3/23/12 Tremblant Conditions

T360 · Post by **T360** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:43 am

Middle Of The Night Shift Apres Ski, Below In Reply...

----------- 8:43 A.M. Orig. Post ------------------

29(*) Open Trails on the very Sunny with
no Lightning, South and North Sides of Tremblant.

No Lightning, No Clouds, just pure undiluted Sun...

Headline in The Weather Network's lead article about
the phenomenal Heat Wave that has blanketed Eastern
North America for the past week.

"It's been a week of record-breaking
temperatures in Canada."

No Kidding, eh????

Of course The Weather Network, as a Canadian entity is focusing
on this country, but it follows equally that the entire New England and
even the entire Eastern Seaboard are effected the same way, so the
headline applies internationally, and in the "Big Picture" should/could be
restated to say so.

Not much comfort there for regional Ski Resorts, but at least
at Tremblant we can still actually go Skiing, Boarding, so we
need to kick ourselves in the butt and remind ourselves that...

Things could be worse! ....(as in "Closed")
However, we can, and will....
Go Skiing at Tremblant today!

We're re-running this Tremblant Fan Photo from
day before yesterday as a reminder...

: 3.20.12.Summit.Snow.Sun.Miller.Photo.jpg (250.27 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

Reduced as it may be, it is only Tremblant's tremendous advantage
to have had as much snow, and as much frost(previously and throughout
this otherwise fantastic season), as it would take to keep ANY trails open,
let alone todays Official Open Trail Count.

We're hoping to make a "Special Presentation" Apres Ski
Photo essay this evening, so we hope for a couple of things
at least...

1) To find the best lines/surfaces on the "Open" terrain.
2) That later today you'll visit again to see how it all goes.

The Tremblant360 "Glass Half Full", "Extremely Spring" Skiing Motto...

"If there's a strip of Snow, and a way to get to the top of it...
We'll Ski It!"

Conditions today include a forecasted daytime high temp of +13 C
which has followed an overnight South Resort Base Level of +2 C.
It is possible that the Summit was below zero during the night
and if so, it will have allowed surfaces to firm up up somewhat,
so from the top down, there maybe variable amounts of moisture
concentration.

Vitally important that your Ski/Board Bases are coated for "Warm"
surface temp range.

We're experimenting with an American made Teflon Fluro-Polymer Hydrophobic
Water Repelling Base treatment today... We'll let you know how that works too.

Safety and Natural Hazard Caveat In Effect.

Be careful, rapidly changing surface characteristics are inevitable
in this environment. Use your head before ripping around, particularly
when Mountain Traffic is confined to terrain that has to be shared
by all skill levels and/or with surfaces that can change by the hour.

29(*) 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 2012-03-23 at 9.52.06 AM.png (214.77 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

Though the list be small,
We're glad to be "Open" at all,
For things could be worse,
And with "closure" be we cursed,
But Tremblant survives
So with skis we'll arrive,
And "Thankful" we'll be
We can still Board and/or Ski.

Lame poetry, maybe, but....
Thankful sentiment... 100% genuine.

Thanks Tremblant, for all the hard work
in the face of absolutely overwhelming odds.

Let's go Skiing and see what it looks like...

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 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
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.)
.

T360 · Post by **T360** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:45 pm

T360 Apres Ski...

Soft, and close to both the consistency and the temp of Hot Mashed Potatoes.

You can not expose snow to plus 20's Celsius and rain, with or without lightning,
for a week without substantial loss, and that, Dear Readers, is what we have.
Depending on your perspective, you may see it as what we don't have, as in snow
and you would be quite right. Unfortunately, our pristine surfaces of a week ago
have been Assaulted, Slapped, Drenched, Micro-Waved, and then Toasted by the Sun.

Regionally Speaking:

The unexpected intensity of this mid-March "Heat Wave" has jeopardized
every single Ski/Board area in Eastern North America and many of them
at lower elevations, and lower latitudes have had to close. There are going
to be Hundreds of Thousands of Skiers and Boarders that may have booked
late March "Spring" Ski Vacations for now, up to a year ago, and both
those individuals and the Ski Area Operators are going to be struggling
to realize their plans and commitments.

