Laurentian (Tremblant) Snow Report

Anthony

New member
Currently just a few inches of snow on the ground ,certainly not enough to ski on . The only skiing available is on machine made snow ( no surprise ) . Spent a few hour yesterday tramping around on snow shoes ( not that you needed them ) looking at ski routes and to pass the time as the alternative of skiing crowded groomers at full price just doesn't cut it . Help could be on the way as the next storm system in the forecast is scheduled to track down the St. Lawrence with a all snow event north of the river , south of the river rain /snow mix. If this pans out there finally might be some interesting skiing tomorrow morning.
 
The White Christmas got saved by the December 23 snow. And again the Christmas day accumulation. There are calling for a 15cm in town tonight.

Edelweiss only has one run open (snow report talks about 5 trails, but it really only 1. I know that Fortune and Calabogie have more stuff open. It been getting whiter everyday and tonight snow should help (initially forecast called for rain), so hoping the ski area can now more some snow whale to cover an extra run or two and get the snowmaking done. It was -20c on December 24, but they only had 2 guns firing? Not sure why? Temps was +2c today, but forecast is calling for some colder temps in the next few days.
 
The north of the St. Lawrence storm event turned out to be a bust as only about 4 inches fell but at least there was no rain as in areas to the south it poured rain . Natural snow depths in the Laurentian areas are about 8 inches . Skied on natural blue type snow trails yesterday without any rocks so conditions were fast grass as have to be careful with less than a foot of snow on the ground. The ski areas are supposed to make at least 30% of their business during this time period but by the looks of things they are going to fall very short of this target.
 
Never thought I would write this in a ski report but have to say the best natural snow skiing is in areas where there is good leaf and grass cover. The 10 inches of snow on the ground with no base goes well with the thick leaves :roll: . Strange feeling going over the leaf base. Still no winter !
 
Finally it snowed , what can I say , started snowing on Thursday and did not stop until Friday night , no freezing rain or ice all snow . The official reports said about 1 foot but honestly we found almost 2 feet of new snow in some areas this is on top of the 1 foot already on the ground . The perfect combo for a great Powder day . Saturday morning temps at - 30 C with a wind , no big deal it finally snowed couldn't care a less how cold it was . Headed into the back hills of the Laurentians , everything skied great , powder everywhere . Spent 6 hours hammering out run after run in powder without a break , just couldn't stop . Couple of pics below as kids using their helmet cam . Temps this morning at - 32 C , my oldest starts her first day as a instructor , should be another great day .
 

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Anthony":13ovgkr3 said:
Temps this morning at - 32 C , my oldest starts her first day as a instructor , should be another great day .
LOL, that's -25F, sports fans. #-o

Anthony, I hope to be up in your end of the woods in mid-February.
 
Anthony":8w84y75n said:
Temps this morning at - 32 C , my oldest starts her first day as a instructor , should be another great day .

-29c in the parking lot of Calabogie Peaks at 8am. Not bad to have a daughter in a race and strip down in a skinsuit and have to wait for a 45 minutes delay. :(

The whole family came out as I didn't want to be on my own ...just in case (see my last TR). Everything went well. It was -16c when we left
 
Spent the last two days hiking and riding the lifts of the local 600' vertical hills. Saturday we skied in over 2 feet of powder but we had to hike for it so big workout. Today we rode the lifts and skied tracked up snow with still some fresh stuff. Conditions should take a turn for the worse as freezing /rain in the forecast for north of the river. Temps are currently warming up in advance of the next system. still waiting to bust out the local scene and head south to VT. Just watching those snow totals.
 

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Since last week we have had all kinds of weather ,starting with freezing rain ,followed by snow then rain and finally back to snow. With all this weather we headed out on Saturday to ski about 4 inches of new snow but with a crust. By doing you own grooming the skiing got better as time went on. Saturday night another 4 inches of powder fell with no mixed bag . We decided to hit the hills out along highway 329 near St. Adolphe as always wanted to ski this area. Took the easy way out and purchased lift tickets at Mt. Avalanche and rode their chair then skied on skiers right . Found deep snow in this area as skied the woods which were part of the ski area and out side . Good way to pass the time on verticals under 600" . All natural snow skiing can't beat it.
 
Conditions sucked on Saturday the 28 at Cascades.

A surprise pow day on Sunday at Ste-Marie the next day. Enough snow to ski long lost trails no longer on ski maps...I was told. As for myself, I was split between catching my oldest daughters race and skiing with wife and youngest. Ran out of time for a lost run on untracked bliss.

Both TRs are in draft mode. I need to sort out the pics. Not powder shots, my daughter was racing both days.
 
Now into February and still have not ventured more than a hour from home in pursuit of fresh tracks. Looks like the skiing northeast of Quebec city looks good as over a foot fell last week. As the winter moves along the areas north of the St. Lawrence are pulling ahead of the regions to the south in measurable snowpacks.The laurentian ski region with a overall elevation of just under 2000' (aside from Tremblant) have a snowpack just under 4' which has all fallen in the last 40 days. Yesterday the natural snow trails had a few inches of new snow with a very thin crust (the result of some freezing rain). The crust was very skiable and was skied out quickly. Would imagine the groomers would be very hard packed these days, However we have been skiing 100% natural snow trails for the last month without any issues.
 
Hey James , Should be fine as almost 4 feet of base in the woods ,so not a bad snow year in this area. A snowfall of even a few inches goes along way when the base is deep. Don't be alarmed at the limited amount of snow in the Montreal area and points south as the snow pack builds up the farther northeast you travel.
 
Time for a quick update as it is a good news /bad news set up for natural snow skiing First the good news , there has been no rain or freezing rain since the last snowfall , now the bad news there also hasn't been any measurable snow in over a week . So the base is deep but the trails are hard packed as they have all been skied out making technical turns mandatory to slow your speed down , not the time for floating turns. This is a great set up where even a few inches of snow would make a big difference. Noticed La Reserve closed their " Cat Skiing "( Yes - Correct Cat Skiing in the Laurentians :shock: ) trails this weekend , probably because of this . Have to try these trails out.
 
Since last week , we picked up a couple of inches of snow, which on top of a deep base ( you can bury your poles in snow ) makes a big difference. This morning , the key was where to find the new snow as in the valleys not much but in the higher elevation areas , things looked better . We headed out to the western Laurentians away from the highways and found good snow in the hardwood forests . So far we are managing a ski season without any machine snow - just short 600 ' verticals !!!!.
 

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With 3 kids at separate levels of education they are all off at different times for their school vacation . This week is the University week off so took the oldest skiing today . Once again , we were faced with the same weather problems of the rain /snow mix scenario . Where to go to escape the rain and fog . South of the St. Lawrence did not look good so once again stayed home and headed north east across the Laurentians to St. Donat to escape the rain . All snow in the St. Donat region this morning as about 2 to 3 " of accumulation on a hard base that softened and blended in the afternoon sun .
 

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Garceau it is , headed over wednesday morning as they picked up all snow and $18.00 lift tickets. The trails on skiers left is where the pics are from. More snow in the forecast . Did you ski at this place?
 
Friday night we hovered over the computer screen watching the colour enhanced radar images of the developing storm to decide where to go . Do we bust out of the Laurentians and drive 2 plus hours or stay local as haven't spent this much time at home in over 30 years . Made the call to stay home as the total snow amounts were about even either side of the St. Lawrence . This morning we had about a foot of relatively dry snow so we headed over to Alta to ski the steep ridge along Highway 117 . Everything wide open , made first tracks for hours on end . Snow held up well , should be good skiing tomorrow as well .
 

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