To wax or not to wax, that was the question I asked myself as I arrived in the parking lot. Confident that having brought 2 set of ski’s (regular and waxless) along with an assortment of waxes, a solution would be at hand. A quick assessment of the parking lot and I quickly realized one fact; I had left my ski jacket, hat and gloves at home. Oh well I still had my regular winter coat, hat and gloves with me. So I sweat a bit more. Ok, so lets grab the waxless and head to the center and register. No salle de fartage for me! Well it seemed as though our fellow Beaver Tails thought waxless were a 
mistake as the snow was pretty dry. Ok, back to car for a quick change of skis and off to the salle de fartage. The sign said blue extra am, violet pm. I opted for the violet since I hate waxing on the trail. Off we went, for about a kilometer of so. A sudden stop and out came the waxes. Those who chose blue extra grabbed their violet and practiced on trail waxing. To little avail I might add. Grip was no where to be found. No big deal since it wasn’t too hilly at Far Hills: yet. Eventually Continue reading
Category: Sunday and Weekend Reports
Orford Weekend – a nice stress free weekend – depending on your outlook
If you are like me, you look forward to a weekend away because it is like a mini holiday. But you have the stress of getting all your work done before you can leave. I of course have to add some extra stress because I like to leave before traffic on the Champlain Bridge builds up. In Montreal, on a Friday, that pretty much means you have to leave before or shortly after lunch!
What to pack? Of course that is stressful too. You bring clothes to cover all ranges of temperatures from -20 degrees C to plus 5 because the weather gurus said temperatures were heading south over the weekend. Then, because of possible poor conditions, Orford did not get a lot of snow over the week and they reported that trails had not been groomed, we had to pack the snowshoes. That meant digging out the hiking boots and hiking poles and getting out some different clothing to handle that sport. Good thing we were not flying because we would not have made the weight cutoff for checked luggage.
Finally we were ready to go. Travel down highway 10 was light. Once we arrived there was the stress of where to go for dinner. Lucky for us Continue reading
Tremblant Picnic Feb 10 Glenn’s little critter
Well I do not know what it is about Richard and Gwen but they sure know how to get people to Tremblant Parc for Gwen’s picnic. The official bean counter tells me that his tally was 36 and then there was Glenn’s little critter. It was a trifle cooler than expected at the park but mercifully no wind so conditions were pretty good, even the walking wounded turned up with their sore knee, LH and twisted knee CW, yes well what more can I say. Two members set out from Montreal at 7.30am so they could maximise the skiing time, the rest left at 8am , for some that was desperately early given our more relaxed starting times this season.
So there we were, and very soon everyone scattered on the trails like leaves blowing in the wind, odd that given there was no wind. It would appear that club members were seen on every available Ski de fond trails including the new Mallard. The majority seemed to settle for the Poisson, something fishy about that don’t you think, still I personally found it
very amusing listening to the tales of sore legs following the famous long descent.
Then followed the grand portage of Gwen’s famous mountain of food and drinks to the
Refuge de la Renardière. At this point I should like to point out that no bundles of cash were stuffed in socks in awarding this contract to the carriers. Soon the refuge was filled with happy skiers enjoying the sandwiches, cheese fondue, desert and drinks all prepared by Gwen W and her helpers Richard C and Monique M who sadly could not join us. It was with great Continue reading
Gai Luron Feb 03 “six more weeks of winter”
Not wishing to be out done by some pesky ground hog, a colony (the collective term for a group of beavers) of Beaver Tails popped their heads out of their respective holes looking for skiable snow and their shadows. Well they found the snow but not the shadow, so prepare yourselves for 6 weeks more of winter. The official bean counter number of skiers
out was 25 including one or two waifs and strays, one wonders if the 9 am start was a factor. Anyhow Gai Luron proved to be popular not just with us but with many other skiers, including a group of Cegep students and tiny tots at the ski school. That’s a thought Glenn for next year’s ski clinic we could ask to join the tiny tots ski school for the day.
It was not long before everybody was out on the trails, “ A” proved to be very popular Continue reading
Last Sun — 13 BTers Enjoyed a Sunny Ski at Ste Agathe
The Parc des Campeurs ski centre at Ste Agathe evokes a lot of strong reactions among our members. Many see it as a place where most of the trails are just a bit too challenging and out of the their comfort zone. But many others extol its virtues and consider skiing there one of the highlights of the ski season. But even those people who love it say that, with its narrow trails going up and down through the woods, you would not want to go there when the conditions are not ideal.
