I decided to take a day trip from Sugarloaf to Mt Orford in Quebec. My brother lives in Montreal so we met up for a day of skiing. We started out the day leaving Sugarloaf at 6:45am with the temperature at -21F. Route 27 to the border was icy and snow packed making 40-45mph the top speed for this road. We arrived at Mt Orford at 9:45am, so it was about a 3 hour drive allowing for customs formalities and poor road conditions, and a trip distance of 125 miles from Sugarloaf. I met up with my brother and we started off skiing the Chondola (half 6 pack chair half gondola). We did warm up runs on 55 Lien Futur, 1 4KM , 37 Escapade and 38 Boise glade. The chondola really made the skiing experience much more fun on a day with temperatures peaking at -17F at the base and <BR>-22F at the summit. At the risk of inflating Frank's ego, the snow conditions, base depth and grooming were vastly superior to Sugarloaf. We skied down Contour Glade and Express Glade, and the snow cover was more than adequate with very little in the way of bare spots and undergrowth showing itself. The only problem was that the powder snow was very sticky due to the extreme cold, making turning more difficult. We took about 12 runs down between 10-2pm before calling it a day. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3246.jpg" ALT="Mt Orford Hybride Gondola"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3247.jpg" ALT="Contour Glade"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3248.jpg" ALT="Mike on the Lien Futur trail">
Mt Orford PQ 1-15-04
- Thread starter Kevin
- Start date
Frankontour
New member
hmmm thanks for the pic of the Contour !! <BR> <BR>The "futur trail" looks to be the entrance of the Porc-Épic. If yes, it's an official trail, but not often open, cause there is a super rocky part. It's a gigantic extreme glade
This picture was taken by chance at the enterance to Porc-Epic glade. The trail was closed, but looking down into it, it looked to have plenty of snowcover. This was the only trail that was closed that day due to lack of snow. We took one run down Mount Giroux on the Magnum trail- Jean-Davignon. The Quad Giroux Est lift was closed as were the trails that it served, so I did not get to ski those double diamond glades. I also took one run down Mont Alfred D. on the Ookpic trail. Skiing anything without the gondola made you cold very fast. I think that I convinced my brother to get a season pass there next year, he really was impressed with the steep glade trails, as this was his first time there. He has a pass to Jay Peak and it is usable at there sister resorts in Quebec. By the way the chondola stopped working about 2:00pm on thursday for quite a long time, with unhappy looking people inside the gondola cars. When we left about 2:15pm, the lift was moving very slowly upward. I think that they had some mechanical trouble?? I have some more pics of some trails if you are interested. Taking pictures at -20F gets painfull for your hands very quickly. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3254.jpg" ALT="view of Mt Giroux from the Trois-Ruisseaux trail">