Ski Mont Miller - Murdochville - May 2/3 - 2015

After hiking up my local ski hill for the past 2 weekends I decided I needed more. It also worked out that the hill I wanted to ski was open and my girlfriend was out of town.

I fell in love with the Gaspe peninsula when I visited there this winter and have been hoping to make it back ever since I left.

Ski Mont Miller in Murdochville, Quebec hadn't been able to open for the last few weekends because they still hadn't gotten spring conditions, their facebook indicated they had planned to open one last time for the first weekend in May.

The last week of April, they recieved 20 cms of snow and then the temperature started rising. By Friday it was 50 degrees and sunny. Their facebook started bragging about 100% open with 100% natural snow.
I packed the dog and off we went.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Mu...m2!3m1!1s0x4c9a138d06cf0a8b:0xd9223fc9925a493

I started the 7 hour drive Friday night and stayed in a town in northen New Brunswick called Campbellton. I left early enough the next morning to get some views of the national park before heading to Murdochville

The first big mountain you encounter is Hogsback



Next You get glimpses of Mont Albert, but this is only a fraction of the actual mountain itself



Here is a picture of the massif from a distance on the way home



As I approached Murdochville I started seeing snowbanks. This was encouraging



Finally, Murdochville proper. I love this place.



Their groomer broke down this week



The rest of the mountain



And the whole mountain



After some minor Tbar problems, the workers, who never stopped smoking, got us up the mountain and I was able to score some first tracks. In May.



And some more



It didn't stop there



Ok, this is now just bragging



Eventually I had to start skiing over my own tracks



Unfortunately my favorite glade was not open. I didn't duck the ropes to find out why.

Saturday night, I did some exploring around the windmills



They still have snow



Sunday afternoon, I get fed up with the TBar and wanted to let the dog play in the snow before I had to leave. So we went hking



Fortunately I brought my skis



And I can beat him down the hill, he needs to learn that he can just run straight, he doesn't need to follow my tracks.



Then I made him pose with the Jacques Cartier Massif in the background (I think anyway)



Ski chic-chac.ca has a snow cat operation based in Murdochville, here is their dorm and cats. Helicopter wasn't present though.



This is literally beside the town of Murdochville, across the street from the ski hill. Backcountry ski area, ski chic-chac does cat skiing here



Here is different part of the mountain



I finally had to leave, but on the way out I got a good view of Lyall Mountain, a backcountry ski area co-op



Close up to some of the trails



And unfortunately I had to go back home where my snowbank is all but melted.

Although Mont Miller claimed 100% open, their hike to terrain (which is 30% of their mountain, and their steepest terrain) was not open. This wasn't much of a problem on Saturday as I was skiing mostly fresh snow most of the day, but on Sunday seeing the untracked trails just out of reach was frustrating. But in the end, if the hike to terrain was open, I would have been less likely to take the dog out to find my own tracks, so in the end I can't complain.

There is so much terrain up there, it's ridiculous. I went on a glorified dog walk, but legit back country skiing is a 15 minute skin away from the town and every direction you look, there is something skiable that has some sort of access because of all the resource exploration that was done. I just saw a spot on the side of the windmill road, parked and hiked to it. It was a small clear cut with 5 or so trails leading down the hill. There were probably 5 other spots I wanted to try, but I didn't have time.

Sick. All I can say is sick.

Looks incredible. Only a 12 hour drive from home.

wish that terrain was closer

thanks! It really is beautiful up there, I can't believe it's this close and I never really paid attention to recently.

Here's a question. Why not throw a lift up some of that Cat terrain? It's obviously not natural and has had some human work done. Seems bizarre that the Province would allow cutting and cats, but no lifts.

Maybe it wouldn't be worth the investment due to lack of skiable days?

It's not worth the investment because it's too far away and not enough people would go. There are a number of areas that would be prime for a ski resort, but more tourists are needed.

The existing ski hill was built when the other side of the back country mountain was being mined and it was somewhat of a thriving town.
The mines all shut down and by 2002 the town voted to shut down. The province wouldn't let them, so the residents who wanted to stay, stayed, and most everyone else left.

Just in the last 5 or so years this area has become popular for backcountry skiing, but popular is relative. They have one hotel in town, with 18 rooms. chic-chac has another dozen or so rooms and that's it. Those are all full with skiers and snowmobilers in the winter weekends, but don't seem to do much else the rest of the time.

Mont miller is only open on weekends as is, and maybe during Quebec holidays.

They will open during the week if you have a group of 25 or more though.

Great report, Ironhippy. I've never heard of this place. Some of those mountains look amazing!


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