Frankontour
New member
I already put a pic + a link to the Zoneski site, but yesterday, we headed up to La Réserve, to see what was remaining after the very, very hot week that we just passed. With temperatures close to 90F in Montreal, we didn't know what to expect exactly. <BR> <BR>I was expecting some nice skiing on the LG canyon and a decent patch on the Croque-Mitaine and Pente Douce. I was right for the Croque Mitaine, with a 300' long patch, but the Pente Douce was almost all gone, even though it looked nicely covered 10 days earlier. <BR> <BR>So we were 9 Zoneskiers (10 including the dog) to head to St-Donat. Arrived to the mountain : OUCH <BR> <BR>Not much snow left. Almost nothing to be exact. There was a circle spot in the Slalom, almost all the trail wide, but only 100 or 150 feet long. <BR> <BR>From the bottom, there was nothing visible on the Croque-Mitaine, but we headed up Eric (few times writer on FTO) and me) While we were hiking, we've seen that there was finally a decent patch on the upper Croque-Mitaine. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3952.jpg" ALT="Croque-Mitaine"> <BR> <BR>But we were looking for better. Unfortunately, the Pente Douce was almost all gone. So we headed up to the canyon and it was very scary, cause we only saw some snow while we were almost arrived into the canyon ! But it was still nice and white. Quite narrow, though, compared to last year at the same date... due to the lack of snowmaking in the trail, this year. <BR> <BR>We did 1 run down the LG canyon before to reach the bottom to see if the other zoneskiers were arrived. <BR> <BR>Eric beginning his first run since april 10 ! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3953.jpg" ALT="Eric on the LG canyon"> <BR> <BR>Altough it doesn't seem steep on the pic, it was a proper black run. I think this pic (on the side without snow of the trail) better show the decent steepness of the trail (Photo from Marie of Zoneski) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3954.jpg" ALT="LG steepness"> <BR> <BR>Heading down, I told me the Pente Douce was too long to walk it. C'mon Frank... just ski it. So I started with the tiny patch of snow on the top of the pitch and finished on the lower patch... after a gap of 200' long <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="
"> <BR> <BR>Here is a video of Christophe doing it (not at full speed though). It's a really funny one, you can believe me ! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve62.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>I finally skied this gap 3 times and we have 3 videos of skiers doing it ! It's really amazing to ski at 20mph on the grass on all this distance ! <BR> <BR>I did about the same thing after the patch of the Croque-Mitaine, skiing something like 300' long on the grass before to reach another little patch to take a little bit more speed. <BR> <BR>At the bottom, we met Boomer (who wrote on FTO in the last days) and 6 other Zoneski contributors and we headed up to the LG canyon. <BR> <BR>Here is one run that we did (notice we see only 6 skiers as 2 zoneskiers didn't bring their skis) With the blue skies + nice corn with perfect weather, it was one of the very nice day of the season, even though there was just 900' long skiable (on snow), according to a GPS. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve16.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>On my last run, I decided to try something I never tried before : Doing a jump....... while there is no snow on the landing... and no snow on the starting point... and no snow on the jump. Thanks to Marie to have filmed this one ! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve61.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>I also recommend you sincerely this video of the LG... which shows an epic summer run of Boomer and Wake66. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve66.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>Now few other ski pics <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""> : <BR> <BR>Boomer and Wake66 skiing down (on the top of the patch, the little points) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3955.jpg" ALT="Skiing past mid-may"> <BR> <BR>But to ski...we must hike <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3956.jpg" ALT="Eric hiking"> <BR> <BR>So that was an epic summer ski day and we would like to have full of other days in the kind, but unfortunately, it looks like it will be more next year. This weekend, we will possibly head in the north of the province. If not, we should get back to the LG canyon a last time, but I'm sure it's not going to be quite interesting after this coming weekend. <BR> <BR>Total of my day : <BR> <BR>800 meters (2600') of hiking with 420 meters (1400') of vertical skied on snow PLUS about 250 meters high (800' high) skied on grass.
"> <BR> <BR>Here is a video of Christophe doing it (not at full speed though). It's a really funny one, you can believe me ! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve62.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>I finally skied this gap 3 times and we have 3 videos of skiers doing it ! It's really amazing to ski at 20mph on the grass on all this distance ! <BR> <BR>I did about the same thing after the patch of the Croque-Mitaine, skiing something like 300' long on the grass before to reach another little patch to take a little bit more speed. <BR> <BR>At the bottom, we met Boomer (who wrote on FTO in the last days) and 6 other Zoneski contributors and we headed up to the LG canyon. <BR> <BR>Here is one run that we did (notice we see only 6 skiers as 2 zoneskiers didn't bring their skis) With the blue skies + nice corn with perfect weather, it was one of the very nice day of the season, even though there was just 900' long skiable (on snow), according to a GPS. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve16.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>On my last run, I decided to try something I never tried before : Doing a jump....... while there is no snow on the landing... and no snow on the starting point... and no snow on the jump. Thanks to Marie to have filmed this one ! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve61.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>I also recommend you sincerely this video of the LG... which shows an epic summer run of Boomer and Wake66. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/reserve66.mov"> click here</A> <BR> <BR>Now few other ski pics <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""> : <BR> <BR>Boomer and Wake66 skiing down (on the top of the patch, the little points) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3955.jpg" ALT="Skiing past mid-may"> <BR> <BR>But to ski...we must hike <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3956.jpg" ALT="Eric hiking"> <BR> <BR>So that was an epic summer ski day and we would like to have full of other days in the kind, but unfortunately, it looks like it will be more next year. This weekend, we will possibly head in the north of the province. If not, we should get back to the LG canyon a last time, but I'm sure it's not going to be quite interesting after this coming weekend. <BR> <BR>Total of my day : <BR> <BR>800 meters (2600') of hiking with 420 meters (1400') of vertical skied on snow PLUS about 250 meters high (800' high) skied on grass.
