LAURENTIAN (TREMBLANT)SNOW REPORT

This is the news I have on Alta . In late December received a message from the owners that they were waiting for a chairlift inspection . Around Jan 1 received the following message
"Je tiens à vous souhaiter une BONNE ANNÉE 2013 rempli d'amour, de santé et de prospérité -
I want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 full of joy, health and prosperity
Pour ceux que ça intéresse, nous vous aviserons aussitôt que nous aurons notre date d'ouverture.
To all interested, we will advise you as soon as we have our opening date."

On January 5th drove by and noticed that the chairs were not on the cable , not a good sign . Suspect you are correct , probably more issues on the table . It is a shame as the place has been our home area for years . Especially tough on our 16 year old son and his friends who had a blast at Alta over the years bringing their own shovels up on the hill and fine tuning their skills along the steep ridges. I had the same experience at Christie as grew up in the area . As kids we had all trails in the woods in what we call side country today . Now just another housing development.
 
Sounds like a Mt. Waterman situation, ominous. The local bureaucracy gets an area on their radar and decides they need to inspect everything. And a little area doesn't have the deep pockets to be immediate;ly responsive.
 
Tony Crocker":3dpp2sgp said:
Sounds like a Mt. Waterman situation, ominous. The local bureaucracy gets an area on their radar and decides they need to inspect everything. And a little area doesn't have the deep pockets to be immediate;ly responsive.

Someone mentioned on Zoneski of rumours regarding the health of the owner. Mont Alta is a family run business or hobby some might say. I'm thinking that if it's true, it complicated matters. If I'm not mistaken (I mentioned it in my original TR on FTO and explore with pics on Ski Mad World), the chair is one of the old Tremblant double vintage circa 1965. Another old vintage double from Tremblant located at Cascades has been having issues.

Here is a TR and pics of the place:
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2007/01/ ... y-29-2007/
 
On Sunday (Jan 27) the question was where to ski as there has not been any new snow since Jan 20 so any lift serviced skiing would be hard pack as the temps hovered between - 35C and - 20 C all week. Decided the day would be a earn your turn day as basically this was the only chance for powder turns . Without touring equipment , have no choice but to hike and ski in alpine equipment. Climbed a total of 2400 ft for 4 runs in a time of just over 3 hours with 15 minutes of actual skiing :) . Was it worth it , people ask . Well if you want powder it was as the cold temps maintained the powder conditions . Boot deep a week after the last snowfall .


Current snow conditions Condition as of Jan 29

State
Snow latest 24h 2 cm
Snow latest 48h 2 cm
Snow on the ground 140 cm

Heat wave is in the forecast for tomorrow with freezing rain , rain and high winds then the freeze up afterwords .
 
Feb 16 , 2013 First time out skiing in the Laurentians in 2 weeks . Over the last 5 days about 6 inches of snow has fallen so today the side country was in fine form as the new snow made for some great turns . Temps have stayed below freezing so snow has remained dry . Overall , good quality day . Current snow pack details listed below just a slight increase since the last report . No issue of hitting rocks or tree stumps these days .

Condition State
Snow latest 24h 4 cm
Snow latest 48h 8 cm
Snow on the ground 143 cm
 
Quick mid week update as weather and snow conditions have changed throughout the region . Warm air and fog this week have transformed the snow somewhat to wet snow and granular . However, snow pack is deep . Latest stats are as follows . Always more concerned with what is on the ground , rather that the inflated number of what has fallen throughout the season .

Condition State
Snow latest 24h 0 cm
Snow latest 48h 3 cm
Snow on the ground 178 cm
 
The big news this week is the latest snowfall (almost a foot of dense snow since last report ) pushed the Laurentian snowpack over 6 feet . Listed below are the stats from Tremblant Provincial Park

Condition State
Snow latest 24h 0 cm
Snow latest 48h 13 cm
Snow on the ground 191 cm

With the new snow decided to take a vacation day and ski solo in between Morin Heights and Ste Agathe . With deep snow everywhere , all options are open . Skied on hiking / snow shoe trails as well as a few glades . Since it was a weekday , no uphill traffic . Temps cooled off a bit with more accumulation of light drier snow which skied better than the dense stuff .
 

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La Reserve open their CAT SKI trails today ( after 6 feet of snow about time . lots of rocks to cover ) so debated if we should drive over or stay local . Really wanted to try their Cat Trails but concerned the limited tickets would sell out ( 120 tickets for the day @ $10.00 in addition to your day pass ) . Decided to stay local and hiked to ski . Once again climbed just over 2000' of vertical for 4 x 500' vertical runs thru boot deep snow that had dried out Friday night since it was not tracked out and the temps dropped below the freezing mark .
 
