Better late than never.
Posting this just for a future reference, because this week’s cold temps and snow must have changed the overall conditions greatly.
Okay, Sunday January 7 after a day of rain. Maximum Temperature was about +8c. The day, the coverage and the conditions felt more like a late March day in a tiny local hill. The place was deserted and coverage was disappearing. Shaded stuff was ice hard.
I was in Montreal with my daughter, so we took advantage to ski at a new area. I’ve only skied twice at MR, the last time was over 17 years ago.
Morin Heights is now owned by Mont St-Sauveur International (MSSI). The area is only about 12 km away from the town of St-Sauveur. Things seemed the same as 17 years ago, I remembered the layout and the lodge.
The trail layout on the hills surrounding the lodge: a nice atmosphere and family size area. No HSQ and high traffic here like at MSS.
The ski area was virtually deserted except for a few lessons (as it was the last day before the kids started school). The snow report mentioned 11 trails out of 22 trails open which totaled something 8 distinct runs counting the kiddie lift (carpet).
Most of the trails are North facing with was served by the Après-Vous Triple. I believe the vertical on this lift was 175meters. Two options on the left were black with steep icy pitches:
Le Village and Interlude+La Ruelle+3/4 of Le Village.
On the right side of the lift, 3 options with the upper blue runs being fairly icy (very icy by Western standard like the expert runs):
Sept-Iles (top shaded pitch hard and slick), Radar+Watchorn+bottom of Sept-Iles and the green option Radar+Rivière Simon.
On the south side of the small valley and lodge is the “Le Soleil” Triple. Conditions here were Spring like with some thin cover. The lift is something like 100 meters. However this is where it was the most fun skiing when you don’t like the ice hard stuff and love the corn.
The two short options were top Normandin+bottom of Le Soleil (under the lift) and the green, Tour du Soleil.
We did 20 runs in 4 hours including a lunch for a vertical of something like 2400 meters. Overall a fun day, but with limited terrain. The fields still didn’t have any snow.
Originally posted on Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:21 am on firsttracksonline
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