Jay, VT – October 25, 2006

First day of the 2006-07 season.
13th month in a row.

Question: Why have my only three days in October lifetime (2 days last year at Wildcat) probably been better than a pile of lifetime November days?

Answer: Powder and Fresh Tracks versus white ribbon of hard pack with a few thousand skiers.

The last snow event last weekend wasn’t an option for me due to previous engagement in Ottawa. However I was going to Montreal on Tuesday evening to see Dweezil and hoping [-o< for powderfreak’s forecast would come true. It didn’t seem like a sure thing, it was fairly warm and rainy.

I was also trying to confirm if Lucky Luke was going to take a day off from work also so that we could take that long-planned beer together. This was going to be my best opportunity for October turns without having to come back through Montreal for a possible event next weekend.

Lucky Luke gave me the call at 8am that morning and said that we should go at Jay and bypassing Sutton partially based on the area pics and webcam. After being stuck in traffic in Montreal, I finally arrived in Bromont roughly one hour later after I left the island.

I quickly transferred my gear into Luc’s van. I decided to only take my old Rossi 7SKs circa 1993 for the first time in 3 year with my old boots and leaving my B1s and current boots in the car. It was snowing at Lucky’s house (higher elevation), but mostly raining at the autoroute level. Flakes were flying once we got out of the autoroute (30 km) further east and started driving south. We were getting ready for the worst once we hit the border with only flakes falling and the ground still green (you have to understand the history behind our ski trips together across the border).

Border guard: “Where are you going?”
Lucky Luke: “Jay”
Bg: “Why?”
LL: “Hiking or/and skiing”

That’s it, the van is going to be turned inside out with sniffer dogs and we’re going to get tested for drugs and maybe something worst like strip searched with the plastic glove treatment. 😕

No, he believed us!!! I guess we do look like two crazed skiers and not two stoners (although the look can sometimes be mistaken by some). How can there be snow only 10 minutes away?

There wasn’t really any snow until we reached the Stateside parking lot. We parked near the Ski Patrol building. Luc said; ” Hey, this is where they put my foot in a box once.”

We were stoked. The runs were white, but not much snow. BUT we were going to ski, that wasn’t going to suck. Someone else arrived at the same time as us and didn’t need to get changed so after a talk, he started climbing.

Picture by Lucky Luke: the playground

Picture by Lucky Luke: MadPat stoked, happy….and getting dressed.

SNOW REPORT:

The HIKE:

We were all set to go, Luc with his trekkers and skins, me with my hiking boots. 🙄

We started climbing Paradise Meadows (snow level increased from maybe 2 to 8 inches. Once we got at the bottom Northway, we saw the guy we had seen in the parking making some nice tele turns on the pitch. He had cheated, he got a ride up with someone.

Lucky “Super Quad” Luke was climbing much faster than I, so he climb to the top of the pitch and made a few turns while I was still climbing. We also saw two snowboarders make some turns on the same pitch. As I climbing Northway, Luc asked me: “Would you have liked if I would have lent you my snowshoes that are in the van?” 🙄 Now he tell me after climbing for maybe 30 minutes.

The Northway pitch had probably 8-10 inches. The climb continued after a small break near the entrance of Hell’s Wood. At that point I fetched my goggles in my backpack, reorganized my skis and taking a few pictures. The snow and the wind were blowing pretty hard at times and visibility wasn’t great. We could also hear the snowguns blowing in the distance, probably at the Tram Base.

Picture by Lucky Luke: Pat climbing

Picture by Lucky Luke: Lucky

After a short talk, we decided to turn toward Montrealer at the top of Stateside. There were a couple of 2 feet drift here.

Note to Santa: Trekkers and Skins would have been very useful on days like today.

At the top of Stateside, we met someone who had already made 4 runs toward the summit and had just moved over to Stateside for a last run. He mentioned that the snow was deep up there (I didn’t hear any amount). We had a quick lunch in first class settings (winter…wow 😀 ). The hike up took me about 90 minutes, the climb would have been much quicker with snowshoes or skins.

