With the arrival of spring, the spring skiing season is now officially launched!
Days are getting longer and the temperatures are rising day after day. But, nights are still cold, so our snow grooming teams are in a transition period. With the weather often throwing us curve balls, we need to adapt our grooming plan to always ensure we provide the best ski conditions. Our technique: work around the sun! The sun rises over the North side by the Supérieur trail, then heads to the Soleil side and sets across from the Nansen trail on the South side. When skiing during these transition periods, you’ll want to follow this path throughout the day to get the softest spring conditions.
With the mercury rising drastically as soon as the sun starts shining in the morning, we work with the path of the sun to groom appropriately. Because the warmer days and occasional light rain saturate the snow with water, trails become very firm when groomed during the colder nights. So by grooming in the same direction as the sun takes to warm up the slopes, the snow gets softer faster. As the day progresses, the hard-packed surface becomes that nice granular spring snow we all know and love. Depending on the drop of temperatures at night, some trails may be too icy and dangerous to open right when the lifts open. In these cases, they will stay closed until they warm up enough to be safe. See our mountain report during your ski session to follow the opening status of our trails.
Multi-Layered Clothing
With the warmed temperatures, we are leaving behind our bigger, warmer and thicker ski clothings, and we choose lighter clothes. It is therefore recommended to adopt a multilayer system to stay comfortable on the slopes. With colder temps in the morning and getting warmer as the day goes, you’ll just need to take off a layer to be comfortable again and not be too hot when you go down the mountain. So opt for a shell type coat, under which you can wear a lighter coat and merino base layer to better evacuate humidity and sweat.
Stop by our specialty shops for all the best sporting clothes and gear.