Le Massif De Charlevoix 2-8-17

[Ride Delaware ?]

Grab a beer when you sit down to read this one. It's going to be a long one.

 

Yesterday afternoon after riding Mont Sutton, I decided to head north to where the storm was going to produce mostly snow. I booked a room in Sainte Anne during lunch and headed out for the 3.5 hour drive. Luckily, I was ahead of the storm and arrived mostly on time.

 

I got a room at the Condo & Motel Des Berges. It was the cheapest thing I could find on Expedia. It is an old 60s style motel with outdoor entrances. The lady at the front desk didn't speak any English, so I struggled through the French contact form, and received my key. The room is pretty basic, and a little rough around the edges, but the inside has been recently renovated and the internet was good enough to watch Netflix. On a side note, almost every US streaming service (Hulu, HBO Go, Showtime Anytime, Amazon Prime, and STARZ) is blacked out, even with a good VPN. The Netflix that was available was running off the Canadian version, which left out key shows. The hotel is also located directly across the street from a Tim Horton's, Subway, and A&W. I scored a sandwich from A&W (where nobody spoke English), watched some Netflix, and headed to bed just before midnight.

 

I woke up about 7:30, got dressed, and was out the door by 7:50. I rolled over to Tim Horton's, where I ordered a sandwich and some drinks. The sandwich and Gatorade came out fine, but somewhere in the language barrier (once again, the cashier didn't speak English) the lady somehow confused OJ for some type of tea. It wasn't worth arguing over, so I took the tea and hit the road.

 

There was some light mixed precipitation falling at the motel, but the majority of the storm (6-8 in) had been snow. The further northeast I got toward the resort, the more snow had fallen. The drive took about 45 minutes due to road conditions. There were a couple long steep inclines that were single file. A tractor trailer couldn't get over the top of one and was parked near the top forcing us into the shoulder while he waited for a tow. Once you reach the resort, there is a 5.5 km access road that services nothing but the resort.

 

There was a steady line of traffic, but only the main parking lot was full. The amount of snow there was staggering. In Sainte Anne the snow went to the bottom of the road signs. At Le Massif, it covered them. The snow on the sides of the access road was easily 7' tall and easily the most I've seen anywhere on the East Coast. There is so much snow, that they have to plow the parking lot and then use an excavator to mound it so that the parking lot doesn't shrink. The excavator was working when I arrived at 9:15, and he was still working when I left at 4 PM. Some of the mounds were easily 30' tall.

 

Le Massif can be accessed from either the top of the mountain, or the bottom. However, the main amenities are at the top of the mountain. You have to go past the access road and all the way down and around to get to the bottom. The owner of Le Massif also owns Cirque du Soleil, and when he purchased the mountain, he also purchased the train tracks for ski trains from Quebec City and created a station at the bottom. He connected the train station to the new base area using a gondola which only runs on weekends.

 

After purchasing my ticket, I immediately headed to skiers left where there is a mid mountain lift. From the amount of snow on the trails and sides of the road, I knew that today was going to be all about the trees. I thought the coverage was pretty good yesterday, but today was phenomenal. There are trees everywhere at this place. Their official glade runs are much tighter than Sutton's and there is amazing off map stuff to be had.

 

I took the intermediate trail to the lift and was greeted with some untouched pow all the way down. There were decent amounts of skiers, but the mountain skis much larger than it looks. That would be one of the last runs I would take top to bottom on a trail for the rest of the day. After riding the lift, I headed further skiers left and immediately found an unmarked track into the woods. I was the third or fourth person in and couldn't be happier. They were a perfect pitch with perfectly spaced obstacles. It was a great mix of evergreens and birch trees.

 

After lapping that general area (but different woods runs) four times, I decided to try the side country. I have included a picture of the map at the entrance. I hiked over to section 3, which was about a mile. Everyone else stopped at section 1/2, but those willing to walk the extra 100 m were richly rewarded. I repeatedly said "this is what heaven must be like." I was the fifth or sixth person in a huge expanse of perfect glades. There were fresh tracks to be had everywhere. It was well worth the hike. As you finish the glades section, there is a trail that takes you all the way down to the base. Le Massif clocks in at 2,526 vertical, but it skis larger than any other mountain I've been at on the East Coast.

 

I loaded the Gondola for a nice 14 minute rest and went all the way to the top. The Gondola has two stages and you can load about 2/3 down the mountain if you choose.

 

Once I got to the top, I decided to hit some trails off the Gondola. I made it about a third of the way down before I found some glades to duck into. Since they were on the map, they were a little more tracked out, but overall, they were still phenomenal.

 

I took a break at the base to get some water before heading back up the Gondola to hit some more trees. This time I found my way to the HSQ on skiers right. The one all the way to skiers right was not running today. It is one of the longest vertical rise HSQs I have ever ridden. After a couple more runs into the trees off of that, I decided to traverse skiers right where the closed lift was. Since the lift was closed, there weren't as many tracks even if it was 2 PM in the afternoon. I was richly rewarded with powdery bump runs and untouched on map glades before I finally started to run out of gas. My legs were killing me.

 

After one more bump/tree run off the Gondola, I headed up the Gondola to take the easiest route down which had all been groomed the night before. It was a nice long relaxing run before one last rest on the Gondola. I put in about 5.5 hours of hard riding today with a 30 minute break. It was easily one of my top 2 East Coast days of all time, and hands down my best East Coast tree day of all time.

 

It was about 18 degrees when I arrived, but it slowly crept up to near 30 throughout the day. I had heard horror stories of the wind off the St. Lawrence, but they never really developed. There was some wind at the very top, but nothing that affected lift operations, which is what I was most concerned about since they are all high speed lifts. It was still snowing when I arrived, but the clouds finally cleared out about noon for one of the best views I have ever seen off an east coast mountain. The mountain practically ends in the St. Lawrence River, and seeing the icy river left me speechless. I even captured a tanker that was breaking ice to get through to the ocean.

 

Overall, what a stellar day. The drive back only took 35 minutes with clear roads. I stopped at Subway to pick up some food and headed back to the motel where I have been resting since. Tomorrow I'll hit Mont Sainte Anne before heading back to the states tomorrow night. I've heard great things, so I hope it isn't a total letdown after today. Unfortunately, I think most of my trips in the short term will be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[toast21602]

Ok.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ride Delaware ?]

Ok.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are you ok?

[moe ghoul]

C'est magnifique!!!!

[tnt]

Wow - looks amazing!

 

Damn....

[Rex Goliath]

Epic! Nice day/trail report!

[toast21602]

Are you ok?

 

Yes, just concerned about the bridge. 

[Ride Delaware ?]

Yes, just concerned about the bridge.

I heard it's open...

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report the guy who owns Cirque du Soleil is Guy Laliberte. I only know this from watching high stakes poker. Billionaires love to donate their money to pro poker players in hundred thousand dollar increments for shits and giggles. Great report. Seeing all that snow is great for stoke!!! I wanna go back to Montreal and Quebec City and ski Le Massif sometime. I actually know a little bit of french from 7th grade when I was known as Serge in French class.

[Johnny Law]

Those trees.......half way to midnight............really loving these TR's excellent skiing up there that often gets ignored because of the lowish vert

[Ride Delaware ?]

Those trees.......half way to midnight............really loving these TR's excellent skiing up there that often gets ignored because of the lowish vert

Mont Sutton is the smallest at 1,470', but Mont Sainte Anne is 2,050', and Le Massif is 2,500'. Very comparable to many East Coast areas, and unlike Killington and Sunday River, the drop at MSA and Le Massif is continuous. Definitely worth checking out.

[moe ghoul]

Great TR and roadtrip!