Big… Bright… and Beautiful.
Those words are only the beginning when you start walking about Edelweiss Valley, Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec’s complete skiing facility.
In the late 1950s the Tommys brothers, ex-National team members, founded in the Gatineau Hills in Wakefield a ski area called Edelweiss Valley. With a vertical rise of 200 meters, Edelweiss is now one of the most popular ski areas in the Quebec’s Outaouais region.
Featured this week is a brochure from Edelweiss; the ski area and Auberge from circa 1980. Here are a few quotes from this brochure:
Situated in one of the most startlingly sylvan sites of La Belle Province, an easy 18 miles from Ottawa-Hull, Edelweiss has that prime requisite of any top-notch skiing area… lots and lots of snow.
waiting to be pulled up your favorite hill is kept to a minimum, even at peak times, because there are 6 lifts now; four more are on the way (Two High Speed Double Chairs, Two High Speed Poma Lifts, Two T-Bars).
Open from mid November to April seven days and seven nights per week.
Excellent snow-making and hill-grooming equipment brings the best of all possible skiing conditions every day on beginner, intermediate and expert slopes.
So much for the needs of the purists. What about the skier who also digs a social life?
The Lodge, with its huge magnificent circular fireplace that dominates the ground floor of the Edelweiss Lodge’s main floor is the meeting place for skiers from six to sixty.
L’auberge Edelweiss, adjacent to and overlooking Edelweiss Valley ski slopes. Walk or ski to all lifts.
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A few things have changed in 30 years; the distance and travel time from the edge of the city is shorter, lifts are now limited to 3 quad and 1 carpet. The Auberge is gone, the roundhouse and fireplace has been modified and is a shell of its former welcoming ambiance. The Tommys are also no longer in changed, after a few difficult years, Mont St-Sauveur International (MSSI) purchased the ski area in 2000.
On the aerial photograph of Edelweiss where some trails and lifts are drawn, trails like Shotgun or a waterpark. Edelweiss now has tubing on that side of the ski area.
