The word of the day? Glop. <BR> <BR>Or, maybe, Elmer's Glue. It rained all day yesterday, and the forecast for any lingering showers or drizzle to end during the morning prompted us to sleep in late and head out for an afternoon ticket. It turned out to be the right call, although the sun didn't shine until after we headed back to Quebec City at the end of the day. We spent the most of the day suffering through flat light in the cloud that reached nearly to the South Side base. <BR> <BR>Absolutely nothing remained of the 25 cm that fell here this week. The lower half of the South Side was bare, with only depressing patches of snow remaining on anything other than the several routes that were open: La Grand Allee to La Pichard, or La Crete. Most people were using the only open South Side lift, L'Etoile Filante (the gondi) to access the summit to drop over to the North Side. <BR> <BR>Nearly the entire North Side was open and eminently skiable. La Premiere Neige was bumped up with moguls of a perfect rhythm, and nary a bare trough to be found. Everything else open on the North Side -- La Quanik, La Soumande, La Printaniere, L'Archipel, La Paradeuse, La Belanger and La Suprenante, were groomed out before the day began. Again, though, the snow had absorbed yesterday's rain like a sponge, and much of it was very a grabby, sticky cream cheese surface. Near the bottom of La Quanik, you actually had to straight-run the intermediate pitch to carry enough speed to avoid a long skate/walk at the base. Turning there could've actually brought you to a halt. The best run was La Paradeuse, thanks to the increased traffic that made the snow there faster than on any other run. <BR> <BR>We had already gotten in quite a few runs when we decided on one more down La Paradeuse before descending the full front-side vertical on La Crete when Patricia found a heavy, sticky snow snake near the top of La Paradeuse and did an end-over-end tumble. Those silly little snow blades of hers! Her back strained and painful, she was reluctant to ski down and we hiked back up the top 100' or so of La Paradeuse and downloaded on the gondi. <BR> <BR>Disappointed that the day was over, we still had a full afternoon of many laughs and smiles. Honestly, I didn't see a rock on any open trail today. <BR> <BR>Sainte-Anne will be open for the rest of this week, everything permitting. I honestly thought that my season was already over, so today was a special treat. <BR> <BR>Because of the thick cloud, I took very few photos today, none of which adequately show the level of cover. Here's Patricia at the base of the North Side today, however: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2263.jpg" ALT="At the base of the North Side today"> <BR> <BR>and the chalet there: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2264.jpg" ALT="North Side chalet">