With the warm air , the transition of the snow into granular from dry powder is complete . Once again early cross over as March appears to be the new April and December is the new November . This all leads to a compressed winter season of dry snow . Snow conditions are in their spring cycle . Not that I don't like spring skiing , just prefer the cold and dry powder . Often once the snow converts to granular , you get dull overcast days with no sun resulting in boring frozen granular . The spring corn needs the sun and warm air . With the early cross over to spring granular we could have just as long a spring season as the winter one . Snow pack as of today is still deep so will see what happens .

Snow latest 24h 0 cm
Snow latest 48h 0 cm
Snow on the ground 195 cm
Type of surface groomed
 
Anthony":37bey9mi said:
Once again early cross over as March appears to be the new April and December is the new November . This all leads to a compressed winter season of dry snow . Snow conditions are in their spring cycle . Not that I don't like spring skiing , just prefer the cold and dry powder . Often once the snow converts to granular , you get dull overcast days with no sun resulting in boring frozen granular .

Same observations at Edelweiss night skiing last Tuesday. It was the first sign of the season from granular snow. I love granular snow in May, not in March.

I can't win with these Ontario Spring Break. Daughter injured for the last two now kids are sick. Kids were sick last weekend and one of them is still not okay to ski...now it's raining in VT. ](*,) Burning work days to stay home...at least i'm cleaning the house, working on the blog, etc.
 
My ski days are actually going down as the 3 kids no longer need assistance ( 2 are weekend instructors and 1 thinks he is ready for " ski the east :). Combine this with the unpredictable weather and price of lift tickets leads to not a good combo . Spend more time driving around to ski hills than actually skiing . Now settle for quality rather than quantity . Pouring rain now with a freeze up in the forecast . March used to be a good ski month years ago with mid winter type snow , not so anymore .
 
Anthony":2uusxzcg said:
March used to be a good ski month years ago with mid winter type snow , not so anymore .
My gut reaction is to be very skeptical of this assertion. However I will try get around to analyzing March snowfall at the Eastern resorts I track to see if there is any trend. A the overall season level there is no trend. I do know that the East had huge snowfall Marches in 2001 and 2007.
 
The end of the lift served ski season is fast approaching ( aside from MSS which hangs in there until May ) . Tremblant is closed this week but will open for the weekend and then close for the season . Most of the small centres are already closed for the season . The closures are not from lack of snow just the lack of skiers as the interest just drops off. Doesn't help that the weather has remained cold preventing corn snow and holding on to the dreaded frozen granular . Last Saturday ( April 6 ) temps never got above the freezing point with a north wind . Will see how this weekend plays out. Overall , decent Laurentian season this year with lots of powder/new snow days while temps were on the mild side .
 
This is from the next Eastern Closing post. I've already done some work on it. Here is what I have for the Laurentians/Lanuadière region.

Avila - April 20 (Apr 14 tentative weekend)
Blanc – April 14 (tentative)
Garceau – April 14 (tentative) weekend only
St-Sauveur – May 14 (tentative)
Tremblant - April 14 (Fri-Sun)
Vallée Bleue – weekends only - April 14
Val St-Côme - weekends only - April 14 (tentative)

In Ottawa, we still have Fortune and a tentative Cascades for this weekend.

Here is part 1 of that post. Looking for a new post on Thursday evening:
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2013/04/ ... 13-part-1/

Oh yeah, looks like some snow is in the forecast for Friday. :popcorn: In VT, MRG was suppose to close on Sunday, but on Saturday they made it clear that they might reopen this coming weekend.
 
IF you define spring skiing as lots of sun , corn and temps in the 50's with no north winds then you are out of luck this year. The April weekends in the Laurentians have been overcast , windy with temps below normal . Today , we have snow/sleet combo with strong winds to keep the pattern going . Aside from MSS , the lift served season ended last weekend with good coverage but no ticket buying customers as the classic spring weekend never materialized. We had a local joke that we had a better chance for powder this year than corn . Despite the cold spring ,skiers seem satisfied with the winter season , myself included. If I am done for the season than no regrets as my road biking club is up and riding so time to change gears.
 
Anthony":211ruwor said:
If I am done for the season than no regrets as my road biking club is up and riding so time to change gears.

I'm taking over for Anthony as he seems to be gone on his bike.

I've skied the last two Sundays at MSS. They are still going strong (the only other area in Kmart) and are going to spin again this weekend. Will it be the last weekend? If they want to go for one more, they can judging on the amount of snow left on Hill 70. Snow isn't melting much this week, they got some flurries and it's been -5c the last two nights.

