Chic-Chocs, Apr 1-4, 2012

[Lftgly]

Vallee Taconique 4/1/2012, Sunday
Plan A: 8AM, I drive south, headed for Mt Albert in the Parc National de la Gaspesie. But I find that Highway 299 south of St-Anne-des-Monts is closed just beyond the village of Cap-Seize, at the park boundary. A highway department man, next to a Transport Quebec truck with a flashing sign (“INTERDIT”), tells me in French that the road is closed, and I must turn around. Later that night, I read on the internet that due to warm weather, the Parc closed early this year, on March 26, and the middle section of Route 299 is now closed due to this warm weather.

Plan B: try another approach to the Parc National de la Gaspesie: I headed East on Route 132 to Mont-St-Pierre, to check out the “Petit Willoughby” runs.



I stopped to take pictures at the “Petit Willoughby” roadside access location, then continued driving up the road towards the Parc as far as it was plowed, to a sugar house 1.75 miles up the road. Beyond this 3rd sugarhouse, the park access road was a snow-covered snowmobile route in active use: these sugar-makers were collecting the sap from their lines using their snowmobiles. I talked to the sugar makers, but they wouldn’t let me park there; there was limited room to turn their pick-up trucks around, and they were towing snowmobile trailers. I ended up parking back down the road at the “Petit Willoughby” location (500 ft. elev.).



Plan C: check out the remaining snow at “Vallee Taconique”, the snowmobile-accessed mountain top lodge and guided backcountry ski operation, which had just closed for the season.

I skinned ½ mile back up the road and turned off the southeast side, at a trailhead across from the 1st sugarhouse (600 ft. elev.). The trail signs read, “ERABLIERE” (that would be 'Sugarbush' to an Anglo; as in "sirop d'erable" = 'maple syrup'), “Randonee de ski du fond”, “Randonee Pedestre”, “Randonee de Velo”; “Direction Chalet”, “Vallee Taconique”.

I followed the trail that paralleled the riverbank, skinning along a single fresh snowmobile track that was set back out of sight from the road; after descending a couple hundred feet in 1 mile, it ended at a trail junction with the main road, which was heavily tracked by snow machines. There was a hunting stand in the intersection, and several signs indicating “Vallee Taconique” was up a side road to the left. The main road headed right, uphill to the southwest.



I followed the side trail toward “Direction Chalet”, and in five minutes came upon a warming hut, the “Chalet de la Riviere”, on the northwest side of a bridge over the St Pierre River.

Crossing the bridge, about 0.6 miles up (and down) the road, I came upon a “Club Motoneige Mont Blanc”, “Chevaliers de Colomb Mont St Pierre” snowmobile club cabin (240 ft. elev.). There, across the road and up the hill from the cabin, were old ski tracks coming down a steep trail to the road.

I followed these tracks uphill a hundred yards, and came upon two closed gates, at the base of the Vallee Taconique ski trails, and the base of the access road (275 ft. elev.).

These were posted no trespassing, “Bienvenue, Vallee Taconique, Welcome, You are on private property, Access right is required, You have to be accompanied by a Vallee Taconique guide and be registered at the base camp, Any other traffic is prohibited!, Merci de votre collaboration”.

There was barely 2” to 3” of new (3 day old?) snow remaining, and it had fallen on bare ground at this elevation. It was melting in the sun, and you could see unconnected snow patches, about 30% cover remaining on the Vallee ski trails, which are basically logging cuts through steep softwood and mixed hardwood covered slopes. The geology reminded me of the uplifted shale, talus slopes, and basalt of Mt Hitch**** and the Mt Holyoke range in western Massachusetts. I skinned up this access road about 1.5 miles and 1100+ vertical feet, passing a gated side road near the top, that led to the now-closed-for-the-season mountain-top lodge of Vallee Taconique.

At these upper elevations, there was 3" - 5" of wet snow on the gravel road, and I was a little more confident about skiing it without serious ski-damage or bodily harm.
At 1425 feet elevation, at a point where the road turned downhill, I bushwhacked uphill off the road, through open trees, where several inches of dry snow remained on top of a good 12" base. I hit a large clear-cut at 1525 feet elevation, and there I found a first-rate hunters tree stand, built on a platform about 8 feet above a small ice-covered pond. It was about 75F degrees, and about 6' X 6', inside this recently rebuilt tree stand, sporting two new plastic lawn chairs, and thermopane windows on three sides. I stopped to eat lunch and change socks.

That I managed to ski the edge of the snowcat track down this access road without destroying my skis was a miracle by itself, what is even more surprising is that I actually had fun skiing it, even the skate-skiing on the "Erabliere" nordic trail.



8.5 miles total (4.25 each way); 1200 vertical feet of skiing descent (then 250 feet back uphill to the car, skate-skiing on snowmobile trails); 5 hours (10:35AM – 3:35PM from-to car).


Murdochville, 4/2/2012, Monday
70 mile drive to Murdochville, overcast all morning, cool, arrived at Murdochville, Mt Porphyre trailhead after 2PM, it was not softening up, no skiing today…

Mont Aiguille requires some walking, and did not look worth the effort:



Ski Club Mont Miller had recently closed for the season, and someone had booted up to lay down some nice tracks on the 2 longest runs:




Mont Porphyre is where its at in Murdochville, was still skiable from either trailhead (maybe some short walks from North trailhead), and a boot track could be seen from the road, up the summit cornice headwall; maybe worth the trip on a warmer day...

