Up until this week there was little natural snow on the ground so any skiing was on machine paste frozen solid. However over the last few days about 8 inches fell and so it was enough to cruise around on the greens . Searched around for trails with no artificial base to start off the season on a easy note. Elevation played a key role in the weather this week as rain fell down in the St. Lawrence valley with snow in the Laurentians. Not enough snow to officially open natural snow trails yet.
Laurentian Report ( Quebec )
- Thread starter Anthony
- Start date
Well the fact that I am sitting in front of the screen instead of being out on the trails tells it all. Basically it can?t get any worse ( this is the good news) as a night of freezing rain followed by rain has closed most areas today except for MSS and Tremblant. There was not much to close anyway , as most areas had one or two trails open on old arena ice. Chance of snow next week so back to the waiting game.
Hey Patrick , Yes pictures from VB that were taken on Dec. 9 after about 8 inches of snow fell . Those trails were closed when we were skiing on them but were actually better than the 2 trails that were officially open on machine made. Nothing but rain and warm temperatures since then . Now the problem were facing is that we lost about 4 weeks of base building . It is going to take some back to back storms to get the good stuff open ( Alta)
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Patrick
Well-known member
That's why they looked so good.Anthony":109tflsx said:
Anthony":109tflsx said:
Weather has been the same here. I just had a quick look at the Environment Canada data (maybe more later to answer at Tony).
Ottawa's average snow for the season until the end of December is: 73cm
Total received so far is: 12.8 (most of it on December 1st) have has all melted so far.
And that only tell half the story, as the temps have been often been +10c above the normal. So you can't even make snow most of the time.
I'm probably going to go out for a repeat visit at Camp Fortune tomorrow and see how many people on on the hill (I've got a 2-for-1 that expires tomorrow).
The forecasted snowstorm last Monday (Dec. 26) ended up being a flop as when it was all over we were left with about 3 inches of wet snow and rain. The most noticeable feature of the Laurentians this year is the total lack of snow covering the ground. Snow depth is around 6 inches. Doesn?t matter where you go between MSS and Tremblant, conditions are the same. Skiing /Riding is limited to groomers covered in artificial snow which ski better early in the morning before they become scraped down. Spent 4 hours out on groomers today as either this or nothing. Looks like we are about 1 month behind in snow accumulation as still in desperate need for about 2 to 3 feet of snow to open up the woods.
Spent the day out on the local trails in the?Laurentian Snow Zone ?. (Well not this year!) . Yesterday about 1 to 2 inches fell which surprisingly softened up the groomers and you could even ski in an out of the trees beside the groomers where artificial snow drifted in. This is as far as you want to go as there is less than a foot of natural snow in the woods and in sun exposed areas even less. Hard work by the small ski areas working with one groomer and one or two snow fans trail by trail have managed to open about 35% of the trails. The natural snow areas like Alta are still waiting for enough snow to open. The forecast does not look good as Environment Canada has issued a Freezing Rain warning for the next 24 hours. What we need is snow and lots of it. Sooner or later we should be dealt a better hand of cards. Happy New Year. 
Laurentians are into complete freefall as temperatures soar and the last of the natural snow melts away. MSSI has decided to close Gabriel , Olympia and Morin Heights on Monday's and Tuesday's to perserve the snow that they have made. More rain and warm temperatures tomorrow so the meltdown will continue for at least another 24 hours. All kinds or records are being broken this year but not good ones. Will we ever ski on natural snow again or will the new norm be boring boulevard runs that have been bulldozed flat in order to be able to open on a few inches of snow from snow guns positioned like lamp posts on a suburban street.
Patrick
Well-known member
Anthony":331i3kxa said:
As I mentioned in my Ottawa Hoildays skiing report and elsewhere earlier this month. The weather is totally out-of-wrack with the norm. We aren't even close or been close to the normal temps for the last two months.
