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T360 Apres Ski Edit @ 10:00 P.M.

Can Versant Nord, North Side, “Duncan” Trail Match Opening Day’s Historic Quality Again Today?

Short Answer: YES!
An Absolutely Fantastic Effort On The Part Of Tremblant Mountain Crews!

What we have here(and very definitely worth repeating from the Orig. Post below), is...
a repeat of:

"Duncan’s Close to Immaculate, Seamlessly Smooth and Refined Quality that
would be worthy of the highest praise on any Mid-Winter day, let alone Opening Day 1."

What A Treat... it’s been to be on this superb, high performance Snow Surface
that as far as we’re concerned, has set new standards for initial quality.

The Drawback? It’s really KKKkkkkooool out there...

The Weather Rumour Out There Is That It Could Get Down To Minus 31C tonight.

Dress for it ‘cause the excellent Skiing is worth every effort to get out for!
Comparatively Speaking... The Sud, South got Wind-blasted. Consequently,
there were some Slick and icy substrates there.

Comparatively Speaking, the Nord, North was in the “Lee”, sheltered from the Direct
wind and bringing in HUGE benefits in Natural Snow Deposits durable quality.

More later, if we can... Oh, and it’s cold all the way down to Virginia, so we’re not alone...

------------------- 6:55 A.M. Orig. Post ---------------------

32(*) Open Trails on the Very Winter-Like, Freshly Snow’d On, Slopes Of #Tremblant.

12/15/16 Historic Opening Quality Over Duncan’s Entire Summit-To-Base Descent Path.

Anecdotally Speaking, we think it may be the Finest Duncan Opening Quality Ever.

Please Note: Mega-Zoom Action shot through Snow Fog= slightly phuzzy phokus...
The appearance of anything that look like small bits or chunks in the above
were merely very soft, dust-like concentrations of surface snow that fell apart
on contact, over a surface of remarkably fine Carving Performance that ran
the entire vertical descent of Duncan. A truly Amazing Start to this sector
Opening that was made all-the-more incredible, by the unexpected Opening of
Devils River, Banzai, and Marie-Claude Asselin, albeit “Au Natural” for the later 3.
Local Tremblant Fans in attendance could not believe their unexpected gifts
yesterday. Lift Conversations were dominated by the appreciation felt
by everyone for the extraordinary, and generous bounty of New Open Terrain
to explore as well as the totally surprising consistency of Duncan’s Close to
Immaculate, Seamlessly Smooth and Refined Quality that would be worthy of
the highest praise on any Mid-Winter day, let alone Opening Day 1.

(Please Note: Blowing, Swirling Snow into Camera Lens Unavoidable and
any appearance of lens smearing, soft focus, foggy ambience, or any other
forms of weather induced image distortions are problems we love to have
with so much airborne White Stuff around!)
In the Old Days of Distant, Decades Past Seasons, we dare say that there
would be whole seasons where that kind of Duncan Summit-To-Base Quality
never happened once.

A Most Impressive way to start, and in our opinion, a New Benchmark for
Initial Standards of Trail Surface Excellence.

Yesterday’s Duncan Opening is why you choose Tremblant for Optimal
Early Season’s Conditions. Period. It is also the reasons you choose
Tremblant for Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., because Today’s Base is the Foundation
for Tomorrow’s(figuratively speaking) Excellence as well.
On a practical note, the only drawback was the Pea-Soup Snow Fog at Summit
Levels that existed down to the Devils River Entrance. This vision restriction
required slow speed over the crest and down Duncan’s upper pitch, but the
soft, easily turned-on snow was simple to navigate until there was enough
forward vision to let your Carving Edges dig in and grip for what was to become
an almost endless progression of Razor Sharp, Carved Arch’s you could make
all the way down to the Base.... IF... you had the Muscle to do it.

In the Mean-Time, over on Versant Sud, the South Side, conditions there were
somewhat similar on the surface, but from there up, quite different due to having
to face into the wind that was very strong and very gusty. Garment Closures, Overlaps
and Seals were critical for comfort. If you had those fundamental things right,
no problem. Riding up the TGV was no problem with the wind at your back
and of course, riding up in the Gondola is always good no matter what’s going on
outside.

Race Designations on Taschereau, Alpine and Nansen Pitch were in place
which is typical for this time of season. We enjoy watching all the Race Teams
because their Technique is transferable to recreational Skiing and they
inspire us to refine our own skills.

Nansen Haut, Upper is only one example of the current level of Fine Learning
Terrain at Tremblant and we always enjoy it’s relaxed slope and superb surface
maintenance, ideally suited for Beginners and Intermediates, but enjoyed by
all skill levels for the reliability of it’s quality.
Weather Notes:

Cool And Windy, Bundle Up.

Temps rising from -18C to -16C. That’s the “Cool” part...

Winds West to Nor-West, so rising over the Summit from the Taschereau side,
moving toward Lowell Thomas. The use of the word “moving” may not come
close to the feeling in reality. Gusts could be quite strong and you should be
ready for that.

The bonus if you’re a Skier/Boarder is that Cold Exposed Snow is functionally
superior in speed, glide, edge set and braking, so the vast majority of your
control inputs are easy to initiate and complete with low surface resistance
and simultaneous great traction.


32(*) Open Trails on the Archival Copy of Official Open Trails,
Grooming, Snowmaking, Lift Status and Mountain Conditions
for December 15th, 2016, Courtesy of Tremblant.ca Every once-in-a-while, you get to take part in something you and your
Ski/Board friends know is literally Historic. The Duncan Trail Opening
yesterday was one of those Epic occurrences and if it’s any sign of how
this season is going to develop, then it’s hard to imagine the positive
potential of this Season’s future.

Of Course... Mother Nature may have other plans that Humans can not
yet anticipate, but that being said, all the current evidence and the virtually
universal consensus of Winter Weather Forecast Models from practically
every source for a Great, Snowy, Long and Steady Winter at Tremblant,
certainly indicate tremendously favourable odds for what we think could
be a “Super Season”, as we described in our 2016/17 Winter Forecast.


Links and not-so-fine print:

http://www.tremblant.ca

What’s The Use? Research Benefits of this Archive: http://tinyurl.com/gp5vjps

(*) 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 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.

There are approximately 6, 25 day Index pages per season.

( If you "Bookmark" the link above, it will always take you to the
First 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.)


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