Tremblant360.com's Forums

.

Apres Ski Update...

Wow, what a day! Nothing like a little "Drama" to end things early....

On top of all the new terrain opening up today, sadly, there was a
wee fire in the Duncan Quad Chair's summit control room.
The lift is not operational for the season yet, so there was no one
on duty. Fortunately no injuries, but unfortunately, the entire structure
was lost.

Scroll down to "Replies" for a pic and other news.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9:30 Update: Gondola Loading, Mountain Open!
Day 2 starts now!

6 runs open, with more under construction and soon to be on line.
Todays selection includes 2 South Side runs, Alpine and Nansen and
the TGV Quad Chair is open now too!

Daytime temps will be in the range of -1 to -4 or so, and the wind is moderate
at around 15km from the west. Riding up the newly opened TGV, you should
have the wind at your back. You may feel the wind a bit as you crest the top
of the Lowell Thomas Triple chair, but it will be very brief. There is a mix of
sun and cloud. All in all, an "easy" early season day.

Working with "Mother Nature" takes patience and skill. At the beginning
of every season there is a transition from fall to winter conditions that can mean
occasions where there is a "back and forth" between weather factors.

So far this morning, it's been one of those days, but now that the Mountain
is back on line it's time to get out and enjoy what we have.

Considering the short period of time the Mountain Crews have had to work with,
we've got very good conditions and there's a lot more open terrain on the way.

The anticipation and enthusiasm that skiers and boarders have built up
in the off-season and the days leading up to opening day at Tremblant, need
to be met with an equal measure of patience and adaptability to take advantage
of the variations that exist in early season conditions.

Another aspect of early season conditions is the existence of natural hazards
that may be encountered before things get totally buried under full winter snow.

Be careful to verify the conditions before you go ripping around. There are the odd
twigs, lumps and bumps that you need to navigate and it's best to use a bit of
care and caution because even though the Mountain Crews and the Ski Patrol
have done their best to mark everything, there can be surface glitches that can
occur before Mountain staff know about them.

Here's a sample pic of the Park features they have installed at the top of Alpine.

Copy of todays Grooming and Trail Status file.
This excellent document is a downloadable pdf file and we
have included it in our daily reports for a year now because
we feel it is the best way to summarize trail status "du jour". Links:

http://www.tremblant.ca

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

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(original post, prior to lift operations starting this morning)

The Official Tremblant.ca Snow Report states that there is a "Progressive
Opening" this morning, which means things may be either on "hold", or
delayed due to some freezing rain that should have been snow.

The lifts are scheduled to open at 8:30 though, so it will only be a couple
of minutes until we know what's going on.

Here in St.Jovite, the rain turned into snow quite a while ago and now we
have 4 or 5 cm on the deck rails, so hopefully that has happened on the Mountain
too...

8:40 now and opening still delayed, but we do expect this to clear shortly...

Not too long after the lunch hour, a fire started in the Duncan Quad Chair's
summit control hut.

The lift is not yet operational for the season, so there was no one on duty.

It quickly engulfed the whole structure before any effort to put it out could be
made, so the building was lost. No one was hurt and the fire remains under
investigation.

As a safety precaution, the Mountain was evacuated and up-loading from the
Gondola stopped.
On the bright side, it was snowing at a fair clip for a lot of the day. There were
areas that looked to have built up 5 cm's or so. Any new snow will be a welcome
addition and will help accelerate new terrain opening, so we hope it keeps up.

The early closing due to the fire and evacuation did not dampen the spirits
of many of the kids here today, so the bottom of the South Side on Johannsen,
right in front of the Resort, was crowded with youngsters climbing the portion
that has blown snow on it and then sliding, riding and doing tricks on the 300 or
so feet of snow surface there.

The staff at the Gondola base, who were now busy doing maintenance in the
loading zone didn't seem to think that there would be any delays in tomorrows
opening. Once again, with no top to bottom access on the North Side, therefore
no need for Duncan, we would think that is right, so subject to unknown factors
that we are not aware of, we too feel there will be no impact on tomorrows
Ski/Board alpine operations.

Lets take a look at what's being worked on...

We can expect the Mountain crews to be able to build up quite a few runs within
the next 2 weeks. Depending on just exactly what Mother Nature decides to give
us in the way of natural snow, the total amount of additional terrain may vary.
The long term weather forecasts are predicting well below sub-zero nights and
most days, so at the very least, the snowmaking environment is a good one.

Here are some samples of trails they are working on.

Upper Beauchemin has quite a number of snow makers on it,
but this shot features a new stationary Snow Gun, right below the summit
that in this case is pointing over the entrance. If this gun was swung around 180 degrees,
it could be used to fill in La Crete on the way to Beauvallon/Alpine.

Here's a good shot of the work being done on La Traverse, North Side
as it descends from Lowell Thomas to Beauchemin. You can see they've got
a lot of Snow Guns concentrated in this area. One of the benefits of working
on this side of the Mountain now is that it is well in the shade for most of the
day with the Nov/Dec sun so low in the sky. Snow making done in these
areas is quite durable as it is exposed to only a fraction of the suns thermal
energy that the South Side gets.






.

.
Big Big work is going on on Rope Tow/Lowell Thomas, which all
the North Side Park People will be thrilled to hear. This pic shows
a good sample of the accumulations at the first crest of Rope Tow
below the summit.



We're looking forward to getting on the Mountain tomorrow, it was snowing fairly heavily
when we left this afternoon, maybe the summit got dumped on... time will tell.

If you are in Montreal, Ottawa or anywhere else regionally, Tremblant's definitely
worth getting out for. We'll bet there's more than enough here to get your legs
pumped!



.