Mont St-Sauveur QC : May 5, 2013 – Skiing in May, Encore!!!
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2013/05/ ... ay-encore/

Mont St-Sauveur QC : May 12, 2013 – May, Mothers’ Day and Montréal
http://madpatski.wordpress.com/2013/05/ ... -montreal/

First Sunday was full summer with bikinis and shorts. Mothers' Day was cold and gray.

Two TRs within one week with pics...I know, it's a miracle. :mrgreen:
 
Patrick":5eciub72 said:
the lift where suppose to be open from 11 am to 5pm.
Does this make much sense? With warm weather and presumably no overnight freeze, isn't early morning going to be best? I'll bet no salting either. Isn't the snow sticky, and trying to throw you "over the handlebars" in flat spots?
Patrick":5eciub72 said:
Geek alert: Since I started keeping track, I had never skied on the 12th making it with December 23rd the only two days unskied between December 8 and May 26.
My unskied April (24, 27) and May (5, 6, 15) dates have passed without being skied again. Dec. 6 was a first this season, while Dec. 9, 14, 24 and 25 remain unskied.
 
Tony Crocker":10878nwk said:
Patrick":10878nwk said:
the lift were suppose to be open from 11 am to 5pm.
Does this make much sense? With warm weather and presumably no overnight freeze, isn't early morning going to be best? I'll bet no salting either. Isn't the snow sticky, and trying to throw you "over the handlebars" in flat spots?

Read the TR. Early morning was reserved for a race camp. Yes, salting where the kids were training was hard. Surface weren't that soft on May 12. It was artificial ice crystal corn :mrgreen: on May 5... which is much faster snow than the natural stuff. :dead horse:

Tony Crocker":10878nwk said:
Patrick":10878nwk said:
Geek alert: Since I started keeping track, I had never skied on the 12th making it with December 23rd the only two days unskied between December 8 and May 26.
My unskied April (24, 27) and May (5, 6, 15) dates have passed without being skied again. Dec. 6 was a first this season, while Dec. 9, 14, 24 and 25 remain unskied.
Only first this season were October 31, November 1 and May 12. If I'm not working, Dec 23 should be easier - I just have to start my Christmas shopping earlier.

The next day (not sure if I can make it due to a number of reasons) is May 26. If I get the 26th in...I would have a Dec 9 to May 29 with only missing Dec 23. Didn't ski May 30, 31, June 2, 6, 7 and 8 until past mid-June.
 
Patrick":1ww90swm said:
Early morning was reserved for a race camp
That's what Blackcomb does in June/July: the public is not allowed to ski until noon. Thus I have essentially zero desire to check that out. Adam went to Mike Douglas' camp there in June 2002.

Patrick":1ww90swm said:
which is much faster snow than the natural stuff.
We could have checked that out at Big Bear this year. Liz inquired during the first week of April, the last week it was open this season. I thought it would be total slop and not worth the drive. I'm still skeptical as I've seen very grabby snow around the base areas of Snow Summit and Mt. High on hot days, same as I observed at Killington April 29, 1990. On that day I liked the bump skiing on Superstar but the open groomed runs were very sticky.

I have had good days at Baldy in late April and May of big years, but that's natural snow with steep pitch, similar skiing to Mammoth in May/June.
 
Tony Crocker":2te43zhq said:
Patrick":2te43zhq said:
Early morning was reserved for a race camp
That's what Blackcomb does in June/July: the public is not allowed to ski until noon. Thus I have essentially zero desire to check that out. Adam went to Mike Douglas' camp there in June 2002.

I did it prior to the camp years. :mrgreen: It was actually Blackcomb 1st summer.

Camps are done...MSS confirmed that they'll be open for the 3-day weekend 9am to 4pm. I'm all day in Montreal on Saturday. They might be open the following weekend. Not sure if K can make it to June, unless they go with the 1990s standards (ie. walking, sometimes serious walking, involved).

Tony Crocker":2te43zhq said:
Patrick":2te43zhq said:
which is much faster snow than the natural stuff.
I'm still skeptical as I've seen very grabby snow around the base areas of Snow Summit and Mt. High on hot days, same as I observed at Killington April 29, 1990. On that day I liked the bump skiing on Superstar but the open groomed runs were very sticky.

Once you done with the Natural stuff and it's changes into Ice crystal it doesn't slow you down...maybe just the pills slush snow. Not everyone likes it, especially beginners.

Update of the current status of the two spinning areas with vital stat on my blog or via link in other thread.
 
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