3/13/12 Tremblant Conditions

T360 · Post by **T360** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:48 am

Prime Time Apres Ski @ 8:30 P.M.
Posted Below in Reply....
-----------------------------------------------

Mid Morning Update... @10:45 A.M.

Sky is definitely brightening and stopped raining for a while
now, adjacent to South, Resort Base.

Might get up to +10 C while "Cloudy"

It probably won't get this bright, but we'll go
to the North Park for pic's at some point.
This is one we found sorting through more of
yesterday's North Park Tricks that looks dynamic...

: www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.; 3.12.12.North.Park.Rope.Tow.a.jpg (275.2 KiB) Viewed 2713 times

More later....

------------------ 6:48 A.M. Orig. Post -----------------

87(*) Open Trails On 3 Sides Of Tremblant
As The Edge Is Off-Line Due To Rain.

We were hoping that the Weather Forecasters might be wrong
this morning. There's always a chance that overnight lows and
higher elevation coolness can actually create Snow as it often does
at these close to freezing tipping points, but evidently, that is not
the case today.

So Then, Here Is All You Need To Know About....
How To Have Fun Today Anyway....
The Brilliantly Simple, Totally Effective, Descente' Poncho.
We use our's all year 'round, camping, hiking, whatever...

: www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.; 3.13.12.PB.38.Dscente.Poncho.Dry.Comfy.Fun.jpg (229.13 KiB) Viewed 2746 times

(you can find these for a wee bit over a 100 bucks at numerous places around
the Resort, including the Summit Gift Shop.)

If you were one of the chosen few last Thursday who were here with
us, you will know exactly what we mean. Rain or not, it was Fast, Fun,
Smooth and Sweet, IF....(Very Big "IF") ... you were prepared.

If you have the above pictured item of Essential Skiers Kit,
You can do this....

: www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.; 3.13.12.PB.38.Descente.Fun.Dry.Comfy.Fast.jpg (285.54 KiB) Viewed 2745 times

Sorry for the grainy image, but it was a telephoto through fog. One
other thing too, you can see the Skier has the hood down. That was because
while foggy and damp, it was not raining in this location, at this moment.
As a matter of fact, it rarely rains over the complete Mountain, and this complete
run Fuddle Duddle, as well as the entire Expo Sector was only foggy at this time.
Rain around Tremblant tends to be in pockets, so it's quite possible that if you've
found a Sweet Spot for surface conditions and it just happens to be outside the
localized pockets of rain, that you can have many consecutive runs without the rain.

Otherwise, where it is raining, the worst that happens is you might get wet knee
caps... not a big deal...

Why Skiing In The Rain Can Be Quite Fast...

First, the last 70, 80 days or so, up until the last week, has had night-time
lows of mid-minus 20's C. That's a lot of cold that has put the frost very deep
into the Mountain and it takes weeks and weeks to come out, so the surface is
much colder than the ambient air temperature.

Secondly, the rain hits this cold layer and may freeze or congeal the top layer
into what Skiers have called for decades, "Corn Snow", particles about the size
of a kernel of corn.

If it's course enough, that wicks off the suction causing surface water, essentially
leaving you with billions and billions of tiny tiny "ball bearings" underfoot, or Ski,
as the case may be.

So then, Billions and Billions of tiny Ball Bearings and a
whole lot of Gravity on Steep Slopes can equal "Fast"!!!

You will always be able to find sectors of this at Tremblant on a day like today...
Always....

You might have to hunt for them a bit, but they will be there by the Acre.

87(*) Open Trails on the Official, Downloadable,
PDF, Trail and Grooming Status report,
Courtesy of Tremblant.ca

: Screenshot of the Official, Downloadable,
PDF, Trail and Grooming Status report,
Courtesy of Tremblant.ca; Screen Shot 2012-03-13 at 8.57.05 AM.png (225.41 KiB) Viewed 2743 times

Since 2008 when we began to diarize Winter Alpine Tremblant
Conditions in these forums, we have repeatedly written that we
have had some of the most fun Ski days ever... in the rain.
That's not just recent either... it goes back decades.

If 99% said... "You Are Crazy", we would not care a single bit.

Those are the "Fair Weather" only participants, and they are
least likely to make the small preparations necessary to adapt
and have fun anyway.

