Cic Chocs

[Bannick]

Seeing as how the snow is melting fast, tho 10-E seems like a solution to some of you that are near by. Anyone know if the snow holds up in the chic chocs of the Gaspe *****ula? I read some amazing reports on it on RSN over the winter and I believe that there are some bowls there that could hold snow for quite some time. Given that info is pretty scarce it could be worth the trip if it indeed has snow. I am heading out that way in a few weeks to show the girl the east and I am just crazy enough to bring along my board. Hmmmm.

B :snowboarding:

[skicdave]

See more about this in a recent T4T Thread (http://timefortuckerman.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000628#000000)

[Mumster]

Bannick:
Anyone know if the snow holds up in the chic chocs of the Gaspe *****ula? B :snowboarding: Bannick:
I looked into this earlier in the week. Their websites are filled with summer stuff, and no mention of ski opportunites. All snow report links were turned off. Also, I e-mailed them to ask, and haven't heard anything back. So, I'm assuming that things aren't so great on the :snowflakes: :skiplow: :snowboarding: front.

[springfever]

I was up to the Chic Chocs in Easter this year, had some of the best spring skiing I had ever done, plenty of snow ever where, we got lucky with the weather sunny and 15 celcius. I doubt that there would be anything left to ski now though. You could call the park and ask somebody if there was any snow left, you can find there number on line at www.sepaq.com, (http://www.sepaq.com,) check for parc gaspesie (sp?) They might think your crazy but who cares. I did travel to the park Victoria day weekend 2002, there was still snow on all the northern exposures, but nothing on the southern. Good Luck, let us know if you find anything.

[elwood]

Do they have an airport near there? I would consider going there if I could fly in. Not sure about the drive...

[Bannick]

Their websites are filled with summer stuff, and no mention of ski opportunites. All snow report links were turned off.

Ya that is what I found. I am really hoping that I can get my grilfriend to the mountains and then if I get could get her on the snow it would really cheer her up. She is really missing the mountains and snow of the Northwest.

Elwood, I am sure there are airstrips along the norht shore of the Gaspe that small planes could use. Look into flying to Quebec City and making the drive. It is pretty amazing, and the drive along the south shore of the river is beautiful.

I will keep digging, see what I find out and post any findings.

B :snowboarding:

[Frankontour]

Hello, It's the first time I write here, but I've been reading for few time. First, I would like to thank you for all the nice pics of Tucks & Hillman's on the website.

About the Chic-Chocs, even though I'm in the province (but in Montreal), I just went once in the region. It was in mid-july 1995. At Mt Albert, the north couloirs had some lines of snow of over 1000' high (possibly up to 1500). The other mountains were quite less snowy, but I imagine that the top bowls of Mt Albert were looking like Tucks in may normally. (I read somewhere that there is a dozen of Tucks on Mt Albert... tough to believe).

I planned to go there, this year (I was supposed to leave in 5 days, to be exact), but I didn't find a single skier enough crazy to come with me... and going there alone is certainly not a thing to do (just with the 8h drive from Montreal anyway...)

The 1994-95 year was a fabulous one there (although very poor in southern QC) and this year 2002-03 was another very good year. I contacted the guide of Vertigo few weeks ago and he told me that the couloirs I had seen in 1995 was a closed place for skiing, unfortunately. There is some bowls like "La Cuve du Diable" that would surely have snow, but probably not enough to worth 8h of drive from MTL... or 12 from tucks.

If there is some interest, I have few pics of snow in july at Mt Albert, in the last years.

Have a good national day tomorrow... and I hope few of you will take the traditional july 4 run on tucks !

[Castlerock]

Welcome Frankontour, I've lurked at First Tracks and read your stuff. You are very welcome here. Post the pics you have. I am very interested in the Chic-Chocs. I could see a two week trip in the future with skiing in the Chic-chocs and windsurfing

[Bannick]

Please post the photos. It would be nice to get some verification that there is still some snow in the Chic Chocs somewhere but I have yet to get any email back from my questions.

Welcome to T4T. Can't wait to see the photos.

B :snowboarding:

[Frankontour]

Thanks for the "welcome"

Those are some snowy pics of Mt Albert in the last years. They come from few websites.

First, J. Shefftz sent me a picture of the mountain of July 2000 and I've drawn how it looked like in july 1995... quite different, but this was really an exception. I should try to be sure it's 1995. I know this is not after, but it could also be 1994. Anyway, I'm 98% sure it's between july 4 and july 11, in 1995.

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/albertdraw.jpg

This is how it looked on a more normal year... in early july 2000. If you see at right, you can see the gullies of the 1st pic. They were broken, but I suppose they were looking as the 1st pic until mid-june or even later.

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/july2000.jpg

This is the summit snowfields in july 1999

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/summitjuly99.jpg

And this is the Cuve du Diable. I know this offer good skiing in winter with many sides probably not really less high than Tucks. The first 2 pics are from 1999 and the third one is from J. Shefftz also when he went in 2000.

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly99.2.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly99.1.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly2000.jpg

[Frankontour]

Oops... it looks like it didn't work.
Trying back in few minutes

[Frankontour]

testing (and the first pic)

http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/albertdraw.jpg

[Frankontour]

Nothing to do... I don't understand why it doesn't work, as I do exactly what's written in the explanations about displaying images...