Locally Speaking:

The result of the hot weather is the reduction of Open Trails from the 80-90
Open Trail range a couple weeks ago, to 28 for tomorrow. That 28 can be boiled
down to a handful descents that are combinations of the total, and we can tell
you this much, we're lucky to have that.

Members of the T360 team were on both South and North sides today,
but an Apres Ski discussion between us concluded that the best surfaces
and the least congested terrain are those of the open North Trails.

Even there, the wide open carving environment we had a week or so ago,
has been not only cut in half, but now largely taken over by the short, sharp
type of moguls that occur so very quickly whenever surfaces are this extraordinarily soft.

P'tit Bonheur is a bit thick on the first pitch, but wonderfully flat from there
down and reliable from Top to Bottom.

: www.tremblant360.com Photo. All rights reserved.; 3.23.12.P'tit.Bonheur.a.jpg (410.81 KiB) Viewed 3336 times

P'tit Bonheur to Beauchemin and down is the best remaining carving terrain.
It also has the best "Wall to Wall" coverage. Virtually everything else is, as
experienced Skiers will confirm, "Cut Up" and has no room for safe carving
at speed due to highly irregular widths and Natural Hazards that are randomly
appearing practically everywhere.

Below:
Sissy Schuss, another reliable North Side trail, is a good example of how just
how "cut up" or "Washed Off" things can be. A week ago, it was perfect.

What we are looking at here is the upper mid-section which is now
off-line. The boundary ropes shown here in front, direct us over to the
mid-section of Gagnon, from which point we can turn hard right onto
the "Side Door" entrance, taking us back onto the next section of
Sissy Schuss. If you know what you're looking at, you can see that
side door entrance where it comes back into Sissy Schuss proper,
as the farthest distance snow surface in this pic. below.

Technically speaking then, we've got a "Detour" in Sissy Schuss.

This is an excellent example of how short connector runs allow
Mountain Crews to utilize stable portions of runs to link up around
unstable or weather sensitive portions, thereby keeping the whole
run on the "Open" list.

Below:
Looking back up towards the top of the Expo Quad, you can see how
mogul'd up this normally "Flat and Smooth as a Billiard Table" portion
of Sissy Schuss is.

These thick saturated conditions are not for everyone. They are not "easy",
so beginners may find them difficult to navigate, and anyone with too much
speed may find themselves air-borne, launched into orbit by sharply ramped
moguls. Time for one and all to be very cautious.

We would not expect to see these kinds of scenes for weeks
from now, but here they are today thanks to a lot of heat, rain and
warm winds that have reduced access to much of the terrain to "Tracks".

Below:
Much of what we have, particularly in the way of links or
transit zones, can be owed to by this type of "Snow Harvesting"
we can see here on Upper Nansen, where snow has been taken from
one area and moved to the adjacent terrain in order to maintain
a path and/or repair wear zones.

It is not an easy time for anyone who was expecting to have a "Normal"
Spring transition.

You can still Ski or Board at Tremblant, though reduced in both scope
and condition, so for all those that are compelled to "Make The Best Of It",
patience, careful navigation and Ski/Board Base Waxing/Coating for "warm"
or "wet", are elements of coping that are essential for any functional utility.

While we always try to look at conditions positively, there is no doubt
that what we have now is not ideal. Unfortunately, this disappointment
is something we will experience not only here, but will be shared by
all Skiers/Boarders in the entire North Eastern Region of the continent
with this hugely premature, heat induced loss of Snow and Alpine terrain
everywhere.

Future Tremblant historians looking at this date please note:

The heat experience of the spring of 2012 is a statistical anomaly.

It is very unusual and should not be considered typical of this
time period of the season. While it is not uncommon to see daytime
highs above freezing, what has been uncommon this season are the
over-night "plus" temps.

The more typical temp cycles feature sub-zero over-nights which
stabilize conditions every day, for a much lower net snow loss.

.

3/23/12 Tremblant Conditions

3/23/12 Tremblant Conditions

Re: 3/23/12 Tremblant Conditions