ski and travel blog

Today was a typical Quebec ski day; -20C, a haze of clouds, and a thick frost on your windshield.

We were on snow at Le Massif by 9:00am with our new course conductor, Emerson Brooks.  Originally from Montreal, Emerson moved to Lake Louise 18 years ago.  He is your typical west coast skier, extremely relaxed and fluid, but his performance in this relaxed mode is matched by few. 

For the past four days he has been skiing in short bursts, usually about 100ft of vertical at a time.  What he didn’t realize was how energized our group was.

[Read more →]

What an awesome day on snow.

We woke up this morning to a couple of light flurries and grey skies.  With the unfortunate injury of course conductor, Donald LaCasse, we wondered who would fill his boots.  Our whole group secretly wished that it would be J.F. Beaulieu and our wish came true. 

Today was one of the best instructional days we’ve ever had.  Not only was it great individual ski improvement, but his instruction was also about how to teach a great lesson.

[Read more →]

None of us were looking forward to day three.

It wasn’t the fact that we were going to spend the majority of our day skiing moguls (we liked that part), it was the fact the forecast was calling for pouring rain and 8 degrees.

The temperature did get a bit warmer – but it stayed below zero which resulted in 15 lovely cm of snow instead of 15 cm of pouring rain. What was looking like a miserable day turned out to be another epic day on snow.

[Read more →]

 Day two at Mont Sainte Anne was much like the first – sunny with fantastic snow.

The focus of our day was short radius on the steeps while working on our own teaching methods. Looking to incorporate the new IACRCv development model which is very student / athlete focused, we worked on refining each other’s techniques through tactics and two-way feedback.

One of the themes of the day was keeping things simple. As Instructors we have a lot of technical knowledge and often talk too much and keep things too complex. It’s like telling somebody with the sniffles that that have an upper respiratory infection instead of just saying they have a cold.  Next time you are going up the chairlift, make note of who are the slowest skiers on the hill… it’s usually the instructors.

By keeping the feedback simple and specific you’ll spend more time skiing and less time talking. The last time I checked, you get better at skiing by skiing

We spent the last few runs in the moguls again today as a warm-up to day three where we’ll be spending our entire day in them.

We can hardly wait!

Sasha & I are in Mont Sainte Anne this week taking our level 4 Instructors course. Located about 8 hours north-east of Toronto or about 3 hours north of Montreal, Ste Anne is a great proving ground for instructors looking to achieve skiing’s equivalent of a kung fu black belt – the level 4.

We spent our first day working on ski improvement and skiing mostly on the front side (or the steep side) of the mountain. With over 2 feet of fresh snow on the ground from the last 24hrs, the conditions were fantastic.

[Read more →]

This season marked the opening of Revelstoke in British Columbia – one of six new ski & riding projects in British Columbia.

On the edge of the Selkirk Range, Revelstoke will be offering over 6,000 feet of vertical which is the longest in North America.  With light snow, huge vertical, and massive amounts of acres to explore, we’re putting Revelstoke at the top of our list for this spring. We have a friend working at the mountain and hope to bring you an insiders view of the mountain soon.

[Read more →]

Did you know that you can actually set your edges so it makes it easier to ski?

If you change the bevel of your ski (the angle at which they are set to the snow), you can affect how quickly or slowly your ski will initiate and hold a turn.

What’s a Bevel?

[Read more →]

Before I get into the technical side of tuning your own skis, I thought I would talk about how frequently you should tune your skis. 

Not only does tuning your skis frequently increase the life of yours skis, but it will also make you a better skier.

But what do I mean by frequently? 

Some of my ski friends tune their skis everyday and others once a year, but personally, and this is my general practice; I think you should tune your skis every three full ski days.  For example, if you ski about two hours every time you ski you can get away with tuning them every six days.

Why does it make you a better skier? 

[Read more →]

This past weekend marked the end of the January thaw on the East Coast. Although a predictable annual occurence, this year we suffered through an entire week of warm weather that saw most of our base disappear down the river. Some of the hills in Collingwood, Ontario even suffered through a few mud slides on their steeper slopes.

Lucky for us, the short and long term forecast calls for colder weather and lots of snow.

Skiing this past weekend was similar to spring skiing -but without the sunshine… or the without the memories of another great season gone by.

It was like skiing in sugar and mashed potatoes.

It’s not exactly hero snow.

[Read more →]

Last year the entire world was suffering from one of the warmest winters in memory. Global warming had apparentely arrived and the evidence could be seen at glaciers and ski resorts around the world.

World Cup races were being cancelled due to a lack of snow and athletes trained on roller blades in the rain… well accept for our Canadian athletes who benefited from skiing on our own Farnham glacier

It seemed like every mountain or resort not named Whistler was suffering from a brutal season.

This season thankfully started off with lots of snow and enough consecutive cold days for Eastern resorts to make millions of gallons of snow to compliment what mother nature sent to us.  As a result many resorts opened in late November and had substantial terrain open by the first week of December – including Blue Mountain in Ontario which bounced back from a brutal holiday season last year. As a result, you can expect planned resort upgrades to the Orchards to begin this summer.  

Thanks to the early season snow and snow making, Eastern resorts are well prepared for the January thaw that hit us last weekend. If you are planning a trip to your local hill or mountain this weekend, you can still expect great coverage and nearly all the terrain to be open.

The longer term forecast is calling for colder weather to roll in starting Friday of this week and continuing into next week.

Our season has been saved by the early snow and cold whether. wOOt!