Chicoutimi (QC), Canada – We pushed through Québec City during the evening rush hour, heading north. Way north. n Le Valinouët (photo courtesy Le Valinouët) By all measures, 2001-2002 had been a very disappointing winter season in the Northeast. Long before the snowfall failed to arrive, though, First Tracks!! Online Contributing Writer Leigh Daboll and … Continue reading Le Valinouët: The Final Frontier
by Marc Guido l’Anse-St. Jean (QC), Canada – I’ve never quite understood the attraction to ice fishing. Sitting on a giant ice cube, freezing your posterior and staring at a hole while holding a string and waiting for something to happen just doesn’t seem like fun to me. Sure, some of those ice-fishing huts are … Continue reading Mont-Édouard: Venturing Into the Great Unknown
Warren, VT – It was giving me a headache … and heartache, too. The raindrops rolled off the roof of the Sugarbush Inn and struck the ground outside the porch door of my room, creating an unyielding drone that comforted my soul no more than the piercing screech of fingernails on a blackboard. I grew … Continue reading Sugarbush: Full of Surprises
East Burke, VT – Up on the mountain, several different sets of slalom gates were drilled into the base depths coating Warren’s Way. Coaches stood by observing racers who lined up atop each course before slapping each breakaway gate with a resounding thwack. Down at the Mid-Burke lodge, still other gate runners were warming up … Continue reading Burke Mountain: Up the Academy
Bridgton, ME – Spanish music reverberated throughout my Jeep, escaped from the rolled down windows and floated toward the blue mountain sky. I couldn’t exactly figure out why my girlfriend’s music seemed strangely appropriate Down East, but it did. We arrived at Shawnee Peak on an unusually warm March morning not knowing what to expect. … Continue reading Shawnee Peak: A Down-East “Lov” Affair
Petite-Rivière-St.-François (QC), Canada – Le Massif de Petite-Rivière-St.-François is a mountain at a crossroads. Throughout its relatively short life, the resort with what may well be the longest formal name in the ski industry has prided itself on maintaining harmony with its natural surroundings and eschewing traditional ski area development. A CDN $24.8 million investment … Continue reading Le Massif: At the Crossroads
Stowe, VT – Mention Vermont, and you’re likely to conjure up pastoral /images of white church steeples, clapboard houses, steam rising from boilers in maple sugar shacks, narrow and winding dirt farm roads, and incandescent fall foliage. Skiers and snowboarders will likely also envision narrow, old-school New England trails, as well as broad intermediate boulevards … Continue reading Stowe: Picture Postcard Vermont