Ste-Marie QC : February 22, 2014 – RacIcy

First day after the first real rain event and real icy conditions since mid-January. The thaw/rain event only lasted for one day, but the damage to the surface was done when the temps went back down to the Winter freeze. We didn’t look that much snow, it just became rock hard solid.

Most of the locals hills were closed during the rain on Friday, but not Mont Ste-Marie. The hill was host to the regional U14 speed camp for the last three days. Skiing Super G in the rain until they stopped at noon. The MSM is the further race from Ottawa which also happens to have the earliest registration. This made it a rough morning. Some racers barely had time to get everything dry for this morning race: a giant slalom. As I was waiting for the team to show up at the lodge, MSM had setup a large TV with the Olympics on. What great timing, it was the start of the Sochi’s Men Slalom’s first run. A few of the athletes and coaches watched the start of the slalom, including one coach that participated in the last two Olympic Slaloms.

By the time the Edelweiss racers arrived from Ottawa, it was time for me to leave for the coaches meeting at the bottom of Cheval Blanc. The meeting was finished at the time inspection was opening up. A quick rush to the top with the HSQ then down fast the Outaouais trail for inspection of this GS course. It would seem more trees were cut as the starting area was larger plus they was a larger traverse from Betsy to the start of the GS course on avoiding the narrow part of Outaouais run.

As mentioned in previous years for the U16 race: the Outaouais course is full of rollers. You have to be ahead and not sit back or you’ll get in trouble. Although this course wasn’t as dramatic as last year’s U16 GS: they were still a few close calls and a few more DNFs. The fastest girl in the region didn’t complete a run: flying off a roll in the 1st run eventually not finishing and bouncing off the hill with her face in the second. Even if she easily won all previous races, coaches were mentioning that was only skiing at 85% at those race and now was pushing on giving her full 100%. Wow!!! Edelweiss girls skied a much better second run: Emelyn was just missed out on making the Provincials in Quebec City. At the end of the day, we got to watch the final run of the Olympic slalom. Great timing!!!

The conditions? We always get weather at Mont Ste-Marie, either snow and freezing cold. Today was just normal, except the snow conditions. Let just say that they closed the Rideau Canal for skating today and redirected skating to the Outaouais trail. Holy blue sheets of ice!!! Almost no skiers where skating on the Cheval Blanc side, everyone was on the main Vanier hill. But to repeat the saying: “There is no bad snow, just bad skiers!!!”

MSM U14 Giant Slalom Results Ladies
1 THOMAS, Sophie VORLA 43.80 42.05 1:25.85
2 LEDUC, Charlotte ASM 44.82 42.54 1:27.36
3 TAN, Sophia CALAB 45.90 42.07 1:27.97

MSM U14 Giant Slalom Results Men
1 DUFF, Sam CALAB 42.29 38.62 1:20.91
2 GUIMONT, Eric VORLA 42.53 40.36 1:22.89
3 MARLER, Aidan MARIE 43.57 39.87 1:23.44

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Whiteface, NY – April 2, 2006

Okay, so it was raining on Saturday at MRG, but what else was different with Sunday at Whiteface besides the sun?

Temps were cooler: 19F at the Summit / 33F at the base at 6am. If I remember correctly, it was 61F on the top of General Stark mountain the previous day at 9am.

riverc0il wrote:

anyone that firmly believes a bad day of skiing is better than a good day at the office doesn’t get out on days like this there definitely are days on which i would rather be working than skiing, this was one of them. the only day of the season i can recall thinking “man, should have stayed home.”

This was going to be a different type of day. Life is Fun, Diversity is great. 😀

Admin wrote:

Day 46 (…) Seems to me that Marc “Sally” C forgot to set his clock this morning, so Nancy had a few runs in before Sally even started. ?

Day 45:

It was the type of day in which it pay off to not be first or second in line, but sleep in. 😛 It’s easy with a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Montreal in the rain and losing one hour to daylight saving time. Today I was heading back home to Ottawa with a slight detour via Whiteface.

Started riding the Cloudsplitter Gondola at 11am and with Essex (black diamond) on Little Whiteface as first run: Groomed + Frozen solid and icy. Sounds a bit like Riverc0il’s conditions at last day on Cannon. Unfortunately my edges weren’t as sharp after skiing dirt/mud mixt with a quarter inch of corn snow on the lower part of Bunny at MRG the previous day. Ah yes, marching across the top of a down tree on the rainy run down Paradise probably didn’t help either. Upper Northway: the neighbouring trail wasn’t better in the afternoon. These runs and North facing and never softened up.

Skyward and Cloudspin were definitely softer, except maybe for the few 100 yards off the top of Skyward before noon. Cloudspin terrain was a mix bag of bumps and bare shots. Skyward was groomed, but soften up real good in the afternoon.

Other fun runs were off Little Whiteface, runs like Mountain Run, Thruway and Wilderness. However the best run of the day was Mackenzie from the top. This is a fun run that is often overlooked. The top part turns and twist against the fall-line. This part was firm, but not icy like Essex and Northway. The lower part was a dream come true for all the Joes of this world. 🙂 The ending was thin and required a 3-5ft jump over the mud.

The middle blues in the upper Facelift area had serious ice flow and coverage issue while the bottom flat part of the mountain was a slush fest at the end of the day.

Runs skiied:
Skyward (3 times)
Cloudspin – the Niagara pitch was great fun as always.
Paron’s Run – coverage issue in the middle.

Mackenzie (3 times – run of the day)
Wilderness, Mountain Run, Thruway (2) – soft corn
Essex, Northway – icy and frozen solid
Excelsior – real soft like the whole bottom of the mountain.

From what I understood, the mountain is planning to close on Easter Weekend, however the coverage is thin at certain places at the bottom and around the upper part of the Facelift quad. Well have to wait and see how quick it melts.

Official open trail count: 47

Ah yes, after using some quotes from Admin and Riverc0il I even got something for Tony.

I was at the lift at 10:53am.
Runs: 15
Time: 4:51 (including 30 minutes lunch)
Descent: 7971m – 74m/min (26K vertical) – not bad for a ski day in the East and starting just before 11am.
Ascent: 7979m – 58m/min

It’s true that Whiteface’s vertical is similar to Snowbird.

As you can see, I finally got to use my Suunto watch.

Day’s Log

Originally posted on Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:09 pm on firsttracksonline

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