Massif du Sud, QC 03/21/10

[jamesdeluxe]

Great to be back in the capital of New France for the first time in five years:

My wife has never been north of Trois Rivieres, so we spent most of Saturday being proper American tourists. We got a great three-hour tour from Michelle Demers from Quebec City Tourism, who guided us all over town and patiently answered all of our questions. Here she is showing Juliet how it normally looks in Quebec during a normal winter (no snow on the ground here in the city, which is very odd):

We visited Montmorency Falls:

Had great crepes at Au Petit Coin Breton:

Then we joined the hordes of people making their way to the big show, the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship.

Kinda like a downhill racing course that winds through the old part of Quebec, except it's on ice, not snow. Four men thundering down at once -- much more impressive than I had expected, especially when they fly right by you. I wonder how many broken arms/legs and torn ACLs are caused by this sport? There must have been 100,000 people there last night.

Check out this clip:

 

[Admin]

Hey, I thought that this post was about Massif du Sud? :-s

Great to be back in the capital of New France for the first time in five years.

Thank you so much for getting a picture of that sign. That bugs the hell out of me -- it's not the Capitale Nationale because Quebec is not a nation! The Capitale Nationale is Ottawa, not Quebec City. That sign strikes me as the height of Quebecois hubris. I had a long debate about that sign at a family dinner in Quebec with my brother-in-law Laurent, who's a political journalist and columnist with a major French-language Montreal newspaper.

Had great crepes at Au Petit Coin Breton:

Been there! Good stuff.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Today, I finally made it to a ski area I’ve wanted to hit for years. The first 45 minutes of the one-hour drive to Massif du Sud are like traveling through a French-language version of Nebraska -- a road that goes straight as an arrow for miles at a time through a flat, rural landscape with tiny villages sporting farm-equipment dealerships. Finally, the very end of the Appalachian Mountain chain pops up.

We got a friendly welcome and all-day tour from general manager Morgan Robitaille and mountain guide Julien. Morgan has really been earning his looneys lately when he was forced into damage-control mode after the ski area’s one chairlift broke down twice, effectively closing operations for several days. But they finally got it fixed on Thursday and it was running smoothly today with no lines.

After a flat section up top, the trails wind intriguingly through the trees with a nice sustained pitch for 1,375 verts:

On this bluebird day, the St. Lawrence River and the front side of Mont Sainte-Anne made a nice backdrop.

But the real selling point of Massif du Sud is the extensive blue-spruce glades, which cover almost 40% of the ski area. Unfortunately, after warm temps on Saturday, it went down to 15 degrees overnight and, despite the blazing sun today, the snow never completely softened up until the last 500 verts, taking out most of the trees. Still, we decided to give it a try in the mid-afternoon, and went under the rope on La Cathédrale.

Morgan and Julien are accustomed to nice dry snow in the trees, so they were less than thrilled with the conditions there today.

Massif du Sud also has Quebec’s only cat-skiing operation, which is accessed through a 15-minute ride from the summit. At the end of the day, we headed back to the Sous-Bois (“glade” in French) Bar for some Belle Gueule beers.

To underscore the skiing-in-the-woods theme, even the beer comes out of a tree:

We really liked Massif du Sud –- it’s got an intimate, unpretentious, no-industrial-tourism vibe –- and I’d love to go back when the woods are open.

 

[Tony Crocker]

As some consolation the trees here in Idaho are in the same refrozen condtion you report, and some of them in Utah too from admin's comments.

I was in Quebec City at this same time in 2003, and your pics are a lot different. I spent an hour wandering around the then-frozen base of Montmorency Falls. Water was falling only in the center of it and there were several people ice climbing the looker's left side of it.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

That sign strikes me as the height of Quebecois hubris.

Heh, that was one of the first questions we asked our tour guide. She claimed that it was referring to the capital of francophone Canada, which could be considered a "nation," just like a Native American nation within the United States, I guess. If you think about it, it'd be pretty silly for them to infer that Quebec City was the national capital of Canada.

 

[Admin]

That sign strikes me as the height of Quebecois hubris.

Heh, that was one of the first questions we asked our tour guide. She claimed that it was referring to the capital of francophone Canada, which could be considered a "nation," just like a Native American nation within the United States, I guess. If you think about it, it'd be pretty silly for them to infer that Quebec City was the national capital of Canada.

And pretty silly to display that sign, too. Otherwise they'd write, "Capitale français du Canada" or whatever. I've gotten the explanation, "Well, it was the Canadian national capital at one time hundreds of years ago." I'll stick with my original assertion, for I attribute it more to the separatist political agenda than anything else.

 

[Patrick]

I'll stick with my original assertion, for I attribute it more to the separatist political agenda than anything else.

I posted a reply last night from my perspective...very far from being a separatist point of vue, however it would seem the forum acted weird last night and the post is no longer there. :-(

 

[Admin]

I updated the forum software last night to address the moving cursor text box issue in IE8. If your post was submitted at just the wrong time that could explain it.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

 

[Patrick]

I updated the forum software last night to address the moving cursor text box issue in IE8. If your post was submitted at just the wrong time that could explain it.

I just remember that I couldn't post it last night...forum acting weird. Funny, as I could see it in the preview. Saved it elsewhere. Here is last night's post...

Massif du Sud also has Quebec’s only cat-skiing operation, which is accessed through a 15-minute ride from the summit.

What is the definition of cat-skiing? I believe that La Réserve has something of that nature and if the definition is larger, it would include one or two operations in the Chic Chocs.

Thank you so much for getting a picture of that sign. That bugs the hell out of me -- it's not the Capitale Nationale because Quebec is not a nation! The Capitale Nationale is Ottawa, not Quebec City.

I'm probably one of the less Quebec nationalist around (and I've had many issues with Quebec political issues), however I don't really have a beef with the sign or the claim of being a Nation.

Quebec is a nation, even if it isn't a country. This was even recognized by the current Federal Government. There are also many different First Nations within the Territory of the province of Quebec.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nation

Main Entry: na·tion
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English nacioun, from Anglo-French naciun, from Latin nation-, natio birth, race, nation, from nasci to be born; akin to Latin gignere to beget — more at kin
Date: 14th century

1 a (1) : nationality 5a (2) : a politically organized nationality (3) : a non-Jewish nationality <why do the nations conspire — Psalms 2:1 (Revised Standard Version)> b : a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government c : a territorial division containing a body of people of one or more nationalities and usually characterized by relatively large size and independent status
2 archaic : group, aggregation
3 : a tribe or federation of tribes (as of American Indians)