It was a tough call for where to go last Sun. We had planned to finally make our first club visit to Gai Luron. But El Nino was acting up again. The forecast (for both St Jerome and Montreal) called for a warm front to roll in on Sun morning, bringing with it a sharp rise in the temperature to well above freezing (+5 C). Based on the hourly temperature forecast, we decided Sat evening to change the venue to Cap St Jacques (CSJ). We figured we could get an earlier start (9 am instead of 9:30 am) to get cooler temps. If things warmed up too fast and the conditions deteriorated, at least we would not have travelled as far nor spent $18 on a trail ticket!
When we arrived at CSJ on Sun shortly before 9 am, we were surprised to find that the temperature was -4 C instead of the expected -1 or 0 C. D’oh! Conditions up north at Gai Luron were probably excellent. But we were at CSJ and it was too late to go anywhere else.
There were 16 of us at CSJ — 15 of on skis and 1 on snowshoes. We got our gear ready to go, took the obligatory group photo, and set out. As usual, we all started out on the same first section of trail. The trail conditions were quite good. The people with wax skis had a clear advantage over some of the others who were on their waxless skis. But it was great skiing (and snowshoeing) for all. Most of the skiers went around on the 10-km red rabbit trail.
About an hour later at the end of the trail (by the road close to the chalet d’accueil), a bunch of us regrouped as skiers (and our lone snowshoer) emerged one-by-one from the woods. As predicted, the temperature had risen quickly. At 10 am it was already 0 C. Some of us opted to do an extra 3-km loop. It continued to warm up and it became clear that the skiers on waxless skis were now having an easier time of it! It was about +4 C at 10:45 am when most of us had finished. The temperature being reported for St Jerome was just as warm, so it would have been difficult skiing up north also.
It was disappointing to miss out on Gai Luron, but at least a good crowd still managed to get in a good ski outing at CSJ! Here’s hoping that this week’s warm and rainy weather is followed by enough snow to get the trails back in decent shape soon.