CSM trail scouting trip

The ski marathon is coming up fast and once again I have signed up for it – how does this happen ;) With only 5 days till we head off into the Quebec country side I thought I would once again do a little scouting trip to see how the snow depth is along the trail. The organizers have been doing a good job this year reporting “best snow coverage in years!” To some more cynical folks one might say – that wouldn’t be too hard :P but I still felt like seeing is believing so off I went to take a look for myself. Of course I couldn’t ski on the trails for the most part as they pass over private property and are only open to skiers on “game day”, but I could certainly drive to a few of the spots where the trail crosses the roads and see what the groomers have had to work with thus far. As it turned out is was an awful day to take pictures – gray skies and really flat light – but I did what I could.
Crossing the fields near CP10
Crossing the Blanche river looks solid
Happy to say that there looks to be really good snow coverage this year. Away from the roads – in the farmers fields things looked excellent. The groomers have been by at least once (perhaps more) and packed a layer of snow in preparation. Close to the roads there are a few slightly thin spots where sticks are sticking up through the packed trail. For the most part though, these were few and far between so they should only be a minor inconvenience.
Paralleling the "317"
A little rough here but shouldn't be too bad
I did jump out of the car a couple of spots and walk briefly on the packed base. It was very solid which isn’t surprising. With all the freeze-thaw cycles we’ve had and the rain followed by cold overnight freezes one would expect the base to have solidified very nicely. Of course when they come to trackset this base I expect it will leave a very abrasive surface. It should provide for fast glide but will likely be hard on the grip wax. We’ll see if we can coax the “wax guru” to make some best guesses but I would say a solid base binder or klister will be needed before you put on your “grip wax of the day” if you want to have good grip all day long.
Good snow depth coming into CP8 in St. Sixte
Leveling out the snow... and keeping the snowmobiles off
Good snow depth here
After touring around the country side I met up with Pete and we skied for a little bit on the trails at the Montebello Gold club. The CSM trail will be coming down through here as it finishes up at the Chateau on Day 1. The trails at the club are very nicely groomed and there is a lot of elevation change which must make for a fun golf round. Thankfully for the skiers, most of the elevation change they will see is down hill at this point. The one thing I did see on the golf club trails was a whole lot of leaves pulled up in the tracks. Not sure if this will be a problem for all of the course as much of it will only be trackset a few days prior so not much time for the local leaves to blow into the track. The CSM trail does cross a few other golf clubs though so I bet there will be some leaves to contend with. What does that mean to the skiers? I certainly picked up a lot of leaves in the grip wax on my skis and it seriously hindered my grip as the day wore on. I’ll be packing a small scrapper to get rid of (rake?) leaves off my bases if they become problematic through the course of the day.
Montebello trails with lots of leaves!
Even found some tracksetting has begun just north of Montebello
So it looks like all systems are go for next weekend. Hoping for good weather and good skiing for all the participants.

The home stretch down the nicely groomed Montebello golf club trails