Owls Head Quebec 3/12 and 3/13

[glademaster]

We ended up getting roughly 40cm's of snow in about 30 hours, which made for good skiing, but the weekend was far more epic than that. I skiied both days on the Spatulas and did not regret them for a single turn of any run, unlike previous days I have been on them. The key was the 50-55cm's of blower powder that they got on Monday through Tuesday, when there is nobody on the mountain. This stayed light fluffly, and mostly untracked, which meant that many tree shots yielded turns in powder that was about 1 meter deep.

Saturday and Sunday were the best back to back ski days of my life, great snow, great terrain, old friends, and a ski-in/ski-out condo. What could be better.

Owls Head is just outside the village of Mansonville, Quebec. Roughly 35 miles NNE of Jay Peak. Fun little hill for sure, day tickets=$21 Canadian if you're a student.
A few pictures from my weekend of powder at Owls Head. Since most of the great ski shots are video, I'll post my scenic stuff until the video can be cleaned up. Enjoy the EC pow-pow stoke.


Boner City:



Looking down D-Chute



Down D-Chute again



My friend ripping up a perfect hardwood glade. We were the first people to ski this shot on both Saturday and Sunday



Ripping it 2 turns later



Me, deep in the woods, looking pensive



Looking into another great tree shot from the top of a run that would yield waist deep turns for me on Spatulas



View down "Colorado" on Sunday afternoon. We snagged 2 runs of knee deep untracked down this same run Sunday morning



View of Sugarloaf Mountain from the friends condo. We planned to ski it, but the lure of deep untracked inbounds was too strong.



Me gaping down a sweet little gully:



Me cranking a turn high on the gully wall, too bad there is a stand of Alders in the way.



Maybe it's just me, but the shot of the road winding through the snowy countryside seems really cool.

[glademaster]

oh yeah, and feel free to critique the photos. Action shots were taken by my friends, as were pics of me(obviously) but all scenic shots are my own.

From the summit looking at the top terminal of the Lake Chair with a small part of Lake Memphremagog in the background



View of the Quebec countryside with a neat old double in the foreground



Shot from in the woods looking onto a trail. The trail was bumped out and icy but where we skiied, 30 yards to the right was thigh deep untracked.



Me again, stoked and looking like a dork:



Me after a short sidehill bushwhack, preparing to drop into the good stuff.


Thats all until I upload some of the video clips.

[Vinman]

as far as the scenics go, not bad. But to make the photo a bit more interesting make you main subject a bit off center. If you divide the frame into horizontle and vertical 1/3's place you subject at one of the places these lines would cross. Just makes for a more interesting photo.

And the snow looks nice, way to get some.

[Trackhead]

I like this one.

[Anxious Mo-Fo]

Nice tree shots and the colors are interesting. Looks a lot better than my visit there last January... I showed up on a $15 Tuesday at 8 am (after it had snowed 14 inches during the night) to find that they had groomed every single in-bounds trail. Guess I shoulda gone into the BC.

Shefford and Mont Glen are also fun l'il Eastern Township hills that rock.

[glademaster]

When you found all the trails to be groomed, why didn't you just head into the trees. There is some great treeskiing on that mountain if you're willing to poke around. I've skiied there 3 days total and every day has been a big powder day, so for that reason alone it is one of my favorite places in the east.

The only annoying this was all the French Canadians asking me why I was skiing water skis(Spatulas) on the mountain. It was funny at first, but that wore out after the 500th person asked me.

[gincognito]

Nice photos of a hill I've spent some time on. Though, I will admit, I haven't ventured too far into the woods (patrol there seems kinda anal). Your pics make me think I need to go back for another look.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and off to Scotland for a bit),
d.

[powderwhore]

The only annoying this was all the French Canadians asking me why I was skiing water skis(Spatulas) on the mountain. It was funny at first, but that wore out after the 500th person asked me.

Get used to it! It doesn't even stop at Alta.

[AfroMullet]

the people demand the video

[glademaster]

Nice photos of a hill I've spent some time on. Though, I will admit, I haven't ventured too far into the woods (patrol there seems kinda anal). Your pics make me think I need to go back for another look.d.

patrol must have mellowed a bit over the past few years. When we were ducking into the woods and patrol saw us, they simply said "We won't stop you from skiing that, but we won't come to get you if you get hurt." Seems fair enough to me. Vids will be coming later tonight or tomorrow, they aren't great, but it shows some nice gaper-ific action.

[Plakespear]

Boner City looks like it's the tits to me