Conditions Report
Brought to you by 10 Barrel Brewing
This conditions report is from Tuesday, January 5th, 2021
The Winter Break crowds have left, and the mountain was ours. Today’s skiing at Le Massif de Charlevoix was a blast with quick, fun, hot laps on all of the runs with a perfectly groomed natural base.
I skied from the opening chair until the end of the day, racking in just over 32,000′ (9750m) vertical today—the most for me this season. Although Le Massif only had 17 runs open, the lack of crowds made them ski great right until the end of the day, and they were spread out over most of the mountain, allowing you to ski different sections at a time. Today, my personal favorite was La Petite-Rivière, which was sparely populated, allowing you to rip down the mountain top to bottom.
Out of the seventeen runs open, sixteen of them were groomed while the other one, La Dufour, had a lot of bare patches and rocks exposed in between the moguls. If you weren’t in the mood for groomed runs, you had a better shot of skiing some moguls on the side of either La Bouchard or La Grand-Pointe.
Visibility was poor at the top in the morning, but the bottom half of the mountain skied fine, with the top half improving throughout the day. Regardless, the views of the St. Lawrence river were still spectacular and lack of sun prevented the snow from getting sun-baked.
Weather Outlook
Le Massif is still trying to recover from the torrential downpour they experienced over Christmas, in which they received more than 3” (100mm) of rainfall, explaining why they only have seventeen runs open in January. Regardless, the weather looks good for the snowmaking team to continue working through the next week. Temperatures will stay below freezing, but unfortunately, no significant amounts of snow are forecasted in the next week.
Handling of COVID-19 Guidelines
Another thing that Le Massif should be applauded for was their handling of COVID-19 guidelines. Each lift had a designated staff member directing traffic and making sure people were wearing masks and social distancing properly. Ample space was also provided for people to take breaks both indoors and outdoors at a variety of locations throughout the mountain.
Le Massif offered the best conditions I have experienced so far this season in Quebec, and as the winter progresses, they will only get better. As the mountain continues with snowmaking operations, runs like La Coulée and La Bordage should be open fairly soon, with more to come.
