The new unknown world of spring skiing

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Published on Thursday, 22 March 2012

Written by Shane

{ Edelweiss - March 23, 2012 }

What a week. Temperatures that were greatly above average for this time in March, resulting in many ski resorts pre-maturely ending their ski seasons.

While skiing is still going strong and is alive in many ski resorts, the weather has forced the operations staff everywhere to turn to some extreme measures.

Snow being moved from secondary ski trails, to help cover principal trails. Limiting trail grooming to after the temperature once again falls, will avoid further snow loss. The use of salt on the snow. Covering the snow with hay or other materials to slow the melt for upcoming events...

Even today, lift operations at Tremblant had to be temporarily stopped for safety due to lightning storms. While this is a common occurance in the summer, it is new territory for the spring month of March.

Seasonal temperatures should return over the coming days, but this comes a little too late for many. Already, all the ski resorts in the Ottawa/Gatineau region are closed. In the Eastern Townships, Mont Orford closed earlier this week, with Mont Sutton closing this weekend.

Mont Sainte-Anne and Mont Saint-Sauveur, historically the last to close, are holding strong and are targetting end of April and mid May respectively.

Despite not having seen any snow in the cities for several weeks now, there is still plenty of snow on the ski mountains, enough to enjoy your passion for quite some time longer. Don't forget some of the upcoming events, such as the RIDE SHAKEDOWN, the biggest snowboarding competition in North America, coming to Mont Saint-Sauveur in 1 weeks time (March 30-31).

Don't pack away your skis and snowboards just yet. The famous spring time festivities and ambiance have already begun. BBQ, open air terraces, lots of sunshine, shorts and more are classic moments, most wait for year long. Softer snow, that is more forgiving, giving you the opportunity to try new maneuveurs, you wouldn't otherwise dare in the regular season.

Don't let this past week's weather disuade you from enjoying the snow. The spring ambiance is not to be missed.