Frankontour
New member
On saturday afternoon, we left Montreal in the dirt bitch r@!n to reach Quebec city, with the skis and the car and the thoughts of spring skiing in some of the best glades on earth, on sunday. <BR> <BR>The Massif du Sud (a mountain that I discovered with the excellent article of Marc Guido back in 2001 just here http://www.firsttracksonline.com/massifdusud.htm )offered us its 1312' (400 meters) vertical with almost no bare spots, in the main trails just like in the glades. <BR> <BR>The choice was perfect, the high elevation + latitude + north side + 225" of snowfalls this year that have never melted gave us some conditions close to paradise. <BR> <BR>You want an idea ? This is the #5, a pitch of 35 degrees average on 800' high. (photo taken midway in the pitch). Of course, there is <U>NO snowmaking</U> in that trail. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3827.jpg" ALT="#5 Surprenante !"> <BR> <BR>I sticked in few trails today, but all the glades were in incredible shape for this time of the year. Too bad it was the last day of the season out there, cause all could be open another week for sure. <BR> <BR>Here is the glade #4, with absolutely no bare spots. (neighbour of the epic #5, this trail has a 30 degrees average on 800' high, but well spaced glade. (while #2,3,6 and 7 are less tree-spaced and tougher) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3828.jpg" ALT="#4 in amazing conditions like always !"> <BR> <BR>Lower in the #4 <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3829.jpg" ALT="I love this trail soooooo much"> <BR> <BR>Of course the #8 was wonderful once again. Over 1 mile long of perfect glade, including 50% of the run in a canyon and the river was just beginning to flow on the lower part of it, so it was still entirely skiable. <BR> <BR>The upper part will certainly be skiable up to mid may or more. So if you want to ski some glades into may, I suggest you this mountain. This is the easy upper part of this incredible trail : <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3830.jpg" ALT="Christophe in the #8"> <BR> <BR>And the lower part which was thinner but still quite correct : <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3831.jpg" ALT="Christophe in the lower part of #8"> <BR> <BR>When they closed the extreme side at 3h30, I did an incredible run down the #16b (Boisé) which was in soft bumps on ¾ mile long. It was INCREDIBLE to ski it and amazing to think that the lower mountain, where it is located could have so much natural snow at this time of the year ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3832.jpg" ALT="Lower lower lower Boisé"> <BR> <BR>At the end of the day, we were supposed to sweep the Boisé for the ski patrol, but as they were enough numerous (patrollers) and that we were a bunch negociating with them to have the legal right to pass the rope and ski all together in a trail on the extreme side, they decided to allow us to take a patroller with us to ski down the #5 a last time this season ! <BR> <BR>So here is the last run of the season in the epic trail #5. This will still be skiable T2B next week for sure, but without lift, unfortunately. (the rocky part is avoidable by the left on the pic where it was even not thin !) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3833.jpg" ALT="#5 POWERRR"> <BR> <BR>THANKS TO THE PATROL OF THE MASSIF DU SUD !!!!!!! <BR> <BR>Finally, after our day, we decided to go lurk on the neighbour of Massif du Sud. The "Grande-Coulée" which is a ski area of the size of the Massif du Sud which closed about 5 years ago, due to lack of clients. Even alone, the Massif du Sud have some trouble to have enough skiers to be profitable. Imagine with another ski area at less than 15 miles from there (we see it from the road to access Massif du Sud). When you reach the Massif du Sud, you turn from the road 281 on right on the road 216 and drive 6 miles to the area. For the Grande-Coulée, your turn on left on the 216 from the 281 and you drive 8 miles to reach the mountain ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3834.jpg" ALT="Grande-Coulée"> <BR> <BR>Here it is : not steep on the main side, but look at the right side ! HMMMM, Those pitches should have about 800-900' high as the mountain was about 1200' (with 28 trails and 2 quads + 1 surface lift) <BR> <BR>So that's it for our last SUPER SKI DAY of the season, at least for the lifted ones ! <BR> <BR>It was amazing and it's seriously not impossible that we go hike it back before the summer, cause there will still be some incredible spots to ski there in the coming month.