admafw
New member
Picked a heck of a week to go skiing in Quebec with my better half...
Monday morning(2010-01-25), slopeside condo Ste Anne - pouring rain. Trail report says 22 runs open - They lie like a cheap rug!!! (unless you count the shared lead in top 300' of a 2500' run as counting the run open.) Not a single black open. The gondola is running so the trips up are dry. Share a trip up with a volunteer mountain guide - tells me "you should have been here last week..." Sounds like all my fishing trips! Actual top to bottom runs open on the south side - 2 - 1 blue, 1 green. Snow's nice and soft - they could have opened a lot more terrain...
Tuesday - Got up 4:30 am - rain has stopped - the groomers have 4 hours till opening. I say a prayer for groomer operators as the unsung heroes of ski resorts. Go down to the ticket office at 8:30 and check the trail count - 5 of 66??? My better half and I get out for 9:00 - no gondola - a single bubble chair coated in rime from the occasional ice pellets coming down. Same two runs open top to bottom. School groups start arriving 9:30 - by 10:00 there's a line up for the chair. Go down to the ticket office to see if they plan to open any more runs – Nope! We bail and head for Stoneham. 15 runs open, another bubble chair coated in rime - finally get to ski some blacks. Actually see groomers working - I guess a prayer answered late is better than not at all.
Wednesday - last day at St Anne - 34 trails open - gondola and 3 chairs open. South side is pretty sketchy - a couple of blacks open. Groomed runs are basically the 2" ice crust broken into softball sized chunks. Lifts/lodging deal includes free demo skis for the day - make a smart decision in opting for a pair of Rossi 9S Oversized. Hope they sharpen them before the next guy uses them. North side is actually skiable - decently groomed and not icy at all. We take off at 2:30 as we're skiing the next 2 days at Sutton in the Eastern Townships.
Thursday (2010-01-28) - Mt. Sutton. The hotel has a print out of the mornings' trail report at Sutton - 54/54 trails open???? Huh??? Lovely lady at the front desk says they got the rain all day Monday but that was followed up with 20cm (8") of snow on Tuesday. (Sutton is probably 20 minutes as the crow flies from Jay.) Get to the hill - WOW - skiable snow. They've left half the hill ungroomed and there are still lots of fresh stashes of powder in the glades!!! Lifts/lodging are so cheap (check the Sutton web site - you won't believe the prices) that I spend some extra coin on demos for the day. Boy do Salomon Lords make powder/crud/moguls effortless when compared to an older pair of Rossi 9X's. Having arrived from Ste Anne with such low expectations this day now ranks as truly memorable. Late in the afternoon the snows arrive - in the space of 2 runs the place gets another 5cm (2") of snow. Still snowing as the hill closes.
Friday - Sutton. Cold - I mean really COLD! -18C (aprox 0 F), wind chill - 30C. Still 54/54 runs open. We give up around noon - 6 hour drive home to the flatlands of Ontario. Thighs still sore from the day before - can never seem to get a similar "feel the burn" no matter how hard I work the 300' vertical hills at home.
Been years between trips to Ste. Anne - will likely never return. I’ve skied after rain/freeze events at Killington, Loon and Cannon. Even an underfunded state area like Cannon will send groomers up the hill in the middle of the day – not Ste Anne. Sent off a nasty e-mail to Ste Anne. I can only assume RCR treats all skiers at all their hills with equal disdain. Likely back to Sutton later this year.
Monday morning(2010-01-25), slopeside condo Ste Anne - pouring rain. Trail report says 22 runs open - They lie like a cheap rug!!! (unless you count the shared lead in top 300' of a 2500' run as counting the run open.) Not a single black open. The gondola is running so the trips up are dry. Share a trip up with a volunteer mountain guide - tells me "you should have been here last week..." Sounds like all my fishing trips! Actual top to bottom runs open on the south side - 2 - 1 blue, 1 green. Snow's nice and soft - they could have opened a lot more terrain...
Tuesday - Got up 4:30 am - rain has stopped - the groomers have 4 hours till opening. I say a prayer for groomer operators as the unsung heroes of ski resorts. Go down to the ticket office at 8:30 and check the trail count - 5 of 66??? My better half and I get out for 9:00 - no gondola - a single bubble chair coated in rime from the occasional ice pellets coming down. Same two runs open top to bottom. School groups start arriving 9:30 - by 10:00 there's a line up for the chair. Go down to the ticket office to see if they plan to open any more runs – Nope! We bail and head for Stoneham. 15 runs open, another bubble chair coated in rime - finally get to ski some blacks. Actually see groomers working - I guess a prayer answered late is better than not at all.
Wednesday - last day at St Anne - 34 trails open - gondola and 3 chairs open. South side is pretty sketchy - a couple of blacks open. Groomed runs are basically the 2" ice crust broken into softball sized chunks. Lifts/lodging deal includes free demo skis for the day - make a smart decision in opting for a pair of Rossi 9S Oversized. Hope they sharpen them before the next guy uses them. North side is actually skiable - decently groomed and not icy at all. We take off at 2:30 as we're skiing the next 2 days at Sutton in the Eastern Townships.
Thursday (2010-01-28) - Mt. Sutton. The hotel has a print out of the mornings' trail report at Sutton - 54/54 trails open???? Huh??? Lovely lady at the front desk says they got the rain all day Monday but that was followed up with 20cm (8") of snow on Tuesday. (Sutton is probably 20 minutes as the crow flies from Jay.) Get to the hill - WOW - skiable snow. They've left half the hill ungroomed and there are still lots of fresh stashes of powder in the glades!!! Lifts/lodging are so cheap (check the Sutton web site - you won't believe the prices) that I spend some extra coin on demos for the day. Boy do Salomon Lords make powder/crud/moguls effortless when compared to an older pair of Rossi 9X's. Having arrived from Ste Anne with such low expectations this day now ranks as truly memorable. Late in the afternoon the snows arrive - in the space of 2 runs the place gets another 5cm (2") of snow. Still snowing as the hill closes.
Friday - Sutton. Cold - I mean really COLD! -18C (aprox 0 F), wind chill - 30C. Still 54/54 runs open. We give up around noon - 6 hour drive home to the flatlands of Ontario. Thighs still sore from the day before - can never seem to get a similar "feel the burn" no matter how hard I work the 300' vertical hills at home.
Been years between trips to Ste. Anne - will likely never return. I’ve skied after rain/freeze events at Killington, Loon and Cannon. Even an underfunded state area like Cannon will send groomers up the hill in the middle of the day – not Ste Anne. Sent off a nasty e-mail to Ste Anne. I can only assume RCR treats all skiers at all their hills with equal disdain. Likely back to Sutton later this year.
