Edelweiss, QC - March 17, 2007

Patrick

Well-known member
Happy St.Patrick's Day

Okay, this might not be a Valentin's Day storm, but who is going to complain. :wink:

So there is a snowstorm happening...how much snow did we get? :o

First thing I saw yesterday morning at work was an email from Lucky Luke asking me if I wanted to go skiing this weekend (I presumed he meant in the Townships or Vermont). :lol:

I told him I was going to ski Edelweiss today which is roughtly 25 miles outside Ottawa. Not much compared to some real Eastern Snow destinations, but I had a commitment today, it was the Finals of the Ottawa Masters. GS in the morning and Slalom in the afternoon. How ironic that on one of the rare Edelweiss Powder Days, we were trying to sideslip the fresh snow off the course. :lol:

The last four finals were held during the next weekend in March and we generally had very warm Spring Day with corn snow. Today on the other hand was definitely Winter. A few inches on my car when I left home and the streets hadn't been plowed. :P

How were the conditions?

Maybe 6 inches of fresh snow on a hard base.

Without the fresh snow? The surfaces would have been pretty icy. It was warm on Wednesday and rain a good part of the day and since then temps was been under freezing point by a few degrees. Maximum Temps today was -5c. Good that it got cold, because there isn't much base depth on Zoomer (which is the main intermediate run).

RANT

A major disappointment about Edelweiss this season are the snow conditions and lack of effort in openning any expert terrain. I understand that some of their expert runs don't have any snowmaking, however the main run (which many competitions are runs on) never opened. They never even tried to make snow on Streif or Olympic. As a consequence, the area had to closed half of Zoomer a few times for competitions. Edelweiss has some great expert runs, however there isn't that many runs even if you count Zoomer. More or least, Edelweiss has only had 10 runs out of 18 open this year while the neighbours (Fortune, Cascades and Vorlage) had most of their runs for all abilities open this year even if they also suffered from the same late Winter and lack of serious snow accumulations.

I understand that Edelweiss has the cheapest season pass in the area as is probably one of the cheapest in Quebec for the size of the ski area, however if I would have bought a season pass here this year, I would have been pissed. Edelweiss is part of MSSI, so they should know what they are doing right?

Anyhow, on a sad note (for the ski hill), the place was so deserted this morning that they decided to closed the second quad after the first hour or so. Where was everybody? This is the last weekend of the Ontario Spring Break, the place shouldn't have been so quiet (okay, it picked up later in the morning, but it was still quiet for a weekend with fantastic conditions)? Was it the road conditions? I just don't understand? :roll:
 
Anyhow, on a sad note (for the ski hill), the place was so deserted this morning that they decided to closed the second quad after the first hour or so. Where was everybody?

Your rant provides a big part of the answer. Without Olympic/Strieff open, It is not worth driving the extra distance to Edelweiss compared to Fortune or even Cascade. And when I did go early, half of Zoomer was closed, essentially turning it into a green circle facility. Both my kids are over 13, so a ticket is $39! Not worth it.

A major disappointment about Edelweiss this season are the snow conditions and lack of effort in openning any expert terrain.
 
Spensar":34ug0g0v said:
Your rant provides a big part of the answer.
That was an impression, however I haven't heard how busy the other areas were? I'm wondering if the people were all skied out for the season now that Spring Break was ending and that Spring Time weather had started?

I had this discussion with a few Edelweiss regulars I know, the question is, how many season passes (the cheapest around) will MSSI sell at Edelweiss?

Maybe those passholders were all at Jay (also part of the MSSI group)? :lol:
 
Good question, ie. were the other local hills pretty hurting during March break as well.

Not getting the Strief side of the hill has definately cost Edelweiss business this year though. I've had the "not worth the drive" conversation with a lot of parents this winter and my kids have ended up at Fortune and Mt. Ste. Marie instead of Edelweiss a couple of times this season. The only time I brought them was with a 2fer1 deal.

For those skiing locally during the March break, the feedback I've gotten is that Edelweiss has dropped down their list of where to go because the runs aren't open. It's tough since the break has a lot of daily ticket sales, and should be a good cash boost.

With the limited terrain and demands on use from teaching, racers, and terrain parks MSSI has got to take a look at getting some snow onto Strief in future years. I think it will cost them season pass sales next year as well, even though the price is low.
 
I agree with your views about Edelweiss.

Spensar":3hug66wc said:
Good question, ie. were the other local hills pretty hurting during March break as well.

I was at Fortune last night. Last night of the Winter, last night of night skiing at Fortune (only Cascades still has some I believe) + it was 2 for 1 night before the warm and rain.

There were probably more cars in the parking lot on a cold night to ski ice than Saturday at Edelweiss with actual fresh snow on the trails.
 
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