Tremblant, QC - January 20, 2007 - brrrrrr

Patrick

Well-known member
Winter at Tremblant was back with a bite. Frostbite that is.:-s

-18c with 35kmh winds in the morning. Temps might have reached a warm -16c.

Snowreport had 82 out of the 92 Tremblant's trails scheduled to open.

The overall conditions for Tremblant were pretty good if you can endure the cold weather AND the wind.

This week Morgane had her music lesson, so I went solo. The initial plan was to crank up the vertical and runs on the steep wide open blue/black groomers that GPaul likes so much. :wink:

Arrived on the Northside this week again, started off on the Duncan Express (HSQ) which climbs up the entire Northside's 595m in 10 minutes. Fast chairs can be great, but not when the wind on the upper part of the mountain in blowing straight in your face. OUCH...

<strong>CHANGE OF PLANS...</strong>

Let's find some lesser known trails that are sheltered. Started off skiing one of the one t-bar lines (Marie-Claude Asselin), there was even a couple of inches some powder snow on the side of the trail. It's helps when the trails is narrow and not wide-open so it can capture the snow. (it snowed a few inches this week). Once at the bottom, I headed inside for a quick adjustment of clothing to better face the cold. Tony would have loved this day, imagine when I have to get in, this isn't Bridger Bowl, Montana on January 22nd... :wink:

Once back outside I repeated the exercise: lesser known and narrow trails. Skied the another old t-bar line (Banzai) all the way to the bottom then headed for the even lesser known trail which used to be the old rope-tow line (prior to the t-bars) which is well hidden and rarely skied even if it's an official trail (I'm censoring the name). Powder and bumps were on the menu. WoW, I stopped halfway down the mountain to head back up via the Lowell Thomas triple and repeat that run. Probably my favorite run of the day. After I had to get back inside for 40 minutes thawing out of the feet, hands and face (even if it was mostly covered).

Skiing again on the North side, I decided not to do many runs on the south side simply because the strong wind blowing up hill on large popular groomers was probably not much fun unless you don't mind if your face falls off. :shock: Although much of the hill was covered in packed powder conditions, there was some large patches of ice on some large traffic areas that were windswept. The best trails were in fact the ones where there was sometimes a sign that warned about the "Marginal" conditions. :lol: Marginal conditions were generally the natural snow trails where there wasn't any McSnow perfectly groomed stuff. Sure, you might encounter some odd rock or branch, but they skied much better in the most part better that the "non-marginal" runs.

Okay, next run was the upper part of Superieur then the lower half of CBC (I missed the entrance (might have been closed) of CBC). Superieur is a relatively new trail (typical large trail) which cut part of the isolated CBC (this trail used to be off-limit - maintenance trail under the CBC Antenna), however since it was added on the trail, I never seen any good conditions on it.

The next run was entirely off-the-map (and illegal), I decided to ski the powerline not far from CBC, nice powder turns which were surprising deep. The powerline then meet up with the short, steep and chaotic Boiling Keetle which was pretty well scraped off of snow. I guess once you had something on the map which is easily accessible with HSQs everywhere and little snow, this is what you get (editorial note like Orford since they added they Hybrid-Chondola). It was fun anyway. \:D/

Back to the summit with the Duncan Express and once (again) nose was hurting, I went inside the Grand Manitou Lodge at the summit a few short minutes in order to get some sensation back to the tip of my nose. :^o

I decided to try another "old" trail non-longer on the trail on the South side, however two (Kandahar and Grand Prix) of the main Upper black trails were closed for races, so I didn't access to were I wanted to down so I had to settle for the blue Alpine line next to Beauvallon all the way to the bottom.

WAIT TIMES

When you ski alone and you use the single lines for the lift, it's hard to get a few on how long are the liftlines. I was waiting 10 minutes in the single line for the gondola, the "heated" gondola... 8) The other folks had at least a 15-20 minutes wait at 1:15pm.

