Sat & Sun Mar 3-4 – Skiing Was Good at CSJ & PTdN
It may not feel like it to a lot of you, but we still likely have a few weeks of cross-country skiing ahead of us! It’s only early March and our last skiers standing often have their last outing in early April, usually on the P’tit Train du Nord (PTdN). Indeed, there was lots of good skiing to be had last weekend.
Yes, the temperatures on Sat and Sun were flirting with 0 C or a few degrees above. But that did not deter our hardy Beaver Tailers. On Sat at Cap St Jacques (CSJ), there were five BTers there to ski (plus me, nursing a cold and taking photos). It was +3 C at 10 am but the trails were otherwise fine. The green and yellow trails were freshly groomed and the skiers reported decent conditions.
For the Sun outing planned for Gai Luron, four of us opted in. But late on Sat evening, based on the conditions and weather forecast, we decided as a group to switch the destination to the PTdn at Mont Rolland (in Ste-Adèle). It was 0 C and snowing as the four of us readied our skies at 10 am. Sharon donned her waxless skis, while Mickey, Monique and I decided to go with our regular skis. We started out together.
Sharon soon fell a bit behind the other three of us. But the temperature was changing and getting good grip was difficult. We three soon stopped to put on more wax. Sharon sailed by us as we did. We continued skiing but long before we could ever catch Sharon, we had to stop to re-wax a couple of more times. We never did see Sharon again — she was just too fast for us! It must have been all the birthday cake she had for breakfast (yes, it was her birthday on Sun). Monique and I turned back, leaving Mickey to continue and chase down Sharon. I’m not sure if he ever caught her either.
These two outings showed there is still a good base of snow out there. The daily above freezing temps are eating away at it, but doing it slowly. And as we saw here in town on Sun afternoon, we sometimes still get some snow to freshen up the trails. So try to get out there at least once more this season!