MSS - QC - nov 13, 2004

[Frankontour]

I went to MSS yesterday, just before to leave in the northern QC (where the winter is already there, but the ski areas aren't open yet : DOH !

Conditions were enough good, particularly on the sides of the trails, but in the middle, it was enough icy !

3 real runs open, but they could say 6 trails open, as the Lower West 70 was open, with the Skibidou (the magic carpet lifted tiny novice trail) and the Transit La Plagne, to pass from the High Speed Quad to the Nordique Triple chair.

The Red Bird has opened at 10h in the morning, so it was cool to have this beautiful 1 mile long green/blue trail ! ... + the 2 black West 70 and Nordique.

Bluebird sky, no crowd (as soon as they started the HSQ... just 2 minutes of waiting or so), not so cold, no snowguns in our face in the lifts (and not in the open trails neither). It was a perfect day for a beginning of the season, with even some packed powder on the sides of the trails.

Really nice day, overall !

Here is a few pics !

Top of Nordique

View from the Nordique

Top of Red Bird, just after its opening

Lower in the Red Bird

Nice trees on the top

Red Bird at the bottom of the mountain

Another pic of Red Bird, at mid-mountain

 

[woodi7259]

Just thought I'd add a few more pictures and my experiences from the day. Overall it was a great day of skiing. The snow was quite nice for the first hour or so but the lines were getting pretty bad until they opened the quad. After a couple of hours most the snow was getting scraped off in places but as frank said the snow on the edges wasn't too bad. You had to be careful not to get killed by the racers flying down the nordique especially in the one narrow section in the middle.

The 70 west was pretty nice except for the one part in the center where they had put in a few rails which made it quite ugly. There was a narrow spot that you had to squeeze through next to the rail and the large group of people which got very icy. At the bottom of the 70 west you could cut over onto 70 east and ski under the guns on what i felt was probably the nicest snow on the mountain. I kept riding the quad just so I could hit that last little section.

Red bird wasn't bad. It was a bit narrow but was a fun change of pace when it opened. It also helped to disperse the crowd a bit more. The snow was really granular when it was first opened but got better the more it was skiied. They were blowing snow on the East 70 all day and I wouldn't be surprised if they opened it today. Overall it was a great first day of the season with lots of fun turns.

Now for the good part... the pictures

Blowing snow on the east 70.

The view from the top of the lower 70

The congestion around the rails on the west 70

Lower Nordique

Mid section of the Nordique

Top section of Nordique

Top of the triple

Near the bottom of red ball