Picture by MadPat: Lucky on the Jet Triple

The SKIING:

First run (or Luc’s second) was down Haynes. The snow was wet (perfect snowman snow), not unlike a certain powder day in Whistler in the first week of April 1996. I had the same old skis and old boots back then.

Picture by MadPat: Lucky skiing down Haynes.

Oh boy…how do we turn these 201 again in wet powder? I fell a few times in the first hundred feet. I don’t recall falling this much in a month for years, let alone a single run. 😕 However the next few turns, everything came back to me…. Retrostyle. 8) Luc was flying with his old Nordica. We skied 300 vertical meters (990 ft) all the way to the bottom of Haynes and before Mont L’Entrepide trail (which is a larger extension and flatter). It also had less snow. We were yelling like a bunch of maniacs.

Picture by Lucky Luke: MadPat’s First Run of the 2006-07.

Picture by Lucky Luke: Pat trying to find the bottom.

Picture by Lucky Luke: Pat in style (Haynes)

“Super Quad” Luke started skinning straight up on Haynes while I started making a bootpack. Snowdepths on the upper third of Stateside probably varied around 1-2 feet. Let’s just say that it’s not easy climbing when suddenly your leg sinks down to your knee. This time Luc skied down Derrick Hot Shot while I was climbing. Only to stop before Willard (bottom half) and started joining me in my hike for a last run. The waterbars we’re somewhat filled in at the top, but you still had to be careful.

Picture by Lucky Luke: Lucky Luke; it’s a tough job but the rewards were great

Picture by Lucky Luke: Luke exhausted but happy

The last run was Derrick to Willard. Like for Haynes, conditions were amazing for October on the upper part, I only felt my skis touch the rocks once or twice. Conditions were definitely more marginal once you reached the Willard level with much less snow. Willard had a better coverage due to its sheltered twisting aspect compare to the larger Entrepide trail. I managed to make it back to the van with my skis (didn’t do much damage) while Luc removed his at the bottom of the run.

Picture by Lucky Luke: Luc on Derricks

Picture by MadPat: MadPat skiing Derricks.

Picture by MadPat: October 25, 2006 : Luc heading toward the car

We had that long promised beer together while the Red Hot Chili Peppers were blasting through the speakers (what is it with our trip and the Peppers?). To celebrate a wonderful day and a great friendship. Cheers.

The music continued all the way back to Bromont. Once back in my car, it’s was time to listen to some Zappa again after the previous night 3 hour show and think that this was a great 24 hours.

Picture by Lucky Luke: the long awaited beer trying to figure out women’s psychology (I know it would take at least 4x 24pack of beer, but heck, we tried)

MadPat’s Jay Peak Vt – October 2006 photo gallery

Originally posted on Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:46 pm on firsttracksonline

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Timberline OR – September 3-4, 2006

Sunday September 03, 2006 2:01 pm

I haven’t skied in the last two days… what a difference temperature wise.

After our day of skiing a few days ago we drove a few hours (waiting in a traffic jam in Portland) to Florence on Central Oregon Coast: beautiful beaches with cold water. Sea Lion in Caves, in the harbour in Newport and at the Aquarium. A beautiful drive North along the Pacific Ocean. Our vacation is finishing where it started: Portland, Oregon. Almost two-weeks since we landed and spent the first week in the State of Washington, we were nearing the end of our trip.

Here are some pictures from the skiing interlude.

Tara running to join her sister and mom on the beach at the Dunes NP

Coast north of Florence

Newport Harbour

Surfers at Neahkalnie Beach

Tourists at Neahkalnie Beach

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September 3-4:

On these two September days, I parted with the rest of the family to get my September turns and the last turns lift-serviced turns in North American for the 2005-06 ski season. The family visited the Children’s Museum and the Zoo. I would be back in the late afternoon and did some local sightseeing in the neighbourhood. Very pleasant.

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Here is a quick summary of the skiing part; August and September: First Three Days at Timberline

Aug 29 – 48F at 7am and very windy. Bright and sunny until the clouds moved in at around noon. Surfaces softened up at around 10am.

Aug 30 – 33F at 7am. Lifts aren’t running. Rain and snow. There was about a one inch accumulation on our rental car at Timberline Lodge. It never warmed up.