The board at the top of the mountain indicated wait times for the gondola (South base-to-summit) at +15 minutes, the TGV (HSQ on the Upper South), Duncan Express (HSQ North base-to-summit) and Flying Mile (HSQ on the Lower South) all at 10-15minutes and under 5? minutes for the Lowell Triple and Expo Express. Good turnout regardless of the temperature. The Soleil lift and side were closed, I presume it was closed due to the high winds blowing across that side of the mountain. I guess that you would have to subtract the trails that were suppose to be open from the total 82 trails open. :roll:

Once back on top, I headed toward The Edge which is serviced by a slow quad and has a few glades. I skied under the lift which is a run called High Emotion. The top part if steep and was windblown, icy and rocky, but once again you could find a few pocket of loose cold white stuff. I headed into the woods after a few hundred feet, but they glades had some crap exposed or hidden under the snow. :?

It was almost 2pm, I was a bit cold and hungry. A quick 40 minutes lunch. After that I headed back to the Upper South side to see if the Grand Prix was still closed for the race, yes it was, so I turned down the short and steep DunZee to McCulloch. I took the TGV, skied Beauchemin all the way down the bottom on the North side (which had nice soft snow on the side and sheet of ice in the most exposure middle).

I had maybe two other runs before closing, I wanted to re-ski the old t-bars lines, but the trails were closed so I did a Duncan-Devil River to the bottom. I got at the bottom 10 minutes before the lifts closed, but I decided to call it quits... :oops:

Runs: 12
Vertical: 6535meters

Major trails still closed:

The Expo-Cossak-Dynamite trio are still closed, however there was massive snowmaking done on the first two and I would think they should open soon. \:D/

I didn't see what was happening Vertigo-ZigZag which are the two other marquis steeps, no snowmaking and seemed pretty bare. :wink:
 
Patrick does not own a face mask? I wore one nearly all last weekend at Mammoth. Temperatures were similar, but fortunately Mammoth's wind was confined to the top of the mountain.

The wind chill just from skiing groomers at those temps requires me to wear a face mask. At Norquay in 2002 I went looking for mogul runs in order to stay warmer than the groomers.

Does Morgane have the gear to handle those temperatures? At that age Adam would wear a face mask if it was lower than 20F or if there was any wind.
 
Tony Crocker":1u1g4kt4 said:
Patrick does not own a face mask?
Yes, I have one somewhere, but I don't think I have wore it in the last 5 years.:shock: I don't like it especially when I have a full or partial beard.

I can live with the cold on the face, the body is fine, it's just the nose and sheeks under the goggles that are sensitive (frostbiten back on that -100F day at Smuggs in the 1980s).

The worst are the toes and fingers, they have frozen some many times that they are overly sensitive.

Tony Crocker":1u1g4kt4 said:
Does Morgane have the gear to handle those temperatures? At that age Adam would wear a face mask if it was lower than 20F or if there was any wind.

She doesn't have a face mask and she cannot stand having anything in front of her face when skiing. Morgane's problem are her feet and hands (her tolerance to the cold is similar to my wife which is much worst than mine :roll:), the rest of her is generally okay.

We were going to go skiing locally this afternoon (after my wife is back), but with -22c at 9am in town, I don't think it's going to happen.
 
Nice report, thanks for remembering moi :D

We all wear face masks when needed, plus a hat, neck warmer, the works. My hands were a problem until I got these great mittens. My feet suffer, but much less when i don't take the boots off during the entire day. Strange.

Tony, I feel for your lack of snow, especially since Mammoth is usually so fantastic. We lucked out last year!
 
Patrick":3ms3mhm4 said:
Started off skiing one of the one t-bar lines (Marie-Claude Asselin)... Skied the another old t-bar line (Banzai) all the way to the bottom then headed for the even lesser known trail which used to be the old rope-tow line (prior to the t-bars) which is well hidden and rarely skied even if it's an official trail (i'm censoring the name... the insolated CBC (this trail used to be off-limit - maintenance trail under the CBC Antenna), however since it was added on the trail...

These are also some of my favorite, because MCA, Banzai & "the censored run" are all narrow, and frequently get missed by 99% of the skiers. They're also nice and challenging. CBC is also a lot of fun in that respect, given that it's longer and narrow, and not even straight. However, I would say that it's a lot more popular that the 3 mentioned above, so the conditions are usually worse, which can make it even more challenging.

Patrick":3ms3mhm4 said:
The Expo-Cossak-Dynamite trio are still closed, however there was massive snowmaking done on the first two and I would think they should open soon. \:D/

I didn't see what was happening Vertigo-ZigZag which are the two other marquis steeps, no snowmaking and seemed pretty bare. :wink:

5 great runs. When I was a kid I felt so great the first time I skied Expo & Dynamite, like i'd just slayed a dragon or something. Especially since at the time Expo was one of Tremblant's Marquee runs, with lifts running up either side of it, and lots of people watching on a sunny day.

