Tremblant - QC - may 22, 2004

[Frankontour]

On saturday, we headed up to Tremblant north. <BR> <BR>We knew from a report of last week that there would remain a lot of snow on the upper north side, so we didn't have the choice to go there <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""> <BR> <BR>We couldn't believe our eyes, when we finally reached the bottom of the Lowell Thomas chairlift and when we saw the "Rigodon" trail for the first time : <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3967.jpg" ALT="Rigodon awouuuuuuuuuuuu !!!!"> <BR> <BR>So we met our writer Radpat (on Zoneski) and his friend Mireille and we began to hike this 350' high skiable trail on 1500' long with just a tiny break almost on the top of the patch. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3968.jpg" ALT="nice pic hey !!"> <BR> <BR>After a couple of hike up the patch, Radpat built a rail and a big jump to enjoy the nice snow. So here is few pics that Chris took with his camera. <BR> <BR>Hey Anonymous, do you still think there is no reason why to ski in late may ? (yeah, ok, I know your point is more the profitability) <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3969.jpg" ALT="Radpat jump #1"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3970.jpg" ALT="Frank's jump #1"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3971.jpg" ALT="Radpat's jump #2"> <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/3972.jpg" ALT="Frank's jump #2"> <BR> <BR>After a lot of funny jumps, we hiked another time the mountain and did few other jumps and finally left the mountain with a very large smile on the face. It was awesome, truly a nice day at the big T ! <BR> <BR>Finally, 1 funny video of the trail skied by Radpat. (telemark) <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.zoneski.com/temp/tr22.mov"> telemark run down the Rigodon</A>

 

[Anonymous]

looks great frank (yes this is the now famous (anonymous)). That's great that there is continous snow on both those slopes, looks like alot of fun, and not even too much work to hike. <BR> <BR>Frankly (no pun intended) i believe that late season skiing would make the most sense up in canada, where it remains colder later into the year, and cold enough to blow snow cheaply most of the winter. And honestly, its a "if you build it they will come". Give people something good, and they will drive the extra distance, even if that means canada, (hey, who can pass up quebec city?)

 

[Frankontour]

In fact, we only skied 1 trail at Tremblant, but there was a very big patch visible on the neighbour trail (Beauchemin Haut). It was looking slightly less long than the one of the Rigodon and it's less steep, so we sticked on the Rigodon. <BR> <BR>On the upper mountain, there was still a lot of snow on the halfpipe, but with a good walk from the skiable top of Rigodon to the pipe. Yeah, it could be more interesting for the ski areas to stay open late here. Tremblant is not "too far" from USA and it's enough reknown to get some crowd from everywhere... La Réserve is not farther, but is less big and less known. <BR> <BR>I'm almost sure people would come at Tremblant... with the Big Snowpark in the Ropetow trail + Upper Lowell Thomas/Rigodon for the "normal" skiing/boarding. Almost 1000' high of advanced skiing on 1½ neighbour trails + it would be possible easily to get the Beauchemin Haut and P'tit Bonheur trails open late in the season, so it would be a whole side skiable into may, like the north side of Mont Sainte-Anne.

 

[sven]

Damn, I wish I had known there was that much snow still left at Tremblant! I hiked up the Grand Brule last weekend and I only really saw any snow near the top on the south side, which was basically so small that the only use for it was throwing snowballs. I had no idea the north side still had that much snow on it, otherwise I might have went myself. I don't know how much longer that patch will last with all this rain though, otherwise I'd consider going still (even Tuckerman is pretty terrible right now). To think that I already loosened the DIN setting on my bindings... <BR> <BR>-Sven

 

[Frankontour]

Tough to say for the patch. The trail is not "at 0 angle". I mean, there is some snow just on 50% of the width, but on the left side, going down, there is something like 10' high left !!!! but not all the way down of course. I guess something like 300' long should be skiable next week only, as the top patch was almost gone and the lower patch connection was getting thinner... <BR> <BR>On our side too, we were incredibly surprised to see that much of snow on the ground. Radpat and a new user on Zoneski went last weekend, while we were all at La Réserve. It's why we decided to try it ourselves, after having seen the pics of Mtl_Ripper (new user)