Author: Tom V

For the third year in a row, the ski weekend at Ottawa/Gatineau turned out to be a great success!  We had our doubts this was going to be the case when the 18 of us who had signed up for the weekend made our way to Ottawa.  There had not been any new snow since the thaw a week earlier.  Three of our group who arrived early to ski at Gatineau Park on Friday afternoon found fast and icy conditions.  Most of the non-green trails were listed on the Gatineau website as “not recommended”.  But there was supposed to be 5-10 cm snow coming on Friday night, so we had our fingers crossed.

I also arrived early on Friday, but I opted to go for a skate on the Rideau Canal.  It was the first day the canal was opened to skaters, although it was limited to a 2-km section.  Most of the group (13 of 18) met in the hotel lobby on Friday evening Continue reading “Gatineau Weekend — It Turned Out Great!”

It was sunny but breezy and cool as we arrived at Oka on Sun morning.  The Swix thermometer outside said -10 C while our cars insisted it was -12 C.  There were a number of snow-clearing operations underway on the highways which caused delays in reaching the park.  People arrived in a steady stream between 9:50 am and 10:20 am.  But by 10:30 am we had no fewer than 25 skiers assembled and Continue reading “Sun Dec 30 at Oka — Best Ski Conditions in Years!”

In keeping with our tradition of making things easy for our members who partook of the Christmas Party the night before, we designated Mount Royal as the destination for the weekly outing.  There was no traffic and it took no time at all to get downtown.  At 9:45 am, 19 members assembled at the Beaver Lake Chalet.  It had to be noted that 8 of the 19 had not been at the party.  So that meant that only 11 of the 30 party participants made it out the next morning.  Hmm, maybe we did not make things easy enough!  More likely, many of them understandably had holiday preparations to address that morning.
In any case, it was a good turnout for a Sunday walk.  We presented the proposed route and off we went.  It was 0 C and overcast.  The first part of the route was a detour around the Beaver Lake construction site.  For those of you who have not been up on the mountain since last winter, it turns out that Beaver Lake is being replaced Continue reading “19 Post-Party Promenaders at Mount Royal”

It definitely felt like winter was in the offing on Sunday morning.  Many of us saw a few light flakes falling as we looked out our bedroom windows.  But buoyed by an extra hour of sleep, thanks to the end of Daylight Saving Time during the night, 21 of us made the trip up north to Val David.
This park has gone through a few name changes over the last decade as the adjacent communities of Val David and Val Morin worked to transfer the land containing the trail network located between them from private to public hands.  It is now officially called  Continue reading “Val David – 21 Hikers Had a Cool Time”

We had 13 hikers turn out at Oka on this beautiful Thanksgiving weekend.  And there was much for which to be thankful.  The temperature was was a cool 6 C, but the sun was shining brightly and was accentuating the already vibrant colours of the foliage.  Plus, as has been a Thanksgiving tradition the last few years at Oka, there were free apples, chocolate and Oka cheese awaiting people at the summit.  So we had an objective!

Most visitors to the Continue reading “Oka Oct 07”

The past Beaver Tails season was very unusual in many ways.  We did still manage to ski just about every weekend this winter after New Year’s Day, but we almost never went to the place we had put in our schedule.  Despite the lack of snow in town for most of the winter, we could usually find somewhere to ski as long as we went far enough north in the Laurentians.  Here in town, we did get snowfalls in between the regular rain days.  So we did manage to ski the flat trails at Cap St Jacques on a few Saturdays.  But the timing of the rain days was such that we only managed to ski on a Wed evening at Mount Royal once this year, and that was on the very last day of Feb.  That was unprecedented, but this season has been all about freaky weather patterns.

But when you take into account all the hikes we did dating back to the early fall, we did manage to get out on at least 20 Sundays this year. Continue reading “2011 – 2012 Season, What a Weird Year!”

Despite the arrival of warm and wet weather in town last Sat, there was still some good skiing to be had.  Far enough up north, they had received fresh snow instead of rain.  After an active exchange of messages on the forum, at least ten Beaver Tail skiers organized themselves to go up to the parks in the Tremblant area.  Six people had a day of perfect conditions at Parc du Mont Tremblant (Lac Monroe) while four others avoided the trails being used by the loppet taking place at Domaine St Bernard and also had a great day.  One member also found good conditions at Gai Luron
Four of us from the club (me, Nancy, Ghyslaine, Monique I., along with Ghyslaine’s sister and another friend) decided to go really far north in search of snow.  We spent the weekend at Parc des Mont-Valins, located 40 min past Chicoutimi.  This is a special place where the trees at higher altitudes get caked in snow and ice and are known as “fantômes” (see the photos).  We alternated between back-country skis and snowshoes to tour the spectacular scenery.  On one day, we rode in a van fitted with snow tracks to a part of the park called the Vallée des Fantômes.  It’s was a six-hour drive from Montreal to get there, but it was worth the trip!

With the big dump of snow we had on Friday afternoon and evening, we had one of our best weekends of skiing close to town.

Last Sat, there was an informal outing at Cap St Jacques at 9 am.  You wouldn’t know it from the photos, but we had at least 16 BTers out to ski on the sticky snow.  It was the day after all that wet snow fell and the temp was -1 C.  But the violet wax worked well enough for Continue reading “Busy Weekend Feb 25,26”