Pathetic season some far, not necessarily my season, but the weather.
As Tony says this isn’t exceptional, today’s conditions and weather are a proof that we are still in November.
No snow and only a dusting of snow on the shaded north slopes.
I’ll start my report as Admin does, 😳
Day 3 #-o
Month streak: 15
Runs skied: 13
Vertical: 1271m /4194ft (yeah, it’s not a typo) 🙄
Time: 2:34
Temps: +5c / 41F
Another comparison with Admin, Camp Fortune is 15km (10 miles) from my home and downtown Ottawa. I guess this is Admin’s drive to Alta. 🙄
Camp Fortune is also one of Canada oldest ski areas (I guess this could be another comparison with Alta), skiing was practiced on these slopes in the 1920s and has produced some of Canada greatest racers (Anne Heggveit (2 Olympic gold medals at Squaw Valley in 1960), Betsy Clifford (gold at the World Championships at 17 in 1970) and Ken Read, one of the Crazy Canucks.
Okay, NO MORE COMPARISON. The hill is the closest and the most popular of the Ottawa areas with its 180 vertical meters (600ft). No knee-deep powder, not even real snow, just some very limited terrain with fake snow.
Today’s report:
My oldest daughter’s school was closed today because the heating system broke down. So I had to take a day off from work. After going a list of stuff around the house and eat lunch, we could go skiing. Morgane had missed her opportunity on Sunday because she was sick and the forecast for this coming weekend is rain and freezing rain. NOT GOOD. 😥
Fortune is currently the only local areas open midweek, so it was, why waste a day off and do stuff around the house when the slopes are empty. We started at 1:30pm and skied until closing at 4pm with a short Hot Chocolate break.
All skiing was out of the Main Lodge. Two quads servicing two different areas were running. The first one as serving the Pineault (green run) with 83 meters vertical (facing West). The second serviced Clifford (blue) and Slalom (black) trails, with a slightly bigger vertical with 105m (facing North).
Conditions was frozen granular with white sugar surfaces. It wasn’t really icy (okay, not icy Eastern Standards). Artificial snow-covered maybe 2/3 of Slalom, Clifford and Pineault. Nothing on any other trails (it’s too warm to make snow except for a few hours at night), I’m wondering what the Holidays are going to look like, because places like Fortune generally get very busy (as the other areas which only had one runs each last weekend) during the Holidays. Are people going to stay home (some of them for sure), but what about all the family and the school programs that start next week? I’m serious wondering what is going to happen.
Forecast isn’t too promising for the next few days.
Ah yes, and the first Ottawa Masters ski race is schedule for Fortune in 13 days from now. 😕
Originally posted on Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:40 pm on firsttracksonline
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