Seems like a fit in the Northeast TR section if in the upper regions.
Spent the holiday week at a condo in Quebec City with my wife and two twenty something kids. Great vacation in a fabulous city with the skiing only 25 miles (Mt. Ste. Anne) and 50 miles (Le Massif) away.
Neither area enjoyed the benefits of the post Xmas storm that hit New England. Conditions were similar at each, groomed hard pack with ice and wind buff at the tops of most runs.
Mt. St. Anne on 12/26. We had light snow throughout the day and fairly small crowds. Skied the north side primarily where we found the snow to be a little bit better. The layout was a little confusing with about 5 lifts emptying on to the summit and all of the trail names en francais. We had great time exploring the place though. Most of the trails are fairly wide open and groomed. A couple of bump runs and one glade which had been skied pretty hard already.
Ate in the pub, cafeteria was jammed despite the thin crowds. Food was pretty good. Stopped in for a beer afterwards and it was crowded with some slooow service.
Overall I would rate this as a very pleasant place to ski on a par with a Waterville or Loon (but it enjoys the advantage of being only 25 miles from what I think is one of the coolest cities in North America.)
Le Massif on 12/28 Not as a far as it appears from QC. It is in the middle of very little though. For those of you unfamiliar with the place the main lodge and parking lot is on the top of the mountain and the slopes run about 800 meters down to the St. Lawrence River. Stunning views, one of the prettiest places I have ever skied at.
It was a bright sunny and very cold day (+10f was the high). Parking lot was freaking frigid. We spent some time fumbling with gear etc (me with my gloves off like a jackass) When I got into the lodge 15 minutes later I had some nasty frost bite on my thumb. The place was pretty crowded with vacationers. We heard more English here than any where else on the trip.
Unfortunately only 31/52 trails were open. Most of the challenging stuff wasn't. This made for some crowds in some of the lift lines and created choke points on the trails when the beginners were trying to explore other parts of the mountain. They had a couple of situations where green trails fed into blue trails with moguled up junctions for 30 meters or more. No glades. There was a fair amount of ungroomed. The good new was that after a little while you could figure out where the good skiing was and just tear around or enjoy the sights.
At first I thought it was odd that the lifts stop turning at 3:15. But as the sun started to set and the winds cranked up I saw why. We managed to time it so we were able to grab a run just at the end and it was damn cold.
We got into the lodge looking to get our group back together and have beer and it was a mob scene. We connected and decided to get out of there. Outside it was like Napolean's retreat from Moscow. Everybody was busting out, the wind was howling and frozen bodies were falling by the way (alright I'm exaggerating a little).
I would love to hit this mountain when there was great snow and no crowds
Spent the holiday week at a condo in Quebec City with my wife and two twenty something kids. Great vacation in a fabulous city with the skiing only 25 miles (Mt. Ste. Anne) and 50 miles (Le Massif) away.
Neither area enjoyed the benefits of the post Xmas storm that hit New England. Conditions were similar at each, groomed hard pack with ice and wind buff at the tops of most runs.
Mt. St. Anne on 12/26. We had light snow throughout the day and fairly small crowds. Skied the north side primarily where we found the snow to be a little bit better. The layout was a little confusing with about 5 lifts emptying on to the summit and all of the trail names en francais. We had great time exploring the place though. Most of the trails are fairly wide open and groomed. A couple of bump runs and one glade which had been skied pretty hard already.
Ate in the pub, cafeteria was jammed despite the thin crowds. Food was pretty good. Stopped in for a beer afterwards and it was crowded with some slooow service.
Overall I would rate this as a very pleasant place to ski on a par with a Waterville or Loon (but it enjoys the advantage of being only 25 miles from what I think is one of the coolest cities in North America.)
Le Massif on 12/28 Not as a far as it appears from QC. It is in the middle of very little though. For those of you unfamiliar with the place the main lodge and parking lot is on the top of the mountain and the slopes run about 800 meters down to the St. Lawrence River. Stunning views, one of the prettiest places I have ever skied at.
It was a bright sunny and very cold day (+10f was the high). Parking lot was freaking frigid. We spent some time fumbling with gear etc (me with my gloves off like a jackass) When I got into the lodge 15 minutes later I had some nasty frost bite on my thumb. The place was pretty crowded with vacationers. We heard more English here than any where else on the trip.
Unfortunately only 31/52 trails were open. Most of the challenging stuff wasn't. This made for some crowds in some of the lift lines and created choke points on the trails when the beginners were trying to explore other parts of the mountain. They had a couple of situations where green trails fed into blue trails with moguled up junctions for 30 meters or more. No glades. There was a fair amount of ungroomed. The good new was that after a little while you could figure out where the good skiing was and just tear around or enjoy the sights.
At first I thought it was odd that the lifts stop turning at 3:15. But as the sun started to set and the winds cranked up I saw why. We managed to time it so we were able to grab a run just at the end and it was damn cold.
We got into the lodge looking to get our group back together and have beer and it was a mob scene. We connected and decided to get out of there. Outside it was like Napolean's retreat from Moscow. Everybody was busting out, the wind was howling and frozen bodies were falling by the way (alright I'm exaggerating a little).
I would love to hit this mountain when there was great snow and no crowds
