Forét Continued

The skiing at Forét has been amazing this year. We were first greeted by an expanded manmade loop over last years, and the natural snow we have received has allowed Forét to open significantly more terrain. I have been up to Forét twice before, once my Junior year at Gould Academy and then again last year with SLU. The last time Forét had decent natural snow during the Thanksgiving week was my first time up here, and Adam and I both believe the snow coverage is better this year.

Thanksgiving Day we were greeted by significantly expanded terrain. Since Forét is a forestry research center for the University of Laval, they have a vast network of well maintained logging roads that allow for excellent early season skiing. After the snow we received on Wednesday, they were able to groom 20+km of trails. Besides the occasional rock, the skiing was excellent.  Spirits were defiantly lifted among the team since we were no longer limited to the 2km manmade loop. Here are a few pictures:

 Fresh tracks, wide trails

 Freshman Blain strides it out

 Miles of freshly groomed ks

We fished the day off with an excellent Thanksgiving meal back at the house, and a round of go-carting  combined with a visit to Quebec city.

An end of the week time-trial has been a tradition during the Thanksgiving camp. Given the natural snow, the time-trial was held on a respectable course today. The women did one lap (5km) and the men did two (10km). The course consisted of a fairly steep short uphill into a rolling downhill, and finished with 2km of grinding V2 / V2 Alt.

Calvin, Chumlee, during the time-trail 

Here are the results. Interpret them as you wish, but it is impossible to determine the fait of someone's season from this early season time-trial.

Tomorrow we head back up to Forét for a final day of skiing before heading back to Canton. Rumor has it, there is enough snow to groom in Canton. By the end of the camp many of us will have been on snow 20+ hrs.