[Frankontour]

Well... anyway, this is the links. I think this should work without problem.

pic #1 : http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/albertdraw.jpg

pic #2 :
http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/july2000.jpg

pic #3 :
http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/summitjuly99.jpg

pic #4 :
http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly99.2.jpg

pic #5 :
http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly99.1.jpg

pic #6 :
http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/cddjuly2000.jpg

So as you can see, there is normally some possible ski to do... but for you, it's probably easier to fly west... except if going west is cheating for you. You can also see the Torngat range, where the ski is surely all year long, but it's quite expensive to go there, as there is no roads.

About the airplanes, there is an airplane in Mont-Joli, I think, but you'll never find a plane from USA to go there !!

[Frankontour]

OH NO... not again.

This is a frequent Geocities problem... I see now.

With several browsers (including IE), you can't (I just don't know why) see the pic on the 1st try. There is a way to see the pic, but it's a little bit more complicated... so if you want to see them, follow this :

1) click on the link --> it will bring you to an error page

2) example for the 1st pic : http://www.geocities.com/frankontour502/july2000.jpg

you must change the first letter of the name of the pic for a CAP "J" in this case

you click on "enter" --> it won't work again

3) you put back a little "j" for july and you click enter

it will work

Please don't ask me to explain you why we must do that on many browsers, I just don't know, but it's not the first time I have this problem... I really should buy a little web space to put my pics... Geocities = Sh**.

Sorry for the large amount of messages just to try to put those pics accessible !

[Frankontour]

For an easier view, this should work (last try)

http://cf.photos.yahoo.com/bc/frankontour502/lst?&.dir=/Chic-Chocs&.src=ph&.view=t

I cross my fingers...

[Frankontour]

Hmm... this should be another topic, but you can see some ski pics in Tucks of today (july 6) at this address.

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus/messages/2508/2605.html?1057550609

[Bannick]

Nice pics! So how do we find out there is still snow there now. Any idea as to why those areas are closed to skiing? Environment? Danger?

B :snowboarding:

[Frankontour]

About the closure of the couloirs, in fact, the guide I've contacted last month told me that it's possible to ski there with a special permit, but only during winter. I guess it's too much dangerous for wet slides in early may, but it should be skiable in june. Actually, the government wants to attract more tourist in the region, so they begin to be less tough on the closed areas I think... so we can hope that in few years they let us ski those couloirs in late season cause they really look amazing.

For the snow... honestly, I don't know how to see if there is some snow remaining. I remember the FTOer "Kevin" gave us a link for the snowdepth in Gaspesia, but I don't think it's enough precise to see some snowpatches :(

[Frankontour]

On this meteo pic, we see the last day where there was a little white spot in the Gaspesia park. It was june 3. Notice that there wasn't a white point on New Hampshire, so it means that it was probably almost completely white on june 3.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SNOW/ARCHIVE/USA/ims2003154_usa.gif

[Skilasnow]

Thanks for those pictures. I first heard of the Chic Chocs last year and tried to get a gang up no go too far for most people from Boston. I will have to try and combine it with a couple of days in Montreal. Maybe I can combine it with a viewing of the Montreal Grand Prix, that might entice a few people.

[Frankontour]

Yep, the Montreal GP is on the 2nd weekend of june, so the conditions in the Chic-Choc might be still really good in that time of the year.

The only problem for that is to buy good tickets. In fact, I'm not sure if there is still some good tickets for next year GP. (it's extremely popular, here).

From Montreal, the drive is about 8h to the Chic-Chocs. I simply don't know for the hiking time or infos like that, but if I go, this summer (for hiking), I'll post here to give some indications about hike time /length, facilities, the vertical of la Cuve du Diable and things like that...

Next year I really must try Tucks in late april / early may, when it's good ... and skiing at la Reserve into june (when 4h30 of road is less a worth for Tucks) and after that, July at Mt Albert. The best would be to ski every months of course ! :rolleyes:

[Skilasnow]

Frankontour:
Yep, the Montreal GP is on the 2nd weekend of june, so the conditions in the Chic-Choc might be still really good in that time of the year. </strong>

that is exactly what I was thinking, go skiing before the GP, come back in time to watch the final practices on Saturday
<strong>
The only problem for that is to buy good tickets. In fact, I'm not sure if there is still some good tickets for next year GP. (it's extremely popular, here). </strong>

I'd settle for bad tickets
<strong>
From Montreal, the drive is about 8h to the Chic-Chocs. I simply don't know for the hiking time or infos like that, but if I go, this summer (for hiking), I'll post here to give some indications about hike time /length, facilities, the vertical of la Cuve du Diable and things like that... </strong>

Je vous en prie! C'est toujour mieux avoir toute l'information possible
<strong>
Next year I really must try Tucks in late april / early may, when it's good ... and skiing at la Reserve into june (when 4h30 of road is less a worth for Tucks) and after that, July at Mt Albert. The best would be to ski every months of course ! :rolleyes: </strong>

Try and make it while you can still ski down, shoot for beginning of April. It is awfully nice to NOT have to hike back down :D

[Frankontour]

About the bad tickets, it's something like 75$ (CAN) I think. You can enter on the site, but you must arrive early on the GP day to see the track and the cars !! (although I never went there, so I'm not the best to provide infos).

Good french, Ski Las Leñas ! It's effectively good to have the best information :)

And for Tucks, yes, you're right, I'm better to go in early april if I want to ski Mt Washington T2B which is a little dream for me since I know few peoples who did it. (I don't think I will ski it in less than 6m29, though ! :D lol)