Aug 31 – 40F at 7am. Packed powder (okay, it’s a slight exaggeration), but it wasn’t the hard icy surfaces of the previous ski day. Everything softened up at around 9am. My daughter joined me at 10am for turns until closing. No wind and temps increase fast. Nice sunny day. It was getting pretty sticking at around noon.

Two days off to the coast as mentioned above.

Sept 3 – 61F at 8am. Summer is back, no hard surfaces to be found at 8am. A few Rock Islands are popping out toward the bottom of the Palmer Snowfield. I am toasted. Now I have to drive back to Portland and we’ll do this again tomorrow on Monday; Labour Day. Getting back East on Wednesday.

Sept 4 – Last day of the 2005-06 season.

A few folks were out on this last day of the season. After today Timberline is open only on weekends until Winter returns. After skiing on closing day at Tremblant on April 17, Sugarbush on April 30, Mammoth on July 4…September 4 at Timberline is definitely is the last closing day of the season. Today was the 61th Day since that October opening day at Wildcat, beating my personal best season by over 11 days. It also marked the end of my 12 wonderful month ski season that included 3 trips out West.

Here are some pictures from that last day.

Early morning drive

Mt. Hood in the morning as seen from the road.

Palmer as seen from top of Magic Mile

Most racers are back home or elsewhere

Palmer snowfield and the rock island popping up at the bottom.

Midstation at the bottom of the snowfield. Rock island to negotiate.

Above lift turns

This is the end…of the snow and the season.

Goodbye Mt. Hood. The picture is hazy because of the forest fires on the east side of the mountain.

End of our last day on vacation. Goodbye Portland, Oregon, it’s been fun two weeks in the PNW 🙂

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Response to questions answered on Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:03 pm

ChrisC wrote:

The Palmer Lift is about 1500 vert (7000 to 8500 according trail map).

I would estimate the midstation is at about 7500 – 7600 giving the snowfield almost 1000

I checked back at the data from my watch.

Here is what I found:

Palmer top-half: 713 vertical ft (snowfield and steeper part)
Palmer bottom-half: 726 vft (snowfield tongue(?) in gully – flatter)
Ski run pass Palmer during the last week of the season: 792vft
Hike from end of snow to bottom of Magic Mile: 162vft

ChrisC wrote:

The snowfield is definitely the steepest and most interesting part of the mountain. Maybe similar in pitch to the Chair 3/FaceLift (?) at Mammoth. Possibly less so. It’s not a steep place. More like high intermediate than low expert pitch in my opinion.

I totally agree with Chris, I even think that Chair 3 is probably slightly steeper at it’s steepest place than Palmer. Pitch grade from Palmer snowfield is very constant. As I mentioned in one of my report, Morgane was laughing when I told her that was a black run…she answered back that it’s should be a green one. Mind you, she’s was only 8 and has a hard time noticing how steep runs are.

Tony Crocker wrote:

Second to last pic is bottom of Palmer, right? With Magic Mile chair overhead and its unloading station just out of the picture to the upper right?

My impression is that quite a bit more variety was there during Frank’s trip a month earlier.

No, picture is the Palmer midstation. The picture that you posted in the FTO thread (and my third picture) is bottom of the Palmer lift.

Rock island look bigger than they were (the one with midstation). It was the worst area on the snowfield, it was really the last few turns on skier’s right that had rock island issues. 95% of the rest of the snowfield was more or less intact.

Tony Crocker wrote:

My impression is that quite a bit more variety was there during Frank’s trip a month earlier.

It was my understanding that not much of the coverage changed in one month, however I’m sure that the rocks were probably not popping out at the bottom of the snowfield (mid). That only really started in the last week of August. Frank could probably answer this more than I can, but it was my understanding that he had a skier right option on the left side of the lift. The bottom of the run was skiable and wide open, however it was sheltered from view and I couldn’t see where it started. There might have been only a small walk required at the top to make to the snow and ski all the way down to the bottom of the Palmer lift.

