When is it too warm to ski? As soon as the temperature goes above 0 C, the enthusiasm to ski quickly begins to wane among many members! They think of poorly groomed trails, lack of grip, and sticky, messy waxes that get scraped off quickly. All of these things can be true — I have had my share of frustrating outings over the years. But quite often the reverse is true. Spring skiing can offer a a very pleasant day of mild weather and surprisingly good ski conditions. So are we too prone to being warm weather wimps? This past weekend was a case in point.
With the temperatures above freezing for several days and forecast to go up as high as 8 C on Sat and Sun, we opted to not set a “formal” destination for Sun in an update e-mail. But when I checked the snow reports for the ski centres in town and up north on Sat afternoon, I discovered that they were all still FULLY OPEN. Despite the warm weather, there was a lot of snow on the ground that was not going away, especially since we had not had any rain to speak of. We had to try to ski somewhere! So on Sat afternoon I put a post on the forum proposing to ski at Cap St Jacques (CSJ) on Sun at 10:30 am DST (i.e., 9:30 am if you forgot to change your clock). We picked nearby CSJ to encourage as many people as possible to overcome their warm weather worries and give it a try. A couple of members posted replies that they would attend — they both reported having had excellent ski outings that afternoon.
In the end, nine BTers turned out at CSJ on Sun morning. Several of them only made the decision to come out after they woke up. As we got ready, the temp was only just getting above 0 C. I had cautioned in my forum post that we would likely need to use waxless skis or klister wax. But it turned out that red wax (0 to 3 C), as well as waxless skis, worked fine on the old snow. The tracks were still very well-defined for the most part. Some of the turns and small descents were a little more slippery, so some caution was still called for. Two or three skiers did have trouble with grip and stability. But the rest of the group yesterday did find the combination of skis and wax they needed to give them good grip and glide, and so a very enjoyable ski! Most of us skied for 1.5 hours, while a couple of our keener skiers went out for more.
In retrospect, we probably should have set a “formal” destination for this past Sun so as to encourage more of you to ski. However, we know that other members did get out skiing on Sun. A couple of more BTers, were spotted at CSJ on their own, while a couple of others took part in the Oka loppet. (Please let us know how your ski outings went via a post on the forum.)
Hmm, I wonder if we missed out on some great skiing at Montagne Coupée the previous Sun when we cancelled our plans to go there!