Fortunately, conditions *were* ideal at Ste Agathe last Sun. All 48 km of their trails were open, something we had not seen in a few years. Sure, it was a bit cold to start, and we delayed our arrival by an hour to give the temperature a chance to rise a few more degrees. But shortly after the 13 of us got going at about 10:30 am, under sunny skies, no wind, and with a temperature of -18 C, we warmed up just fine and the cold was not an issue.
We broke up into two main groups: the faster group had seven skiers and the not-quite-as-fast group had four skiers. Two other skiers opted to pursue solo trajectories at their own pace. The group of seven started on the green Stonehaven trail, Continue reading
Gatineau Weekend — It Turned Out Great!
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
Last Sat at Ski and Pot Luck — 35 Dined Well!
After all my messages cautioning members about the variable conditions at Mount Royal, only 16 people turned out at 10 am. Of them, twelve came to ski, while four opted to go walking. It was sunny and about -9 C as the skiers set out. As predicted, the city had not groomed the trails. There were no defined tracks for most of the first parts of the trail. Farther along, there were only inchoate tracks that had been created by skier traffic. For the twelve experienced skiers out on this morning, this did not present a problem. And the conditions were otherwise great. There was a thick base and the descents were snowy
with no icy spots. What’s more, the scenery was spectacular with soft snow still resting delicately on the branches and sparkling in the sun. For those of us who usually ski Mount Royal at night, it was a treat to see the trails in daylight!
It turned out that many of the those who did not go to Mount Royal, still did get out. One contingent of skiers skied at Cap St Jacques, another city-run large park, but at this one they are somehow able to groom the trails. So after a good bout of morning exercise, people began
St Bruno Jan 6, Watch out for swarming ants
Sunday at St Bruno when the snow conditions are good can be a little hectic, but arrive early as most of us did allowed us to enjoy the quieter part of the day. Eventually it is 
believed about 30 club members were active at the center, the official bean counter can vouch for 28 but there could be one or two more lurking on the trails. Most of the group split up into groups of like minded individuals and did variants and loops based on the 1 trail. Others had an interesting time on somewhat easier trails where the biggest hazard was being swarmed by groups of hyper active youngsters chasing each other round the trails. With their dark ski uniforms and the buzzing excitement it was just like a swarm of ants Continue reading
believed about 30 club members were active at the center, the official bean counter can vouch for 28 but there could be one or two more lurking on the trails. Most of the group split up into groups of like minded individuals and did variants and loops based on the 1 trail. Others had an interesting time on somewhat easier trails where the biggest hazard was being swarmed by groups of hyper active youngsters chasing each other round the trails. With their dark ski uniforms and the buzzing excitement it was just like a swarm of ants Continue reading Sun Dec 30 at Oka — Best Ski Conditions in Years!
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
Gai Luron Dec 23 — 13 BTers Enjoy the First Ski Outing of the Season
Tom V’s report
This has to be one of the latest starts to the ski season we have had in years. But with the heavy snowfall that the Laurentians received a few days ago, we finally had enough to kick start things. Six members made it out for an unofficial outing on Sat at the P’tit Train du Nord on Sat, where they enjoyed a pleasant ski. See the forum for the reports that they and other members made about skiing at the PTdN and other local spots.
When I e-mailed the update message to you all yesterday, I told you that Gai Luron was almost fully open (28 of 32 km), because that was what the Skinet website was reporting. But that turned out to be false — Skinet later updated the status to say that Gai Luron only had 4 of 32 km open! But when reached by phone, the folks at Gai Luron said they expected to be mostly open by Sun. They had enough snow on the ground. The problem was that the heavy snow on Friday had brought down many branches and entire trees across the trails and it was taking them time to clear them.
So 13 of us showed up at Gai Luron on Sun morning expecting most of the trails to be open. But we soon learned that the tree clearing had not gone well and they only had two trails open — the beginner “U” trail (3.1 km) and the intermediate “A” trail (5.1 km). But for most of us, this was our first time out and 8.2 km of trails would be fine.
After waxing and taking the group photo, we set out on the trails (all two of them). It was warmer (-8 C) and less windy than Continue reading