Number of trails and what constitutes a trail - at Edelweiss and elsewhere

[Shane]

Here's my little fun rant for today...

Watching CTV Ottawa 6pm news, and JJ Clark is doing the weather and mentioning the ski conditions.

Edelweiss 17 runs open.....

17 runs? I remember a day when Edelweiss had over 30 runs (35-40 if I recall correctly). But looking at the trail map and knowing the mountain, there's really only 6-7 top to bottom runs at most.

From left to right (and with the names they should be called from top to bottom)

1. Chemin des Bois
2. Easy Street
3. Yodeler (Snoprk)
4. Zoomer
5. Easter Bowl / Descente Telesiege
6. Strief / Olympic
7. Shotgun

I never understood the need to have to consider every opportunity for counting it as a trail when it would pass behind a couple trees.... Zoomer Cut, Yodeler Cut, BR1, BR2, BR3, Last Chance, Strief Cut..... oh and don't forget Gulch and Sortie.  

Here's the 1991 map

And the 2016 map

Yup the trails on the right side of the 1991 map never came to be, and the bottom of that area is now the snowtubing park. Tommy Pic is still there but no longer recognized as a trail, as it is natural snow and never enough to open safely.

On the 2016 map, yes the upper left portion does have several trails but they are of very short length and really add nothing, more just extensions of the two first trails.

What are your thoughts? 

[Paul]

There was a time that Glen Mountain had 20 some trails back in the day. They did have some new trails added that were legit and accounted for as a trail, and then all of a sudden these connector trails that didn't have names before, got names and then there were 32 I think before Glen closed. Same with Owl's Head. When I was working there from 1989-2001 there were 26 named trails on the map, now there's 52(?) trails. Yes there was 1 new trail, the Couloir that was cut out and there are new glades but not really enough to account for 52. Ah but yes! The connector trails. They received names too. Some connector trails are barely long enough to be considered a trail. Is there some regulation somewhere that connector trails as short as some are, are required to be named or numbered? It's weird to see the trail counts rise all of a sudden when there weren't any new trails actually cut. There was a trend a few years back where a lot of areas "expanded" their trail counts, but via the connector trail. Gotta love those connector trails!

[Guest Ocean]

Shoutout to Shane for posting this ol skool map! I had been skiing at Camp Fortune in recent years but now that I'm in Mtl i got a Sommets pass so I ski at Edelweiss when visiting Ottawa. in 91-94 we referred to Tommy Pic as DNF or DOA being it was super steep (and I think for a time it was called DNF officially on the map but I could be misremembering). When I visited this past week I wondered what became of it, as the outline of it is still there. I do recall on one of my last visits to Edelweiss in 2011 or so, Shotgun even looked in sad condition with not very much base. Is it because of the consistent lack of base they eventually let Tommy Pic grow over? The tubing park is cute and all but back in the 90s Edelweiss was where I preferred to go for challenging runs (which seem pretty hard to find in the Gatineaus!). Strief still gives me butterflies...

[Gordo]

Yeah "Tommy Pic" can still be seen next to Shotgun but its starting to be overgrown with young fir trees. They may have given up on it because it was to steep to groom/make snow on. I'm sure on a killer snow year you could still give it a try.  Really its to bad as a lot of these smaller hills need as many "double blacks" as they can get to keep more experienced skiers from leaving for bigger resorts.

[Guest Guest]

The race kids sometimes go during full season on the Dnf using sled skis. It takes them 30 mins to come back as there are so many trees. They love it 

[Tommy Pic]

Went last weekend and skied Tommy Pic aka DOA aka DNF! Had to navigate all the shrub, rocks and trees but made it all the way from top to bottom. It was EPIC! Here are some pics!!!

[Gordo]

@Tommy Pic Nice! they should really reopen that trail.

[Tommy Pic]

Agreed 100%

[Ocean]

haha wow, old skool! Are rock skis recommended for that run?!

[Tommy Pic]

I knew it would be rough so I just used an old pair of skis from the 90’s. Didn’t mash them up very much at all surprisingly!

[Ocean]

haha good one. I still have my skis from the 90s but even back then I did not do so well with them on DNF lol

[Tommy Pic]

Probably because...Back when DNF was open it was always pure ice unless a snowfall occurred that day or the previous day. They also only had it open for about 30% of the ski season on average as it was too steep to get a proper base.  When I skied it a couple weeks ago it was perfect because we have had so much snowfall this year it just felt like I was skiing another ungroomed powder trail in the Rockies.

[Ocean]

@Tommy Pic awesome! 

And yeah, I maybe got taken down DNF once with a hotshot ski instructor back in the day, but I remember more we would do Shotgun and get to that one super steep pitch and it would be sheet ice. I remember just edging down the edge of the trail. Although there were at least a few times I did it on my own. Last time would have been 8th grade so maybe 1991? I actually have not been on Shotgun in the recent years I've been back to Edelweiss because it's closed at night. I'm wondering if I'd still be freaked out by the pitch, I find even Streif is slightly terrifying on that one section lol.

[Tommy Pic]

Shotgun has been phenomenal this year. About a month ago it was covered with some sick moguls!!!