Mont Saint-Sauveur enjoyed its earliest ever opening on October 18th and was the first resort in Canada to open, just behind Canada’s Olympic park in Alberta, according to ski news website First Tracks (www.firsttracksonline.com) Mont Saint-Sauveur sets a new record by opening 9 days earlier than its previous record of 1997 with an opening October 27. The station is also the first station in Canada to open the night skiing. The trails 70 OUEST is now open for skiers and snowboarders served by the L’Étoile chairlift. Staff at Mont Saint-Sauveur says that as long as the weather keeps giving perfect conditions, snowmaking will go on and give more skiable terrain hour by hour. Further east, Mont-Sainte-Anne near Quebec City isn’t open yet but it is already covered by over 15cm of fresh snow! The resort plans to open on November 14th with low temperatures projected for the next few weeks. Ironically, the first important snowfall of the season coincides with the arrival of Martin Larichelière, the resort’s new expert in snowmaking and grooming.
Mr. LaRichelière, a true ski passionate, has been a technical delegate International Ski Federation (FIS) and is also recognised as a Level 3 instructor and a Level 3 ski coach. To that effect, he has even been director of the National Training Center in Charlevoix. He has also cumulated years of experience in managing operations at a Quebec ski resort and has even acquired special knowledge in snowmaking as Director of Sales and Marketing at Turbocristal enterprises, a leader in snowmaking technology. Mr. Larichelière expects to fire 120 of his mobile snow guns during the first week of November. The powerful system will be entirely located on the famous North Side, to focus of some of the more popular slopes: La Quanick, La Printannière, La Mélanie Turgeon and La Paradeuse. Another initiative: an 800 meter cross-country skiing loop, dedicated to training purposes, will be created at the summit on the Western Side and will welcome teams form Quebec and abroad. The resort is constantly improving its infrastructures. This year, a gondola restoration project has been initiated and is planned over the next 3 years, with an estimated value of 1.5 million dollars. Their mechanical system has been completely revised and the next step will be to refresh the actual gondolas.
