LOOK NO FURTHER

By Mario Daniel, Special Contributon and Gendronski Group Leader

All too often, in our quest for perfection, we fail to see what’s right there, in our very own backyard. That’s exactly what happened to me last winter when I was trying to decide on a destination for a three-day skiing getaway with friends. I started by checking out several of the New England resorts but, honestly, the idea of paying that extra 30% pretty much turned me off. In the end, I opted to stay in Quebec and head for Charlevoix— more specifically, Le Massif. It was the best decision I could have made!

Although I have been going on day trips to Le Massif regularly for years, I think that staying there for a few days really allowed me to discover and enjoy everything this resort has to offer. Our very first morning there, upon stepping out of the hotel, we had the pleasure of discovering that our car was covered in over 40 cm of fresh snow. As you can well imagine, we had an absolute blast that particular day…

when we got to the mountain all we could see, other than a few snowcat tracks, was a blanket of pure, untouched powder covering practically every inch of the place. Let’s just say that a vertical drop of 770 metres in pure powder is quite extraordinary, not to mention a great workout for the legs! After carving our fair share of tracks on the main pistes, we alternated between mogul runs and backcountry areas, which were still bursting at the seams with snow.

By day’s end, we were exhausted and it was time for some well-deserved après-ski drinks. The bar was packed as traditional chansonniers entertained, swaying the crowd to sing along. We had such a great time!

The next day, we took advantage of the perfect, sunny weather to explore Le Massif from a different angle—almost every run, except for a few expert trails, had been groomed, allowing us to do a complete tour of the mountain and enjoy all of its spectacular, larger-than-life vistas.

On Day 3, to finish things off in style, we were hit with another 20 centimetres of snow. It just doesn’t get any better than this! Just goes to prove what I was saying earlier… you really don’t need to look any further than your own backyard!