Frankontour
New member
We are crazy !
Yes, for the 3rd time within one month, we headed to the Valinouët ski area, 300+ miles north of Montreal. It was tough to know exactly what we would have for conditions. For the global view of the mountain, I would say that it was looking a little bit like Sugarloaf (see other thread). This is particularly frustrating now that I have seen this last pic I must admit...
First : a warm-up in Stoneham :
Friday evening, we stopped at Stoneham ski resort to ski the remaining of the half-pipe.... just like we did last year on may 9th. The funny thing is that it's the 2 only times that I skied this important ski area ! The snowpark was the only thing left skiable. The snow without break was covering about 200' high, which is still not so bad, for a simple break, in the driving to Chicoutimi !
Saturday : the moment of truth
We absolutely didn't know what we would see, while we were at 5 miles from the Ski Area ! Would it be still white, or almost green... this mountain doesn't have snowmaking, you know and as there is few grooming and skiers, it melts way faster than in the laurentians (in the same melting conditions).
The first thing we saw was the northwest side... almost completely gone. Chris in the car was really disappointed and was scared of what he would see on the north side. I was more confident a bit. Anyway, I don't need so much snow to get some fun
Arriving to the north side, it was obvious that most of the trails were skiable on 80% of their length, but still no way to make it to the bottom of the mountain.
We knew that driving into the alpine village would allow us to reach the real north-facing slopes... the extreme trails, which are all bumped up in winter, with the #6 and its 45+ degrees of steepness (Yeah, there is some super steep trails in the mountain
... Just teasing you, Marc)
When we saw the trails, the face of Chris and me really changed.... it sounded something like ... OH WOWWWW !!!
I let you see the photos to understand what we saw and what we did
On sunday, under the rain, we went to see Mt Édouard, in the morning. There was still plenty of snow on the upper mountain, but enough few, on the lower mountain. It was raining enough hard and even though we knew that the Clusaz, an extremely wonderful glade, would be still skiable, the 1000' hike under the rain to reach it was less motivating, especially as there was a lot of wind which was making my umbrella simply not useful. So we let fell Mt Edouard !
Making our way back home, we were passing just beside Mt Grand-Fonds, where we had skied T2B last year on may 8 (in the evening after Mt Édouard). This year, curiously, the trail we have skied last year didn't have much snow left, but its 2 neighbour trails still had a lot of snow left. It was raining less hard, but Chris didn't have any motivation left. The beginner trail still had a decent coverage on almost 2000' long and the snow was ending at 15' of the car, so I went to ski it.
Passing into the high lands of Charlevoix, near the Massif, there was still plenty of snow, around the road 138, but it was still raining, with a lot of fog and being 2, it wasn't worth to try to get some turns at the Massif
Anyway, it was a really enjoyable trip and saturday was a really great "almost end" for the 2004-05 season !
Eric312 and Wake66 (from ZoneSki) skied La Réserve this weekend and had a few great lines to ski on, so next weekend may be there for me. After that, I really want to try to make it into june this year, so I will have the choice of the half-pipes sides... or simply Tucks...
Here are the pics of Saturday !
Yes, for the 3rd time within one month, we headed to the Valinouët ski area, 300+ miles north of Montreal. It was tough to know exactly what we would have for conditions. For the global view of the mountain, I would say that it was looking a little bit like Sugarloaf (see other thread). This is particularly frustrating now that I have seen this last pic I must admit...
First : a warm-up in Stoneham :
Friday evening, we stopped at Stoneham ski resort to ski the remaining of the half-pipe.... just like we did last year on may 9th. The funny thing is that it's the 2 only times that I skied this important ski area ! The snowpark was the only thing left skiable. The snow without break was covering about 200' high, which is still not so bad, for a simple break, in the driving to Chicoutimi !
Saturday : the moment of truth
We absolutely didn't know what we would see, while we were at 5 miles from the Ski Area ! Would it be still white, or almost green... this mountain doesn't have snowmaking, you know and as there is few grooming and skiers, it melts way faster than in the laurentians (in the same melting conditions).
The first thing we saw was the northwest side... almost completely gone. Chris in the car was really disappointed and was scared of what he would see on the north side. I was more confident a bit. Anyway, I don't need so much snow to get some fun
Arriving to the north side, it was obvious that most of the trails were skiable on 80% of their length, but still no way to make it to the bottom of the mountain. We knew that driving into the alpine village would allow us to reach the real north-facing slopes... the extreme trails, which are all bumped up in winter, with the #6 and its 45+ degrees of steepness (Yeah, there is some super steep trails in the mountain
... Just teasing you, Marc)When we saw the trails, the face of Chris and me really changed.... it sounded something like ... OH WOWWWW !!!
I let you see the photos to understand what we saw and what we did
On sunday, under the rain, we went to see Mt Édouard, in the morning. There was still plenty of snow on the upper mountain, but enough few, on the lower mountain. It was raining enough hard and even though we knew that the Clusaz, an extremely wonderful glade, would be still skiable, the 1000' hike under the rain to reach it was less motivating, especially as there was a lot of wind which was making my umbrella simply not useful. So we let fell Mt Edouard !
Making our way back home, we were passing just beside Mt Grand-Fonds, where we had skied T2B last year on may 8 (in the evening after Mt Édouard). This year, curiously, the trail we have skied last year didn't have much snow left, but its 2 neighbour trails still had a lot of snow left. It was raining less hard, but Chris didn't have any motivation left. The beginner trail still had a decent coverage on almost 2000' long and the snow was ending at 15' of the car, so I went to ski it.
Passing into the high lands of Charlevoix, near the Massif, there was still plenty of snow, around the road 138, but it was still raining, with a lot of fog and being 2, it wasn't worth to try to get some turns at the Massif
Anyway, it was a really enjoyable trip and saturday was a really great "almost end" for the 2004-05 season !
Eric312 and Wake66 (from ZoneSki) skied La Réserve this weekend and had a few great lines to ski on, so next weekend may be there for me. After that, I really want to try to make it into june this year, so I will have the choice of the half-pipes sides... or simply Tucks...
Here are the pics of Saturday !