For those that know how to prepare and what to do, we will see
you out there, we will have great Skiing, and we'll probably have
the Mountain to ourselves.

Links:

http://www.tremblant.ca

http://www.tremblant.ca/mountain/winter ... port-e.htm

(*)

Understanding Trail Counts - http://alturl.com/n54py

http://www.tremblant.ca/mountain/trailmap-e.htm

http://www.tremblant.ca/galleries/webcams/index-e.htm

http://translate.google.com/translate_t ... =fr&tl=en#

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/CAQC0360

Forum Index: http://alturl.com/r4cco

Bring Back The Memories...

Research Future Visits...
If you would like to look up dates you visited Tremblant, or you
want to research days/weeks/months to visit, you can sample what
they look like historically, month by month, year by year.

GoTo: Archive, Search Reports by Date: Index: http://tinyurl.com/yktelmu

When reviewing dates from any of the past, numbered, archived index pages,
you can use the "Previous Topic" or "Next Topic" buttons, located
screen far right, in upper date/message bar to scroll through sequential
dates, or use your browsers "back" button to stay on the selected index
page for non-sequential date reviews in either forward or reverse order.

(

If You "Bookmark" the link above, it will always take you to the
index page with the latest posts. That gives you an immediate, current to
25 day past, review scroll of Winter Alpine Conditions by consecutive date.)

.

T360 · Post by **T360** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:17 pm

T360 Prime Time Apres Ski...

That was interesting...

To begin with, the "Fast" forecast we made was reasonably accurate.

In perspective, it was a lot faster than yesterday on a general level.
There were very few "sticky" sectors and they were all vastly reduced
in speed impact, so basically ripping around was no problem.
It was not as fast as the "squeaky cold snow of February", but then
again it wasn't - 25 C either, and at +4 C, South side, and we'd estimate
+ 1 or 2 C at the Summit, just barely enough to be above the freezing mark,
the temps were very easy too.

On the other hand the Summit and a good portion of the South and almost all
of Soleil were covered in Cloud... Not fog... thick, dense moist cloud.

It was so thick....

It was almost useless to take pic's., but the surface condition held out very well.
Toboggan was pea soup right to the last short pitch, so thick that it was
unsafe to proceed at speed the snow could/would be good for. You had to
go very slowly to avoid hitting someone who was in no way visible until
20 feet or about 6 meters away.You can not safely stop or steer on high
speed snow with only 6 meters of vision. The Moisture/mist in the cloud
was definitely effecting goggle performance, we ditched our goggles for
our bright yellow lens safety glasses and that was huge improvement in
depth perception, surface contours and contrast, but even then speed in the
cloud was not safe.

So we immediately returned to the North were below the Summit, there was
vastly better vision, sometimes even clear for most of a Summit to North Base
run. We ripped up the North quite happily and the speed, traction and glide were
all excellent, all weather things considered.

All in all, it was the very best of Lapping Day exercise on the North, and at one point,
we think we got 8 runs of the Expo Quad in an hour. That's moving right along and it was
totally safe, there were very few around and the vision was adequate for speed potential.

As usual, P'tit Bonheur/Beauchemin were the finest of fine. Super solid traction
and fast snow was a high speed carving delight with no one in sight. 12 minute laps
were doable Off Duncan.

Had to burn this telephoto with maxed highlights to show surface detail.
Telephoto's don't respond well to fog/cloud, but we were probably 150 feet away,
so plenty of skiing safe vision room.

Poncho use advocated above was optional, there were many with and most without,
but without, you got "damp" quickly and stayed that way.

There are surface bare spots and rocks beginning to show on some of the crests of un-groomed
runs, there are some thin spots too, even on the odd groomed run, but with safe speed on initial
exploration, easily avoidable.

The brightness kept on getting better and by last run we'd even seen some "rays" poking
through in the odd spot.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but if it's as good as today, it will absolutely
be worth it to get out if you can. There are wild card factors though, so you'll have to be
ready for anything and Warm range wax should be applied to bases.

We'll try for more detail later, if possible, but the above is "it" in a summary.

.

3/13/12 Tremblant Conditions

3/13/12 Tremblant Conditions

Re: 3/13/12 Tremblant Conditions