La Reserve Laurentians - Feb 23 , 2013

Anthony

New member
Ok , after watching video clips of the Jay powder looked out at the Laurentian landscape covered in a few inches of new snow with more in the forecast . Take what you can get . Older kids didn't have to teach skiing today and they wanted to go to La Reserve . So off we went crossing over the Laurentian shield from Morin Heights to St. Donat thru the fog with light snow falling . La Reserve is one big rock pile sticking out of the Laurentian shield . Had to adjust my skiing as have been lucky this year floating in lots of powder. Not the case at La Reserve today . The steep tight tree runs were scraped down with stumps and rocks showing requiring a quick wake up call and technical quick turns . The open face of La Reserve was skiable with lots of cliffs and frozen water falls to jump from . The steep frozen waterfalls at La Reserve and tight woods to the sides would challenge any eastern skier. A cliff jumpers paradise . The uphill lift capacity of 2/ 4 person chairs and steep terrain leads to the steep sections being scraped down rather quickly . Today had its moments but i just wasn't in the game today . Kids said you have been skiing too much powder . Checked out the Snow Cat skiing ( yes - snow cat in the Laurentians if you can believe it ) which has remained closed. Ski Patrol came over and told me might look good from up top but lots of rocks on the way down. For a extra $10.00 want to try this but hardly ever opened .
 
I've always liked La Reserve. It's a 15 minute drive from my cottage so I tend to go there when I want to ski for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I think the 3 hour ticket for students is around 20$, and its well worth it for non-existent lifelines and surprisingly challenging terrain. I've been meaning to try their cat skiing, but I haven't been able to time it properly yet.
 
mitch28":3rw3u801 said:
I've always liked La Reserve. It's a 15 minute drive from my cottage so I tend to go there when I want to ski for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I think the 3 hour ticket for students is around 20$, and its well worth it for non-existent lifelines and surprisingly challenging terrain. I've been meaning to try their cat skiing, but I haven't been able to time it properly yet.

My good buddy has a family place right around you, as he says they are only about 10 minutes from La Reserve, he must be your neighbor! They love La Reserve and I believe he was on their race team as a kid and they continue to often ski right there as opposed to traveling the extra distance and $$ to Tremblant. In fact, just this past weekend, he showed me some pics with some really nice looking terrain from his trip up there this past Christmas and New Years.
 
Garceau and La Reserve have similar vertical, but I've always preferred La Reserve. The terrain is more challenging, and there are usually smaller crowds.
 
Good question , like both areas for different reasons. Garceau has some interesting trails on skiers left in the woods and the old T bar track . even some side country on skiers left . The pitch isn't that steep and the chair is slow but the pitch is consistent enough to offer good skiing . La Reserve has a steep summit if you ski down the face but it only drops down a few hundred feet and then the remainder of the mountain is actually flatter than Garceau. The steep summit often gets skied out rather quickly as it is under 2 / 4 person chairs just dumping the skiers and boarders off . I would say after a large snowfall ( > 6 " ) La Reserve would be my first choice just to ski the face and rock ledges . Garceau would by my first choice with a moderate snowfall (< 6 ") as the low angle trails /glades would ski better . If you are in the area try out both as they are about 15 minutes apart with the village of St. Donat in between .
 
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