Le Pro of Mont Pinacle

While the rest of the world has experienced a collective Groundhog Day over the past 15 months of Covid lockdowns, I’ve had an identity crisis of a different variety. I’m living in Quebec and I wonder, am I a climber posing as a skier, or a skier posing as a climber? And, is it silly to define yourself as either in a place where you can’t practice either for the majority of the year? Would it make more sense to simply play video games? Every day must be a pow day if you live to fire up the Playstation.

The Planétarium Sector

These thoughts rolled through my head as the wheels turned putting Montreal in the rearview. We were on the way to tick Camay, a classic 5.6 multi-pitch on Mont Pinacle.

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Le Massif de Charlevoix: The Day I Finally Skied

On New Years Eve, my partner and I celebrated with a single beer, so we could wake fresh the next day and turn our ski season around. Overnight, a few fresh inches of snow settled on the car.

In the morning, coffee percolated in the kitchen as a flock of evening grosbeaks pecked at a feeder in the backyard of our Airbnb. I’d never seen those magnificent birds before, but I had little patience to enjoy them. As stunning as they were, I hurried getting our gear and ourselves into the car.

Our season had begun slowly and I wasn’t expecting much. Le Massif de Charlevoix usually opens near 100% and a month into the season vast stretches of the mountain remained closed.

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Tremblant: View from The North

With the recent warm and spring’s imminent return my friends and I headed north hoping to extend winter. Luck was with us: we planned our trip far in advance and Tremblant was getting snow.

We booked a mountainside airbnb, a five-minute walk to the Express Gondola. Chip, Alex and I were joined by Blue and his brother as well as Dave and Ally. As we settled in Thursday, snow started falling, setting up a great weekend.

We woke up to an inch of fresh snow Friday and it forecasted to continue throughout the day. After a quick breakfast at a french cafe we met up Dave and Ally. We soon boarded the gondola and headed to the top.

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