Question for mark

Skied K last year May 17 & 18. $68 US for a two day pass (About $90 CDN). Would that keep me from going once a year? Probably not, but I was a bit reluctant to pay to ski on one run what I could pay to ski an entire hill midwinter.... <BR> <BR>but then again... skiing in May is pretty awesome <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> <BR> <BR>maybe i should look into skiing in the eastern townships in early may this year... get Frank to tell me where the goods are ;)
 
Unfortunately K is now the only game in town for lift-serviced May skiing. The only skiing hapenning in the East last May was: Sunday River (May 1st closing), Ste.Anne (May 4), St.Sauveur (May11 or 18 - check out last May reports). No Townships or any one else made it!!!! <BR> <BR>Of course, if you don't mind hiking you can make it to June skiing at Mt.Washington or LaReserve!!!! <BR> <BR>You are talking once a year to Killington, I am talking all the regularly. Would you pay $90CDN every weekend? I used to go a few weekend in a row from Montreal (less since living in Ottawa) until closing.
 
Jonny: It is unlikely you'd be able to ski the Eastern townships in May. <BR> <BR>Owl's Head closes early April every year (I think they have a fixed closing date). Mont Glen and Shefford also close early-April, if not late-March. <BR> <BR>Orford's season ends around mid-april, but the resort's owners have changed this year, so I don't know what the actual policy will be like this year. Last year, I saw Orford from the highway on May 17 and there was really not much snow left. <BR> <BR>Bromont used to close early-mid April, but in the last few years, it has gone through to mid-late April. It has never been opened in May, though they tried 3 years ago. <BR> <BR>Sutton would be your only chance for skiing in early May, but the odds are only of 25%: in 42 years, it opened in May 11 times. The latest closing date is May 9 (1971 and 1978). Their policy is to stay open as long as there is enough snow to open the main base area(with chair #2 and #4 operating). This means that upper mountain is still covered when they close. Last year, they closed on April 21, but I skied the Dynamique (under chair #4) top to bottom on May 9.
 
Once a year I don't mind paying that much, but I would *NEVER* make it more regular than that (even if it wasn't a 9 hour drive for me), it would be WAY too expensive. <BR> <BR>Max/Patrick: Thanks for the info <BR>I figured that most of the eastern areas would not be open past mid-late april, so maybe i'll just revise my trip so that i can stay in Canada, and go in mid-late April.
 
Ste.Anne has a fixed date closing which is generally First weekend of May (there are only open on weekends). So even if the mountain has 18 or 50 trails open, full coverage, excellent condtion they will close. The terrain openned last year was IMO much more important that K on that weekend (I believe that only the Superstar HSQ was in operation for $30US).
 
End of season tickets : the best deal is certainly St-Sauveur for me (last season for me in 2003-04 bouhouuuu !) 10$ Can for students after april 1, anytime. Even on weekend of early april, when it's 100% open, it's 10$, that's all. <BR> <BR>However, it's around 20-25$ CAN for adults until the end of the season. They closed on may 11, last year, although they tried to open a week longer. It was only open during weekends, though. The reason whey they can't beat Killington is that they don't accept some skiing with bare spots, so they groom the trails for every day of skiing and the snow melts quite faster. <BR> <BR>Orford : went on may 19, 2002 and there was still natural snowpatches in the upper part of Contour. It was funny, cause at top, the grass was brown and the trees were white, after some recent snowfalls. I've been caught in an interesting dump, while I was walking in the Contour, also. <BR> <BR>Sutton is the only chance to ski in may, effectively, but I guess that Bromont will finish to succeed that. Imagine to have the "Coupe du Monde" like the Superstar, opened until may or june. This could be a great possibility, IMO. <BR> <BR>This year, I was at Ste-Anne on may 12, for my graduation ball at the Manoir Richelieu and there was really not much snow left, on the south side. Very narrow skiable tracks in the "Gros Vallon" and that was about all for the south side ! (I wasn't there for skiing, though. At le Massif, I did a big error, going to ski on the top side, but there is finally no snowmaking, there ! At least, there was some interesting stuff on the "Tremblay". Only natural snow ;) There was about 2' of natural snow left in the woods, but it's not skiable there, in the woods, the trees are not enough spaced. <BR> <BR>Next year if I make the trip to there, it will be the "Charlevoix" trail and nothing else !!!!! I'm sure they could open few trails, especially with the mid-station, up to june.
 
