Frankontour
New member
Went back saturday to VSC Power for a big spring skiing day. It's really sad that it's the last weekend of skiing on the mountain, as there is still plenty of snow and all the major trails are still open on the main side. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2161.jpg" ALT="VSC Power"> <BR> <BR>Once again, I wasn't lucky today, as the higher summit wasn't open. They told us at the beginning of the day it was because a lack of patrollers... hmm, I wonder if I've already seen more patrollers than today at VSC... No, in fact, this is just a $ reason. As the majority of the skiers and boarders were passholders, they consider they're not making enough new cash to open another quad chairlift... (let me tell you that the passholders were in @£¢¤¬±²¤). After 3 days at St-Come this year without skiing the wonderful "Audacieuse" advanced trail and the steep terrain on "Grande Allée" and "Échangeur", I decided to forget a little bit the comfort and to hike l'Échangeur to reach the second summit. From the lower summit, bypassing by the woods, it's just something 250' high, but what a pitch. It's surely the steepest official intermediate trail in Quebec with something like 40 degrees (tough to believe... a blue square run of nearly 40 degrees in the east !) <BR> <BR>This is l'Échangeur... as you can see, this is not a real blue square 
but I must say every blue trails at St-Come are steeper than the normal rating and there is a big amount of 30+ degrees blue & black trails. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2162.jpg" ALT="Échangeur"> <BR> <BR>And this is one of the reasons why to make the detour l'Audacieuse. On the upper side, the amount of snow was still really good, even they didn't groom it since last weekend. As it was in the upper 40s to lower 50s, the upper inch of snow was soft and the base was firm, so it was just wonderful even without grooming !! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2163.jpg" ALT="Audacieuse was still really good !"> <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, there was missing too much snow to take the monster "Pins Rouges" There was may be 30 feet long where I would have needed to remove my skis, so I just decided to not take it as it's too much dangerous to walk that place, at 50+ degrees. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2164.jpg" ALT="Pins Rouges the monster !!!"> <BR> <BR>And finally, I couldn't stop without talking of the wonderful Upper Avalanche. Today, it was once again the best, with huge moguls and always supersteep. I opened it at 9h30 this morning with the ski patrol. The snow was enough bad on it, but 1h later, with the full blue sky, it was super soft and super nice. Even my mother took it... and twice !!! I still can't believe that as she never takes big extreme moguls trails like that. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2165.jpg" ALT="First pitch of Avalanche (there is 3 good ones)"> <BR> <BR>For the general considerations, it was enough crowded in the morning, with a little bit more than 5 minutes of waiting, as there was just the high speed quad open, but in the afternoon, there was simply no waiting. The conditions were soft all day long, as it's a completely south facing ski area. There is almost no remaining natural snow in the woods. I took 1 intermediate glade on the "lower part of upper mountain" but it was sometimes a little bit tough to see where to pass. I took one super popular off-piste twice, also... the first time, it was good, the second, almost no snow remaining... hmm... looks like the day was warm. And finally, the 4 snowparks were good, with nice big airs with soft landings + all you can find in a snowpark of course. <BR> <BR>Next weekend ?? Ste-Anne ? depends of this week. and finally, yes, Alta was still open today, with only natural snow (how they do ?????)
but I must say every blue trails at St-Come are steeper than the normal rating and there is a big amount of 30+ degrees blue & black trails. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2162.jpg" ALT="Échangeur"> <BR> <BR>And this is one of the reasons why to make the detour l'Audacieuse. On the upper side, the amount of snow was still really good, even they didn't groom it since last weekend. As it was in the upper 40s to lower 50s, the upper inch of snow was soft and the base was firm, so it was just wonderful even without grooming !! <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2163.jpg" ALT="Audacieuse was still really good !"> <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, there was missing too much snow to take the monster "Pins Rouges" There was may be 30 feet long where I would have needed to remove my skis, so I just decided to not take it as it's too much dangerous to walk that place, at 50+ degrees. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2164.jpg" ALT="Pins Rouges the monster !!!"> <BR> <BR>And finally, I couldn't stop without talking of the wonderful Upper Avalanche. Today, it was once again the best, with huge moguls and always supersteep. I opened it at 9h30 this morning with the ski patrol. The snow was enough bad on it, but 1h later, with the full blue sky, it was super soft and super nice. Even my mother took it... and twice !!! I still can't believe that as she never takes big extreme moguls trails like that. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2165.jpg" ALT="First pitch of Avalanche (there is 3 good ones)"> <BR> <BR>For the general considerations, it was enough crowded in the morning, with a little bit more than 5 minutes of waiting, as there was just the high speed quad open, but in the afternoon, there was simply no waiting. The conditions were soft all day long, as it's a completely south facing ski area. There is almost no remaining natural snow in the woods. I took 1 intermediate glade on the "lower part of upper mountain" but it was sometimes a little bit tough to see where to pass. I took one super popular off-piste twice, also... the first time, it was good, the second, almost no snow remaining... hmm... looks like the day was warm. And finally, the 4 snowparks were good, with nice big airs with soft landings + all you can find in a snowpark of course. <BR> <BR>Next weekend ?? Ste-Anne ? depends of this week. and finally, yes, Alta was still open today, with only natural snow (how they do ?????)