[Lftgly]

Mont Hog’s Back, 4/3/2012, Tuesday
Trailhead: 1300 ft
North summit: 2760 ft
I drove up the Highway 299 south of St-Anne-des-Monts to where it was “closed” 2 days earlier, just beyond the village of Cap-Seize, to access the Mont Albert section of the Parc Nationale de la Gaspesie. This time, the man in the highway department truck with the flashing sign had better English, and when I inquired, he admitted that there was nordique skiing at a trailhead “thirty kilometers” up the road, and let me pass by his truck with the flashing road closed (“interdit”) sign.

I drove past the Gite du Mont Albert, which appeared open, but there were only a couple cars and a few guests in evidence.


I hit the jackpot with the Mont Hogs Back south peak trailhead, off Q299. The air temps were 30 degrees, and as I drove into the park, the skies cleared, and sun began to soften those slopes. I could see a couple gullies with thin cover, and a nice summit cornice that looked skiable along the ridge, from the north summit to south summit. I arrived at 12:30PM, but didn’t hit the trail until a few minutes after 1PM.


The trail to the Sud Sommet had just enough snow across the talus for uphill skiing, and awesome views of south slopes of Mont Albert:











The “Grand Colouir” looks barely skiable, with some very rocky choke points halfway down, but it’s probably skiable if it warms up enough to soften; it was bulletproof this afternoon.




From the North Summit,

I skied along the hiking trail to the South Summit, to the beginning of the cornice that is visible from the road.
I skied perfect corn from 2600-2000 ft along this South Summit ridge cornice, softened in the afternoon sun.




Then I skied down 400 vertical feet, down the fall-line on the last skiers-right East-face gully (#9, “Exit”) , to the first aid & avalanche cache:




It was very rocky, thin-cover, but perfect corn in golden afternoon sunlight, with spectacular views, and I managed to only kiss a few rocks. The traverse back through the woods and out along the power line to the trailhead was frozen ski tracks, but would not have been difficult to maneuver, if my legs hadn't been tired.


Back at the car at 4PM, it was a 1400 vertical foot, 3.75 mile, 3 hour tour.

Mines Madeleine Trailhead


Lac au Americaines Trailhead

[Lftgly]

Mont Albert, 4/4/2012, Wednesday

9.6 miles, 1500 feet vertical ski descent, 11AM – 6PM
Stationnement de Ruisseau-Isabelle trailhead, 1000 ft. elev.
Abri de la Serpentine warming hut, 1850 ft. elev. (565m), 3.25 miles from trailhead per GPS tracklog;




I left trailhead at 11:10AM, arrived at the Abri de la Serpentine hut at 1:30PM and stayed until 3PM.






I ate lunch, made use of the out-house, stoked the woodstove, and hung out while the skies cleared up after 2PM, and the wind picked up a little. The sun was shining on the remaining skiable lines in Mur des Patrouillieurs, but at that angle, with a breeze, I could tell it was not softening up – it would be a technically skiable line (ascend with full crampons, descend with sharp edges) but did not look fun. You would have had to pick your way down through a few rocks at choke points, typical of late season skiing in Tux– save it for a warm, sunny day, I thought.


Four skiers and two snowboarders arrived at the cabin, having given up on reaching Grand Cuvee. I got a trail report from one of these skiers, who said they aborted the mission after they took their skis off 7 times for short carries, and were going to have to take them off again a couple more times, when they were close enough to see the Grand Cuvee; they could see that it was rocky at the top, and could only be skied from below. I told him that I was from New Hampshire, and that Mount Washington was the same after the spring thaw two weeks ago: very rocky, and walking required, carrying the skis.
“Maybe you are made of harder material than us”, he said.
“Maybe not!”, I replied.

I left the hut at 3PM, and skinned a short distance (0.7m) past the hut to the base of la Mur des Patrouilleurs. I skinned a hundred feet up the exit tracks from Mur des Patrouillieurs, but would have had to immediately remove skis for the first of several short walks.

I returned to the trail headed West up the river, toward la Grande Cuve, to see a little more of Mont Albert before skiing out. The trail, for the most part, followed the north bank of the river up the valley. I had to remove skis 3-4 times where the river had washed out in the late March thaw, and at a couple footbridges. About a mile and a quarter past the hut, I was reaching my turnaround time, late afternoon sunlight was fading, what little snow had softened was now starting to set up in the lengthening shadows and chilly breeze. At 3:45, after crossing another footbridge, where the river rounds bend and turns northward, there were views of the Grand Cuve less than a mile away, I headed off-trail.




I skied up a sunny snow-covered slope which sported a couple 2-day-old ski tracks frozen in time. I climbed for a half-hour, about 700 vertical feet of switchbacks, until I quit, kicked out a platform in the snow, stripped off the skins and pointed my skis downhill, from 2575 ft. elev., 1.5 miles beyond hut, 4.8 miles from trailhead.
I made a dozen turns, seeking out softer surfaces at the edges of the snowfield; half of my turns left a track in soft snow, the rest didn’t leave even a scratch.

The ski out was an uneventful hour plus, seeking occasional softer snow on the sunny edge of the trail, skate-skiing up the few inclines, bone-jarring ski-chattering hard-packed trails for the first mile gave way to increasingly soft snow on the skiers left, where the sun had been hitting most recently, as the sun set behind the ridge. I stopped at the cabin to close the damper on the stove, but my wood fire had almost all burned out; a couple more stops to rest the legs, and I was back at the car by 6PM.

[ARLOthePEAR]

Thanks for sharing this. Your committment to find some adventurous late season turns during a very tough season is quite admirable! I bet you slept well after all that.

[RCL1]

for finding turns in what looks like pretty slim conditions.

[RR]

That's serious dedication!

Glad you found something to ski on.

[MadPatSki]

Nice Lftgly...

Happy to see you're still around on the forums. And again, great TRs even if the snow is lacking.