MadPat’s Gallery :
September 4, 2006 : Timberline – Mt.Hood

Originally posted on Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:01pm on firsttracksonline

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Timberline, OR – August 29-31, 2006

Tuesday August 29, 2006 9:16 pm

Oh well, who said that Summer skiing was suppose to feel like Summer? 🙄

After a few days of hot weather, the cold air moved in. As I got out of the Lodge at 6:30am this morning for breakfast (no breakfast in the Timberline Lodge until 7:30). Brrr. Definitely not a T-shirt and sandals weather for a quick walk to the Day Lodge (the only place to find breakfast before the lifts started turning) as temperature was in the low 40s. I can’t believe I even debated what to wear to go skiing this morning. Eventually got my winter stuff (pants and jacket). Got ride of the sun glasses and tiny gloves after a few runs because the temps weren’t rising that much. I don’t know what the boarder that bought his ticket before me was thinking. He had a T-SHIRT. After seeing him at top, I never saw him again.

Besides the cool weather that stayed in the mid 40 all day, it was very windy and the clouds eventually covered the area at around noon.

How was the skiing?

Snow softened up at around 10am, prior to that…I could feel the hard surfaces vibrating all the way to the fillings in my teeth. Upper Palmer had only one course set up for ski training for adults (people like me – ie. Masters, etc.). I guess all the kids are about to start school. Skiing was also possible all the way to the bottom of Palmer via one canyon and beyond. The snowpark was open into other canyon, however people had to hike across into the other canyon to reach the lift.

Skiing beyond the bottom of Palmer is still possible with excellent coverage. The snow ends at about 180 vertical feet above the bottom of the Magic Mile chair which is more or less a 10 minute walk.

Here is the forecast for tomorrow…Who said that summer felts like summer. 🙄 I’m here for the next two days then back for Sunday and Labour Day. I was solo today, however my daughter Morgane is probably going to join me tomorrow (not at 7am, but later in the morning).

Tonight: Mostly cloudy with sprinkles in the evening…then a slight chance of showers after midnight. Breezy. Snow level 6500 feet. Pass winds west 10 to 25 mph becoming light after midnight.

Wednesday: Showers likely in the morning…then partly cloudy with a chance of showers in the afternoon. In the north…snow level 6500 feet. In the south…free air freezing level 8000 feet. Light wind becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Mt. Hood from Magic Mile in the early morning.

Getting closer. Skiable terrain as seen from the top of Magic Mile.

Palmer Lift and glacier

The ski-streak guy : 1000+ days in a row and counting

Timberline at the end of the snow

Snowfield from the end of the snow

Timberline Lodge

The snowpark into other canyon.

Silcox Hut at 7,000 feet

People hiking across into the other canyon to reach the lift (Palmer and top of Magic Mile). Clouds moving in.

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Wednesday August 30, 2006 6:44 am

Today: Showers likely north in the morning…then a chance of showers in the afternoon. Morning clouds south…then partly sunny. Snow level 6000 feet rising to 7000 feet in the afternoon. Light wind becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight: Mostly cloudy north in the evening…then partly cloudy. Mostly clear south. Free air freezing level rising to 10000 feet. Pass winds northwest 10 to 15 mph shifting to the northeast after midnight.

Thursday: Mostly sunny. Free air freezing level 12000 feet. Pass winds east 5 to 15 mph.

It’s 33F right now and pretty humid. I just heard that Timberline was closed today, back to bed.

I won’t have to debate much longer.

Late August snow at Timberline

Wednesday August 30, 2006 10:55 pm

Frankontour wrote:

I hope you will have a few good ski days later this week

Yesterday was good, today also. We did a tour along the Columbia Gorge and Multnomah Falls.

We actually got some snow today. The whole family was interviewed by a news crew from Portland who came to do a story about the snow fall.

Skiing tomorrow with Morgane then off to the coast for 2 days. I’ll back for the last two days.

It feels like Winter outside almost here. It was 37c and snowing at noon. (oops, 37F)

Columbia River looking West

Columbia River looking East

Vista House

Multnomah Falls

Wind and Kite Surfers on the Columbia

Columbia

August 31

It was 40F at 7am. Packed powder (okay, it’s a slight exageration), but it wasn’t the hard icy surfaces of the previous ski day. Everything softened up at around 9am. My daughter joined me at 10am for turns until closing. No wind and temps increase fast. Nice sunny day. It was getting pretty sticking at around noon.

