With night skiing coming to a close in the region, a few friends and I decided to go night skiing one last time. We went to Sommet Edelweiss, as I had not been in 2 years, and always loved the Swiss Vibe, long runs, and fast chairlift of the hill. That Sunday night was set to be the last night of night skiing at the mountain. I initially was expecting a large crowd, due primarily because of it being a weekend, as well as it being the last day of night skiing. However, the fact the rain led to a last minute cancellation of the prior night’s night skiing, coupled with the warm and rainy weather in the Ottawa valley, led to the hill being almost eerily quiet.  The conditions were extremely slow and slushy. Snow coverage was pretty decent, with all trails off the Edelbahn Express lift open. The black trails were the only ones with some dirt patches. We started with skiing Streif, then Shotgun, two of the hill’s steepest black runs. While one side of Streif had excellent cove...

After what likely was the last powder dump of the season (10cms), we spontaneously decided on a quick 4 hour trip to Camp Fortune, before leaving on a little March break trip to the Laurentians the following day. For a Saturday, the resort was surprisingly quiet upon arrival. We booted up in the car, and immediately headed to my favourite area: Meech!  After 2 laps on Paradis, I decided to attempt Heggtveit on the Skyline side, though (as usual) my confidence plummeted upon the sight of its steep pitch. Despite the decent snow conditions, Hegg remained icy and mogully (it was -10 outside), and I decided to do a single black (Bud Clark to Canadian)  instead and delay my first attempt of the infamously steep double black run another season;).   After eating some lunch, I returned to Meech to ski the La Cache glades, knowing full well that it might be my last glade experience this season.   This was my first time in the Meech glades, and I...

After 20 centimeters of fresh powder fell upon us, some friends and I decided to spend an evening night skiing at Mount Pakenham. Though the temperature was -20, the phenomenal snow conditions made for some amazing glade skiing. Due to my friends' ability to push me out of my comfort zone, I began skiing gladed runs much more frequently, and am much less terrified of the idea of zooming through and around trees. My newfound confidence can honestly be attributed to the glades at this hill! Pakenham is an interesting mountain when compared to others in the region due to it designating all off-bounds terrain as "glades". Most of the 10 marked glades are unmaintained, making for some terrain not for the faint of heart. I had always considered Pakenham to be a "beginners" or "boring" mountain, and in many ways (groomed runs for example) it can be stated that it is not the most interesting. However, the amount and variety of gladed terrain at Mount Pakenham really su...

Over the Christmas break, we rented an Airbnb on the slopes of Calabogie Peaks, and enjoyed three days of skiing and exploring the Calabogie Region. I took my drone up the day we arrived, and captured some the following aerial photographs of the landscape.   For the 3 days we skied, the resort was relatively quiet, with no lines-possibly due to only two trails (one green and one blue) being open. Warmer temperatures and no snow unfortunately caused a slow start to the season in the Ottawa Valley. That being said, the snow coverage on the trails was deep, and snowmaking was in progress throughout the rest of the mountain.  The conditions were fairly decent for the three days, with the exception of the last being quite cold. Surprisingly, the artificial snow did not get as icy as I had thought it would, due to excellent grooming, low winds, and less traffic. Below are some photos from the three days.  We had an amazing time, and despite h...

Last week, Ski Mount Pakenham announced that they would be open on the weekend of the 4-5 of December. The cold nighttime temperatures allowed them to make enough snow to open up one intermediate trail (The Loop to Lower Exhibition), serviced by one quad chairlift (Mika). Their magic carpet and learning area was open as well. Below is a map of the resort with the open terrain highlighted in yellow. The tickets were priced at 34$, and provided access to the mountain from 9am-4pm. On the drive there, the snow started falling. 2-4cm had been forecasted. The conditions quickly deteriorated, with visibility being low.  When we finally arrived at the mountain half an hour late, the busy opening day we expected turned out to be a mere 15 cars in the parking lot! An idyllic setting, large clumps of snow were falling from the sky. The snowmaking appeared to have been successful, as the snow base was advertised to be over 30cm thick. From the chairlift, the open run was nearl...