Today's High in Ottawa was +10c and raining, normal high is -5c. It's been like this for weeks. There isn't any snow left, lawn are green and the ground isn't even frozen. Maple tree have started flowing, some flowers are starting to bloom, Cats and Dogs sleeping together...:?
This is horrible.
I just heard on the news about Blue Mountain (Ontario) shuting down temporarily.
Blue Mountain layoffs :?
I was supposed to go to Montreal tonight and ski at Morin Heights with my daughter and her godmother tomorrow. She's a ski school director and they have cancelled their lessons for tomorrow. We're hoping to get some turns in on Sunday before heading back to Ottawa.
This isn't a fun winter, the worst part of it is dealing with all the happy people from collegues to people on the radio liking this crappy weather.
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
The worst part of it, is that when my daughter will be my age, I afraid that this will become the normal winter weather. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Patrick , I hear you , today is another wash out with rain , fog and mist on the menu. A bit of a freeze up tonight with broken clouds tomorrow :roll: The January thaw used to be about 24 to 36 hours where as kids we were ordered outside to break the ice on the driveway before the deep freeze set in . You could actually hear the cold front racing back in through the trees. As a kid in the seventies the big concern was surviving skiing in 40 below temperatures. There was none of this BS about rain in winter . Winter is almost half over and there is no snow. Down south take a look at the MRG and MRV Chamber of commerce web cams , Looks like Ireland . I heard on the radio that there was a guy waterskiing in the lake at the base of Tremblant yesterday.
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I was thinking about how we could possibly do something positive about warming. Unfortunately for us, the two "most wasteful" uses we have are driving to the mountains and using our woodstove up there. So for me the best thing I could do is to stop skiing - not an option.
Good article in today's NYTimes about how much less energy the average Japanese household uses, than a US household. Maybe I'm getting too political. But I'd love to know what Liftlines regulars think about global warming and energy conservation.
On the other thing - I'm with you - it really pi$$e$ me off when I hear the weather man talk about how wonderful the weather is. We got all the windows open today.
CB and I just finished watching Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. Wow. I recommend it.
M
Good article in today's NYTimes about how much less energy the average Japanese household uses, than a US household. Maybe I'm getting too political. But I'd love to know what Liftlines regulars think about global warming and energy conservation.
On the other thing - I'm with you - it really pi$$e$ me off when I hear the weather man talk about how wonderful the weather is. We got all the windows open today.
CB and I just finished watching Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. Wow. I recommend it.
M
After a Saturday of rain and fog the skies cleared up and the temperatures dropped off last night freezing the snow to rock solid granular. Very light crowds out on the trails which was good as skiing was very fast. Good edges an knowing how to use them is essential these days. Only skiing available is on runs covered in artificial snow. Still waiting for snow. a few pictures from being out and about.
Attachments
Patrick
Well-known member
Nice April picture of Mont Gabriel. :roll:
The south side of Gabriel was probably very good (corn snow), however the north side would was been frozen solid.
Hard to believe that the Freestyle Mogul World Cup was being held on the other side. It's the first comp of the year because of similar lack of snow in Europe cancelled the first two competition.
We made some turns out at Morin Heights today (I'll try to post something later). South side stuff was corn and soft.
The south side of Gabriel was probably very good (corn snow), however the north side would was been frozen solid.
Hard to believe that the Freestyle Mogul World Cup was being held on the other side. It's the first comp of the year because of similar lack of snow in Europe cancelled the first two competition.
We made some turns out at Morin Heights today (I'll try to post something later). South side stuff was corn and soft.
I would caution all of you against jumping to conclusions based on 2 months of weather. After all, western Canada's ski season has been been as stellar so far as eastern Canada's has been abysmal. I suspect powderfreak could give us the technical reasons for both phenomena, and it would not surprise me if they were related in some way.
Patrick
Well-known member
Harvey44":1htttrnx said:
Without highjaking this thread about Global Warming, you can find the discussion we had on the Liftlines a while ago.
Global Warming Discussion