Then off to the Pacific Ocean for 2 days. Back to Mt. Hood for September close out the 2005-2006 season and MadPat’s month #12.

Fresh tracks on packed powder. 🙂

Tara and Caroline waiting at the top of the Magic Mile chair. Mountain still a bit white from the previous day’s snow

Snack time

From the top with Jefferson in the background

Morgane at the near the bottom of the Palmer lift. Vertical definately better than the local hills in winter.

Morgane past the Palmer Mid-station. Note on-ramp at bottom of Palmer

Timberline Lodge. Classic ski hotel. Family is waiting on the steps. Morgane and myself resting after our day of skiing while Tara is looking through the binoculars

Ski Map in post from Monday Mad Addict’s Attic : Timberline

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MadPat’s Galleries :
August 29, 2006 : Timberline – Mt.Hood
August 30, 2006 – Hood and Columbia River
August 31, 2006 : Timberline – Mt.Hood

Originally posted starting Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:16 pm on firsttracksonline

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Tuckerman Ravine – May 7, 2006

Back close to where my season started 191 days ago, back on October 28th at Wildcat.

Back to Tuckerman Ravine after a few years of missed opportunities. Four weekends of rain in May 2005, car accident in late April 2004. It had been already 5 years since my last visit.

The April 29th 2001 visit when the snow never soften up with the exception of Right Gully.

This trip was initially planned for the Saturday, however the forecast of rain made us want to take a chance for the Sunday, even if the temps were suppose to cool down.

Sunday morning at Pinkham Notch. We were freezing, did we have enough clothes for the hike up? Temps at the summit was 16F that morning.

We started hiking up at 8am sharp, the hike to Hermit took us 1:45. It was a quiet hike for a Spring weekend, I guess we weren’t the only ones concerned about the snow not softening up. It was a quiet walk with the exception of my old time buddy (aka Lucky Luke on Zoneski) singing roughly translated Red Hot Chili Peppers songs in French (you don’t want to know). 🙄

So we got to Hojo at 9:45am and we literally chilled for a while, because temps was 31F and stuff wasn’t going to soften up with this wind. The last part of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail was snow covered, hard and slippery. Not a good sign. Up at Hojo we talked to Porter Fox and Scott Markewitz who were doing a story for next year’s Powder mag. There was also another person doing a story for Associated Press.

After 45 minutes of talking and adding another layer, we headed toward the Bowl. Who was there to meet us? I heard “Hi Patrick” from Mark Renson which I meet at MRG and is also part of the Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol. The Bowl looked is terrible shape for early May, crevasses were numerous on the Lip side, the runout under the shorten Right Gully was very short. There was a crevasse also in the middle of Chute and the top of Left Gully. The last week weather really didn’t help.

Lower Chute:

After putting our boots and eating a quick lunch we choose Chute for our first run. It was 12:10pm. The climb lasted 25 minutes and we stopped just under the crevasses. I think that I was able to measure the slope at between 47-52 degrees. The snow was sweet, however the skier-right was still frozen as expected. The Vertical of our descent was 340ft.

Left Gully:

Right after, we started climbing the longer Left Gully. This time it took us 45 minutes which included some chatting. The snow was undermined at some places halfway near the rocks. We stopped maybe 50ft from the top Left side which seemed very hard for a climb. There was also a minor crevasse just under the top right corniche. This was probably the best and longest descent possible (without taking to many risks) in Tuckerman Ravine area, even Hillman looked in bad shape. The vertical descent was 660ft.

Lower Headwall:

After a small break, we went for another run. Lower Headwall as high still possible without running into crevasses. 15 minutes and 280′ vert. Lucky Luke decided on a repeat while I skied all the way to the bottom of the Bowl (429 ft vert)

3 runs and 1465 ft vertical for the day. A great day which looked more like my May 7th 1992 visit (except for the snow) – 14 years to the day earlier with the same Lucky Luke. I always said it was always Quality over Quantity. This being said, Sunday was Day 51 in my season – beating last year’s record of 50 set on my last day at Mammoth. 8)

I felt like doing another run, but we had long hike out of the Bowl all the way to Pinkham. Yes, Sherburne is all gone. Followed by a loooong drive back home in Ottawa.

