers. Here it was down the intermediate les Cantons trail to the la Traverse and back to le Gonnet back to the bottom. The last rides on this section were down the easy la Laurentienne to finish the morning. 

Les Cantons trail:

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La Laurentienne:

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Overall it was a great morning of skiing albeit quite fresh. My phone actually froze twice on me today it was that cold, and had to warm it up so that I could continue taking photos. The line ups at any of the Quad chairs were non-existent. There was one section that I did not get a chance to ski, the expert sector served by the Aurore Boreale fixed grip quad. By noon I had to go back to the hotel to check out and pick up the family to head back to my sister's place. Definitely if you are in the area, Stoneham is a place to check out!

Here are a few of more scenes from the morning:

The Aurore Boreale Sector:

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The steep pitch on the Blondeau trail:

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The exit of the les Merisiers glade trail:

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Send us your own Ski Reports by email, to be posted on our site: skireports@slopeedge.ca

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