T360 Apres Ski Edit @ 10:30 P.M.
All those Visions of Tremblant you've had for weeks...
Came True Today.
- www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.
- 2.16.13.Tremblant.Summit.Visions.d.jpg (221.77 KiB) Viewed 2339 times
Got up at 4:00 A.M. and hit the road... On the Mountain @ 11:00 A.M.
and totally worth it...
Todays snow was not only abundant, but a long way better in quality
than we had hoped for....
We think we know why...
We think we have the reason...
Our Hypothesis is... Cryodesiccation .
Yesterday, the new snow was quite heavy with internal moisture
content that made it very fine "Snowball Snow". Easy to bunch up
and pack into a ball with the type of adhesive bonding that takes place
with wet snow.
Subsequent to that, the temps dropped quite rapidly overnight
and what we think happened is a natural form of cryodesiccation,
more commonly known as "Freeze Drying".
Todays snow, which was yesterdays snow is so much lighter, fluffier,
dryer, finer, and does not pack very well into snowballs nearly as well
as it did yesterday.
The amazing part is how much easier it is to Ski in! Smooth, fast
and without hardly a glitch. Yesterdays snow was thick and took a
lot of Muscle, not so today!
Once again, we think it got "Freeze Dried" overnight. Subjecting the
damp thick snow to an ideal combination of dropping temp's over
a short period of time seemed to cause it to lose all the sticky
adhesiveness of yesterday and by this morning, beautiful, Dust-light
snow.
If you've got a better understanding about how this transformation
from yesterdays "Damp" to todays "Light 'n Fluffy" came about...
let us know by Twitter or Facebook.
Do You have a better idea how this snow
became so light 'n dry overnight?
- 2.16.13.Gagnon.Adjacent.to.Lowell.Thomas.Triple.Base.g.jpg
- 2.16.13.Gagnon.Adjacent.to.Lowell.Thomas.Triple.Base.g.jpg (234.61 KiB) Viewed 2339 times
In the Mean-time, there were lots out on the Mountain today who
felt conditions were the best ever, or at least, in a long, long time,
within the scope of their annual visits to Tremblant.
As usual, the views were Tremblant Signature Sunny Day Perfect!
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Lowell Thomas Trail Side Nature Study...
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-------------- 7:59 A.M. Orig. Post -----------------
89(*) Open Trails on the Nippy, Kool and....
Very Snowy Slopes of Tremblant!
Kool.... because it's - 19C ...But....
under brilliant sunshine, with so-far, not a cloud in sight...
Projected daytime high temp @ -8 C.
Snowy... because of this.....
- www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.
- 2.15.13.Duncan.Quad.Over.Les.Rapides.Last.Run.d.jpg (356.73 KiB) Viewed 2549 times
Take a close look at the tracks under the lift, particularly on the
trail sides.
This is all the explanation you really need about Snow Conditions
at Tremblant today.
Above: Last Run, riding up the Duncan Quad over Les Rapides,
parallel to the lower plateau on Expo which is just off to the right of this
pic. It snowed like this for very close to 24 hours and there were
drifted powder lines of up to 30 - 35 CM's, that's about 14 inches or so
on the sheltered sides of some North Side trails like P'tit Bonheur!
The Official Snow Report says 5 CM, 2 inches of Fresh Snow, but we think
that is incorrect. With all due respect for the Stat's, there was more than
that coming down every hour on some Versant Nord, North Side sectors.
The fallen snow is fairly thick and it's not easy for beginners or intermediates,
so it will be interesting to see what Mountain Crews have been able to groom
overnight.
To ski or board the un-groomed definitely takes expert skills, and...
muscle.
- www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.
- 2.15.13.P'tit.Bonheur.Trail.Side.Drifting.e.jpg (210.96 KiB) Viewed 2515 times
Above: More Summit/North Last Run detail... The "Fill In" rate over here
was between 3 to 5 cm's per hour for the last couple of hours anyway,
and by last run, it was virtually untracked fresh the whole way down
as the Skier/Board traffic seemed to disappear shortly after 2:00 P.M.
As soon as you got away from the wind exposed areas into almost any
sheltered spot, you could see the effects of drift settling more dramatically.
This Trail side pic below, is less than 100 metres in a straight line from the
one above, but with far less wind, a much more retained drifting depth.
Comparing the snow depth to the heel bindings in these two pic.s shows about
6 inches more accumulation in the one below.
- www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.
- 2.15.13.North.Summit.Trail.Side.No.72.d.jpg (279.6 KiB) Viewed 2515 times
So, that was yesterday, the main reason today will be so potentially great.
Here is a file shot from a week ago on a similarly sunny day as today is.
The one difference is going to be the amount of visible snow in the trees.
You'll just have to wait for today's Apres Ski to see that!
- www.tremblant360.com photo. All rights reserved.
- 2.5.13.Summit.Gondola.Views.f.jpg (376.39 KiB) Viewed 2495 times
Off to the Mountain to gather all the "Evidence" ... see 'ya later ?!?!?!
More later, pg under construct, if you're a local... toss the computer
aside right this second and head for the Mountain!
89(*) 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 2013-02-16 at 8.24.56 AM.jpg (241.47 KiB) Viewed 2549 times
Conditions immediately following heavy snowfall can be challenging.
There will be lots of great terrain for all skill levels, but it may take a day
or so for Mountain Crews to catch up a bit.
Take it easy, focus on good basic technique with a low, compact stance.
Maintain complete control of speed at all times.
Links and not-so-fine print:
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.
There are approximately 6, 25 day Index pages per season.
(
If you "Bookmark" the link above, it will always take you to theFirst 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.)
.