Frankontour
New member
Today, I enjoyed my best ski day of last seasons. The conditions were incredibly good, with 12" on last weekend and 2-4" overnight and during the day. I was sad to not go Whiteface with FTO, but with the today storm, I don't know if I would have been able to get there anyway. The visibility was almost 0, in the Montreal region roads this morning. <BR> <BR>There was still some great snow from last storm in the glades and less known trails and the surface was nice packed powder in the other trails, with good snowfalls that were always refreshing the snow texture. They almost didn't groom anything at all, so there was about 25 trails / 30 in powder or moguls. All was soft, not a single icy spot on the whole mountain and there was almost no crowd with that... so it was just like heaven, all day long ! This is la Principale (main trail). It's a major bump field. It's one of the best mogul trails in the Laurentians, after Tremblant's Expo. It's less steep of course, but it's a little bit longer and it's not with ice-making like Expo. Today, it was litteraly perfect... super nice bumps, nice snow, no ice, no thin cover : perfect !! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1983.jpg" ALT="Principale"> <BR> <BR>Last time, I found that it was possible to take a cliff zone without falling from too high. This is the pass (middle of pic). What is really special about this, is that : to reach it, you must pass at few inches of a crevasse and just after, you must jump the first cliff really carefully to jump enough far to not fall into an enough deep fault. Ok, it's not Chamonix... the crevasse is just 10-15 feet deep and the fault is about 20 feet deep, but it's enough to add a big thrill to the run <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="
"> !! If we choose to jump the cliffs, it's something like 20-25 feet high with no landing, so it's not for me ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1984.jpg" ALT="the pass 
"> <BR> <BR>The trail of the day : Upper Papoos (#8), a narrow steep couloir that is completely hidden from its entrance, especially with high grass, until you arrive to the pitch, where there is absolutely no grass, so it's always great, but today, it was exceptionnaly perfect ! <BR> <BR>Finally, a good point for this little mountain, they put signs to indicate many trails that were not marked, during last week. There is 2 hidden trails that risk to be less nice now cause of that, but in general, putting some signs is appreciated of the skiers here, so it should be great for the ski area. Also, they bought a "new" groomer. I must say that the old one, coming directly from the 1960s (and with a "Gray Rocks" logo on it (G-R = another ski area in the Laurentians)) was not really good to break crust of ice, last year, so now, they'll be able to groom adequately the trails, when it's absolutely necessary. The new groomer seems to be from the end of 1980s or beginning of 1990s. <BR> <BR>Only 2 days remaining before Frankontour go back to Orford's Contour <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="">
"> !! If we choose to jump the cliffs, it's something like 20-25 feet high with no landing, so it's not for me ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1984.jpg" ALT="the pass "> <BR> <BR>The trail of the day : Upper Papoos (#8), a narrow steep couloir that is completely hidden from its entrance, especially with high grass, until you arrive to the pitch, where there is absolutely no grass, so it's always great, but today, it was exceptionnaly perfect ! <BR> <BR>Finally, a good point for this little mountain, they put signs to indicate many trails that were not marked, during last week. There is 2 hidden trails that risk to be less nice now cause of that, but in general, putting some signs is appreciated of the skiers here, so it should be great for the ski area. Also, they bought a "new" groomer. I must say that the old one, coming directly from the 1960s (and with a "Gray Rocks" logo on it (G-R = another ski area in the Laurentians)) was not really good to break crust of ice, last year, so now, they'll be able to groom adequately the trails, when it's absolutely necessary. The new groomer seems to be from the end of 1980s or beginning of 1990s. <BR> <BR>Only 2 days remaining before Frankontour go back to Orford's Contour <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="">
">