Frankontour
New member
Went today to Mt Blanc in the Laurentians. Unfortunately, at Montreal, the forecast of 8-10'' of snow turned to 2'' with a little bit of freezing rain. In the north, at least, they got 4-6'' of snow, but that was really not enough to cover the ultra hard coverage, cause of the warm temperatures that return below the freezing point, during last week. So the ski was just like in january after a 6'' storm, in the groomed trails..... but on the ungroomed trails..... it was almost unskiable. All those runs were closed except a couple, but their conditions were not really better than the closed ones... they were just shorter runs ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2116.jpg" ALT="Raton Laveur trail ... nice pic !"> <BR> <BR>At least, we had a great view of Tremblant 
<BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2117.jpg" ALT="Tremblant"> <BR> <BR>I took every trails on the 2 main sides (the 3rd was closed today, cause of lack of skiers), but there was about 35% of the terrain that closed or unskiable. So there was just a couple of expert runs and of course, 0 extreme ones. One of the biggest problems on the ungroomed trails was that it was impossible to know if that was snow, ice, or rocks, under the little powder coverage. It's surely one of the main reason why they simply didn't tried to open them. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2118.jpg" ALT="Couloir was closed... closed = reserved for Frank !!"> <BR> <BR>Here is the "no bull snow report" section... but for that mountain, there should be a "no bull mountain report", cause it's one of the most lying ski area I've ever seen, for the vertical drop. They're just beside Tremblant, so they decided to write : 300 meters high (983'), but when you go there, it feels like 600-650 feet depending of the sides... and few of my correspondents with altimeters confirmed me that it was really 600-650 feet and really not 1000 ! It's really a shame that they use that statistic to charge a bigger price for lift tickets. It's possible to do a little bit more than 650 feet, going down from the 3rd side to the base of Faustin side, but it's may be 50 feet more... certainly not 350 !! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2119.jpg" ALT="Mont Blanc...1000 feet ? lololol"> <BR> <BR>So, the day wasn't so bad, with the groomed trails, but I really missed some ski in the real moguls ! Anyway, it would have been the same thing in every ski area, so I just hope that the next week will be a super spring skiing one... or a powder one of course !!!! <BR> <BR>Oh, big surprise. In the last FTO chat session, I told to Marc that I wouldn't be surprised to see Alta reopen this weekend. They just got 6 inches, but they still had a great coverage and were open. I wonder if it's the southern ski area in Eastern North America that is still open... without snowmaking ? More, they should be open next week, if the weather is not too hot... wow ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2120.jpg" ALT="Mont Alta on april 6 - NO SNOWMAKING !!">
<BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2117.jpg" ALT="Tremblant"> <BR> <BR>I took every trails on the 2 main sides (the 3rd was closed today, cause of lack of skiers), but there was about 35% of the terrain that closed or unskiable. So there was just a couple of expert runs and of course, 0 extreme ones. One of the biggest problems on the ungroomed trails was that it was impossible to know if that was snow, ice, or rocks, under the little powder coverage. It's surely one of the main reason why they simply didn't tried to open them. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2118.jpg" ALT="Couloir was closed... closed = reserved for Frank !!"> <BR> <BR>Here is the "no bull snow report" section... but for that mountain, there should be a "no bull mountain report", cause it's one of the most lying ski area I've ever seen, for the vertical drop. They're just beside Tremblant, so they decided to write : 300 meters high (983'), but when you go there, it feels like 600-650 feet depending of the sides... and few of my correspondents with altimeters confirmed me that it was really 600-650 feet and really not 1000 ! It's really a shame that they use that statistic to charge a bigger price for lift tickets. It's possible to do a little bit more than 650 feet, going down from the 3rd side to the base of Faustin side, but it's may be 50 feet more... certainly not 350 !! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2119.jpg" ALT="Mont Blanc...1000 feet ? lololol"> <BR> <BR>So, the day wasn't so bad, with the groomed trails, but I really missed some ski in the real moguls ! Anyway, it would have been the same thing in every ski area, so I just hope that the next week will be a super spring skiing one... or a powder one of course !!!! <BR> <BR>Oh, big surprise. In the last FTO chat session, I told to Marc that I wouldn't be surprised to see Alta reopen this weekend. They just got 6 inches, but they still had a great coverage and were open. I wonder if it's the southern ski area in Eastern North America that is still open... without snowmaking ? More, they should be open next week, if the weather is not too hot... wow ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2120.jpg" ALT="Mont Alta on april 6 - NO SNOWMAKING !!">