We started our Bowl-Pinkham hike at 3:15pm with pit-stop at Hojo. The hike down lasted 2:15

Drive from Gorham-Lucky Luke’s home in Bromont, QC: 2:45
Then my solo drive from Bromont-Ottawa: 3h.
Arrival at home: 1am

Lines indicate what we skied.

May 5th Picture from http://www.tuckerman.org.
May 7th ski routes. (Left Gully, lower Chute, Lower Headwall)

HappyPat (picture by Lucky Luke)

Lucky, Scott and Porter (picture by MadPat)

Tuckerman (picture by Lucky Luke)

(picture by MadPat)

(picture by MadPat)

Dashen [censored] Steepen in the Chute (picture by Lucky Luke)

Myself climbing Left Gully (picture by Lucky Luke)

Near Top of Left Gully (picture by Lucky Luke)

Skier in Left Gully (picture by Lucky Luke)

Lucky Luke ready for the showdown (picture by Lucky Luke)

(picture by MadPat)

The bowl (picture by MadPat)

One last picture of our playground: Left Gully and Chute (picture by MadPat).

Back at the car. Lucky Luke and myself totally Stoke from our day (picture by MadPat).

Hike up

Skiing Chute and Left Gully

Hike down

MadPat’s Gallery:
Tuckerman – 7 mai 2006

Originally posted on Tue May 09, 2006 11:52 pm on firsttracksonline

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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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Edelweiss, QC – March 22-23, 2006 – Night Skiing

Quote from Spensar

Patrick, in the Killington thread you said you skied last night. Was that local? If so, how was it.
I was out Wed. of March break and Strief was knee destroying washboard concrete with virtually no snow on it. The blues had a bit a snow that let the kids have some fun. Has it softened up at all? Even have a granular layer over the rough ice?

So the question was asked in the Laurentians thread:

I had a race last night on Zoomer, but Strief was beautiful. Conditions were fast but not so hard, however one of the reasons was the hill was virtually empty last night and Strief is often over look.

The bottom of it still had corduroy at 9pm when we started skiing it after our race. I’m maybe going back tonight for a couple hours (I have a night pass which I rarely use and this is one of last nights).

For those who are wondering where are we talking about? EDELWEISS outside Ottawa (200 meters vert only 35km away from downtown).

HOWEVER the conditions are changing fast (this would apply to the whole Laurentians). I skied Wednesday evening at Edelweiss and went back last night. While the conditions were fast and firm (not hard) on Wednesday evening, last night was a different story. The weather is changing and temps last evening were above freezing (+1c) after a day at around +5c. Snow conditions was corn and soft, the only firm spots were a few patches of ice (steep Strief pitch). Other things that I didn’t notice on Wednesday was a few tiny bare spots that had popped out, not much but the snow depth in certain places isn’t very far. Yes, the Strief pitch was still hard and icy compared to the overall conditions of the mountain.

Conditions and coverage is going to change quickly as the forecast for the weekend calls for temps at around 10c. Local skiing in Ottawa probably only has 2-3 weekends left.

Ottawa Masters results for the Wednesday night: Results

Data Log for the Thursday night:

Originally posted on Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:08 pm on firsttracksonline

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Vorlage, QC – Feb 12, 2006

Back for my second day from 13 days out west.

Skiing with the whole family (Morgane, 8 and Tara, 3 and my Caroline, my wife which I won’t mention her age :o). …only 1300m total vertical today (testing my new watch)… that’s slightly less than one Tram ride at Jackson.

Conditions this afternoon were slick and icing, almost forgot how to ski on this. Marc, if it doesn’t snow soon, i’ll be back next week. 😆 or I should sharpen those skis… probably did some damage on P-Tex point at Snowbird. 😀

Definitely not a packed powder that Anthony found at Sutton.

Originally posted on Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:47 pm on firsttracksonline

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