Mont Saint-Sauveur - SKIIIIIIIIIIII - QC - August 30, 2003

Frankontour · Aug 31, 2003

Hey, I get the first ski report of the year ! hummm, no, in fact, I've not skied finally. You may understand me looking the pics... but I've seen a lot of skiers/boarders in the trailS though. Yep, I effectively said the trailSSSSSS, cause yes, new thing this year, there was 2 trails open. There was of course the competition run at the bottom of the West 70. It was about 300-350 feet long with 6' wide in average. The Nordique had a little snowpark, which got more snow than the one of Tenney in early summer... but it melted extremely fast, with all the boarders ready to jibe. The total length of the snowpark was may be 150-175' long. It was quite colder than last year for the event, but there was still enough people in the waterpark (brrrrrr). (85F last year, 65F this year) Now, the pics !! The preparation of the course : <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2704.jpg" ALT="Preparation of the main trail"> The course was supposed to begin at 11h30. But, when I came back from my long hike from Hill 71 to Mt Avila back to central MSS by the road, it was 11h20 and they were just beginning to spread the snow on the West 70 <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/sad.gif" ALT="

"> At least, the snowpark was ready by 12h30, but the course just began at 1h PM. This is the snowpark, which melted very very fastly, cause there was too much users for it. I wanted to ski it at the end of the day, when I wouldn't have had to pay 28$ for it (and to jump the rail + box), but there was almost nothing remaining anyway, so I let the skis in the car. <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2705.jpg" ALT="Snowpark"> Oh, I talked of MSS + Avila, I had my altimeter and for the 1st time, those 2 ski areas are higher according to my altimeter than the numbers said by the ski areas. I can't believe it. Even Mt Avila is higher than the Mt Blanc, finally. (Mt Blanc is supposed to be 115 meters (360') higher than Mt Avila !! I knew that it was a fraud of Mt Blanc, but I thought that the Faustin side would be slightly higher than Mt Avila). Back on the pix, here is the whole view : (notice the "screams" man) <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2706.jpg" ALT="whole view of the trail"> The upper trail <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2707.jpg" ALT="Upper trail"> The trail from the top <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2708.jpg" ALT="Trail from the top"> Here is a couple of hot pics of jumpers : A cow... <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2709.jpg" ALT="cow"> A Pink Panther... <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2710.jpg" ALT="Pink Panther"> There was 48 competitors and all them had 2 runs to hit scores. After that, the 20 best ones were qualified for another run and after that, the best 5 were in finals. Before the last 20 competitors tried to reach the final, there was a motocross demonstration. Pretty cool, the jump was over 60' long and at least 30' high. Here is a shot, you can see the guy well over the trees... <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2711.jpg" ALT="Motocross"> This is the winner.... if you find it on the pic, you may understand why he won... <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2712.jpg" ALT="The police always win...."> So there was many costumes today, on 48 competitors, there was 5 cows, 1 policeman (the great winner). A grammy (3rd place), 1 superman, 1 bodypainted + g-string, a couple of speedos, few clowns, many guys clothed in sexy girls and many many more weird costumes

It was a really cool day, but it's sad for me, as I was the last skier to have skied in the southern province, since 3 months now. I lost it today <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/sad.gif" ALT="

"> But winter is close... a sure thing, this is the last summer event of MSS... winter events will begin soon <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

">

Frankontour · Aug 31, 2003

Btw... for the winner.... he landed <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

">

brian o · Aug 31, 2003

FRANK---------INCED! you've amazed me yet again! if theres a patch of snow in aug--even on the moon...you are there! outstanding dedication to the sport of skiing! regards--- brian o usa

Frankontour · Aug 31, 2003

LOL thanx Brian May be not on the moon or Mars, but if there is snow not so far, I wouldn't miss that ! I hope that Crotched / Onset will remain open many decades now

PS : yesterday, I touched the snow !!!!! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="

">

Salida1986 · Sep 1, 2003

Man,This is awesome, great dedication. I was in montreal yesterday and I didnt even know about this. I wish I had I would have gone up th ere and tried it out. I did however stop by at orford on the way back to the states to look at the new chondala. The towers are in but the base lift house is not. It looks fairly cool. I was wondering if any one had ever skied down the back side of orford where the power lines are? Porter

Frankontour · Sep 1, 2003

Thanks for the update of Orford and sad that you didn't knew about the event. About 30-40% of the competitors talked in english, but it was probably tough to understand all the event without a ± good french. For the power line, I don't think it's really possible to ski there, unless you want to do only 1 run in your day. Effectively, as the mountain arrive directly in a lake at this level (I think), I don't think it's possible to reach this point in a car. So you would have to walk a lot to come back on the roads. The slope looks interesting and it's easy to know where to take it : just at the big curve of the "4km" trail. But honestly, actually when you're there, you can stick to the official trails and feel like you've skied the woods all day long. It was really funny to see the North American Escapade movie of the FTOer Jay Silveira (J.Spin). Owl's Head, little funny song and skiing all the times in the woods. Sutton, little song and cruising slopes + off-piste. Orford : One of the best rock song of the movie IMO (She sells sanctuary of The Cult) with sticking to the official crazy glades all film long. (damn the conditions were bad, though !) Orford have already most of the longest glades in the province (Porc-Épic, Chevreuil, Passe de l'Ours, Écureuil in particular) and there is some really good in-bound off piste, so you don't spend some time to try terrain less interesting than what you have with a chairlift, in general.... Longest glades... but not the longest lift-serviced off-piste in Quebec which is probably the extended version of the "Sous-bois des Cimes" of Mt Garceau which should be not far of 2km long (1,25 miles long).

Frankontour · Sep 1, 2003

PS : the North American Escapade doesn't have only those 3 ski areas in QC... There is also : Stowe, Smuggs, Sugarbush, Killington, Tuckerman Ravine, Attitash, Cranmore and Jay Peak in the east (about) and Lost Trail Powder Mountain, Crystal, Alpental, Whistler, Squaw Valley, Heavenly and a couple other ones in the West. (pub for you, Jspin

)

Frankontour · Sep 3, 2003

While I think to that... CHAT TOMORROW AT 9HPM EAST HOUR

JSpin · Sep 4, 2003

Thanks for mentioning the "North American Escapade" movie Frank, it's great to hear the perspective of someone who knows the Eastern Townships ski areas so well. I tried to get onto the FTO chat tonight for more than an hour, but unfortunately something wasn't working. <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/sad.gif" ALT="

"> Hopefully next time! Great report by the way on the August snow!

Frankontour · Sep 4, 2003

It's a pleasure, Jspin ! The movie is cool... so it is normal for me to talk of it

You really missed a great chat, yesterday. At 8h55, we were already 4-5 and I've personnaly never seen the chatroom so busy. It was almost hard to follow the conversationS. At 10h10, the system broken, it was really frustrating. About the townships, I must say that I don't really know Sutton, Bromont and Owl's Head. I skied them about 5 times. Mt Glen and Mt Shefford are really more serious than Bromont and Owl's Head, about the wood skiing. They're of course not really some possible destinations for the Swampfest, but for the vermonters not too far, they're some "must", for skiing in the woods (Shefford in particular have nothing to envy to Orford and Sutton) and have the craziest skiable place I ever seen. It would be so cool if they buy a double chairlift, rather than the t-bars.

Mont Saint-Sauveur - SKIIIIIIIIIIII - QC - August 30, 2003

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