Beaver Tails Nordic Ski Club

The past Beaver Tails season was very unusual in many ways.  We did still manage to ski just about every weekend this winter after New Year’s Day, but we almost never went to the place we had put in our schedule.  Despite the lack of snow in town for most of the winter, we could usually find somewhere to ski as long as we went far enough north in the Laurentians.  Here in town, we did get snowfalls in between the regular rain days.  So we did manage to ski the flat trails at Cap St Jacques on a few Saturdays.  But the timing of the rain days was such that we only managed to ski on a Wed evening at Mount Royal once this year, and that was on the very last day of Feb.  That was unprecedented, but this season has been all about freaky weather patterns.

But when you take into account all the hikes we did dating back to the early fall, we did manage to get out on at least 20 Sundays this year.  It is surprising to realize, but despite the erratic weather, we hardly missed a Sunday outing all season.  That’s the benefit of our adaptable approach to adjusting our destinations when necessary.  And we had some notable successes.  The Gatineau weekend in January was a hit again.  When the Hotel Val-des-Neiges closed down and we miss out on visiting Mont Ste Anne for the first time in over 12 years, we made a weekend trip to Mont Tremblant and had a great time.

So all in all, it was still a good year with lots of hiking and skiing!