Massif du Sud 3-9-18

[Ride Delaware ?]

Today was the last day of our 2018 Canadian ski trip. It was another stellar day to cap off a stellar trip. MDS is located on the US side of the St. Lawrence River about an hour east of Quebec City. We woke up at 6, hit up Timmy Horton’s, and were on the road by 7.

 

MSD is even more in the middle of nowhere than Le Massif de Charlevoix. Our trip took us through expansive farm fields before we finally arrived just past 9 AM. The parking lots were small, which matched the lodge and mountain, but they were filling up quickly. I would say that an additional 10” fell overnight, and that brought out the “crowds”. It took us about 10 minutes in line to grab our lift tickets, but we were still in line at the chairlift at 9:30.

 

The weather was picture perfect. It was just under 30 degrees, was cloudy, there was no wind, and there was fresh snow. We weren’t the only people who had found this little gem of a mountain, and the lift line filled in quickly. MSD boasts a vertical of about 1,250’ and only has one summit lift, a fixed grip quad. Despite the lift line, we never waited longer than 3-4 minutes.

 

The lift was slow, but it gave you plenty of time to rest your legs. The mountain only has a couple greens, a couple blues, and a couple blacks, all of which are groomed. However, the mountain also has perfectly manicured and expansive glades that were some of the best on the east coast. Almost all the trails have a glade between them. Despite being well traveled, only the steepest of the glades showed any signs of wear. That’s the benefit of receiving close to 200” of snow so far this season and having very little adverse weather. Most of them were still sporting sections of deep powder on our last run at 2:45. There was something for everyone: beginner glades, tight glades, inbounds side country glades in the middle of the mountain, and luge style fly by the seat of your pants banked turn glades.

 

We had to leave at 3 PM for the 5.5 hour drive back to VT, so we rode straight through lunch. In all, we rode 10 runs, with the majority of the time being spent on the lift. The first 7 runs I went into the woods before I tried some “groomed” runs for the last 3 as my legs became tired. This is exactly the type of mountain I love to visit. The vibe is right up there with Plattekill and Blue Knob. You won’t rack up the most runs here, but those runs will be of the highest quality. I will definitely be headed back in the future.

 

All in all, it was a great trip with great conditions. I got to try some new mountains and experience some of the best conditions I’ve had on the east coast. Next year I’ll add another new mountain or two, but I’ll be sure to make it to Le Massif and MSD at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shadows]

Those trees seem off but it looks too big to be planted. Neat

[moe ghoul]

Good timing if yer swinging back thru VT. March madness of a better kind here.