It's nice that even with the widening of lots of the runs, there are still about a dozen that can fight back :lol: (including that run no longer on the map on the lower south side :-$ (which i havne't skied since it was taken off the map..)
 
Great report Pat!
Sometime you just have to ski where wind chill is lower.
Mont-Sainte-Anne had lot of sunny trails without wind (triple chairs area). Not so on Mt-Tremblant. What about Versant Soleil? Is it open? It might be better there...
 
Feet problems and many hand problems are due to leaking heat from exposed areas (no face mask?) and/or insufficient core warmth. That's why Adam got the down jacket on sale last spring. He says it's too warm to wear much over 20F, but on MLK he was fine at 0F despite having to wait for his turn to race.
 
Jonny D":i2xx4o30 said:
These are also some of my favorite, because MCA, Banzai & "the censored run" are all narrow, and frequently get missed by 99% of the skiers.

The "censored run" is totally missed. When I skied down the t-bars lines I did a quick survey of the bottom of it and I was sure it was roped off due to the lack of tracks. Only when I got to the entrance of it, did I realised that it was OPEN. :shock: \:D/

Jonny D":i2xx4o30 said:
CBC is also a lot of fun in that respect, given that it's longer and narrow, and not even straight.

I've rarely seen it with good conditions. It's a shame.

wolverine":i2xx4o30 said:
Not so on Mt-Tremblant. What about Versant Soleil? Is it open? It might be better there...

It was closed because of the wind. The best places for snow, especially on a bad snow year, cold and high wind days, is definitely the narrower runs on the Upper North side.
 
Tony Crocker":3emzkwas said:
Feet problems and many hand problems are due to leaking heat from exposed areas (no face mask?) and/or insufficient core warmth.
Or due to the feet and hands having frozen so many times in my younger years. For many years I had a race boot that was a perfect fit, however when it was really cold, it would contract and my feet would freeze. Due that a few times a year (can't leave before to do inside all the time when racing) for a few years, and voilà...the results is very sensitive feet. Same deal with the hands. I have a hard dealing with very hot plates and stuff also now. :oops:
 
Nothing beats a down coat when it is frigid.. As far as cold feet and hands go.. Chemical hand and feet warms rule.. I have spent many a hour ice climbing in the lake placid area.. Nothing is colder than standing still belaying for 1+ hr.. I hate face masks, they get all smelly and wet..
 
I was under the impression that Patrick was impervious to cold. I did notice that after 3 thaw breaks on 1/13 that my feet needed another one early on 1/14. I borrowed chem packs from Richard but they didn't work well as they were probably too old. I presume they should go in the toe of your boot between shell and liner. Very carefully in order to not reduce volume much and make the problem worse.
 
jasoncapecod":3s14fd1c said:
Nothing beats a down coat when it is frigid.. As far as cold feet and hands go.. Chemical hand and feet warms rule.. I have spent many a hour ice climbing in the lake placid area.. Nothing is colder than standing still belaying for 1+ hr.. I hate face masks, they get all smelly and wet..



Chemical hand and feet warms rule

Pls explain, thank you.
 
Tony Crocker":2mlkt6uh said:
I was under the impression that Patrick was impervious to cold.
I was until my feet frooze a few hundred times. :lol: My tolerance level for the rest of the body is fairly high.

jasoncapecod":2mlkt6uh said:
I hate face masks, they get all smelly and wet..

That is also the main reason why I don't use them, I need to be able to breath freely, everything around the mouth gets wet and then freezes hard. When I have a beard, they the problem is even more annoying.

GPaul":2mlkt6uh said:
Chemical hand and feet warms rule

Pls explain, thank you.

The're little packs that you included in your boots or gloves/mittens. I've never used them myself. My boots are quite thigh enough as it is
 
the chem packs that are designed for boots are very low profile. i place them in the toe box on the foot bed.. they keep your feet warm and toasty for up to 8hrs.. i buy them by the case at Costco..
 
I used to use those chem packs, but my hands & feet would start to sweat, which would accelerate the chemical reaction, making them hotter!
Now I just take breaks when I'm cold.
 
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