Sorry to disagree with you Frank but I don't think the Massif could open till June: its southwesternly orientation and the proximity to the sea make snow preservation almost impossible. Even the midstation hasn't proven helpful in being able to open in the early season. The year they installed it they planned a November opening, but they still weren't able to do snowmaking in the lower half of the mountain (too much humidity + bad weather) and ended up opening around Christmas. The side of the double chair could be the best, if only it had snowmaking. <BR> <BR>Also, about Bromont, you have to remember that its summit is only at 565 meters (that's only 165 meters higher than Sutton's base). So though they definetly have better snowmaking than most resorts in Québec, they still have the altitude and location playing against them. <BR> <BR>I think the greatest potential for early and late season skiing in Qc is still Mont Sainte-Anne with the North side + summit, but their fixed-date opening /closing policy kills the opportunity. Anyway, I think their owner (resort of the Canadian Rockies) is just as cash-strapped as the ASC, so I don't think this will change...
 
I have to disagree with you a little bit me too. Marc confirmed me that the St-Lawrence river changes of direction near the Massif and it's a complete east side. It's why the trails like La Fénomène keep so much its snow, cause it's completely facing north at this place. <BR> <BR>The lower mountain doesn't keep its snow at all, that's sure, but until the mid-station, I think they could operate extremely late in the season, with a little bit more snowmaking. The top side could also open very late in the season, with snowmaking. Last year, after the less good snow year for the Massif in 10 years, I skied ±60% of the Tremblay trail on may 13, and there is just no snowmaking on that trail. ... and the spring wasn't cold like 2002. So I'm sure this trail could open easily until late may / early june, with just normal snowmaking. Imagine, there was still 2' of snow in the woods, in mid-may... after a bad snow year............ <BR> <BR>Bromont : yeah, 565 meters, that's true, but they have 10+x more snowmaking equipments and they're probably more recent than the ones of Sutton. They already said that they could open easily until june, with their snowmaking, but it wasn't worth to do it. May be with 600 000 skiers by year like last year, it will become interesting to do it in the future.... (but I don't think that for this year)
 
I agree with Max. Ste.Anne could be the king of late season in Quebec (and in the East) if they wanted to. I don't want to repeat everything I said last Spring, but 100% of the Northside was open on May3-4, and 4 top to bottom runs (some walking required) on the Southside. <BR> <BR>On late season skiing in Quebec. I skied Gray Rocks on it's last weekend of 1984-85: May 26. I skied K on May 28-29 and they closed on that weekend (June2-3?). Only one weekend apart, so everything is possible.
 
i've been working o.t. for the last 4 days trying to line up some days for next week and missed a few posts from the crew... marc's answer to above post about wether or not this forum gets read by the industry caught my eye... i can attest first hand it does... i'm not proud of this cause it was a mistake on my part, especially with all my ranting and raving that goes on here, but last may, after i was on the disabled list, i caught a no bull from a bro who just hit bretton woods on one of it's last days in early may... i sub posted to that person or anyone else who may be interested to send me their address and i would send them my bretton season pass for the last remaining days...keeping in mind that my buddy fast skiing gil and i were on bretton's poop list for our november confrontation with the guys who wear red jackets and white crosses about jumping ropes and sliding a small rail not designed to be slid, about a week after i made my ill advised and hypocritcal post/offer, i received in the mail 1) a nasty letter from the bretton marketing chick 2) a copy of bretton's season pass policies 3) a print out of the no bull post by joegm...i,m still not sure how she did it but i was impressed she was able to match me up as the culprit !!!!!!... i learned my lesson...so yes , they apparently do read this forum....
 
one word : LOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLL <BR> <BR>I think this equals the msg from "Les Otten" last week ! <BR> <BR>I imagine how you were surprised to see that in the mail ! hahaha <BR> <BR>Now we know that BW are reading FTO ! ... just like Cannon ;) (may be not for the same reason) <BR> <BR>A clue Joe, I think you gave your personnal e-mail adress clearly on the board... so if you gave that e-mail address, in the form for the season pass, it was easy for them to know who you were exactly....
 
very funny, i think ski areas read the post not only as something to read about their ski area but stuff about other ski areas so they are not out of the loop. <BR>porter
 
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