I left from Deep River at 9:45 on Wednesday in my truck to catch a train in Ottawa; I stopped in Pembroke to pick up Alan, Pete, and Jay. We stopped through Packenham pick 
up ski boots for Pete. We arrived at the train station with about an hour before our train was leaving so we mossed in the station and played hackey sack outside to kill time. We boarded our train at 14:30 and had some fun with chat roulette and frigged around with Alan’s camera. Our train ride included a stop in Montreal that happened to be at the same time as when the city’s streets flooded with beautiful girls. It gave us all hope after spending the last two years in the girl and style deprived city of Pembroke Ontario. In our trance we happened to walk a little farther than we had thought and we just made it back to the station in time for the next leg of our journey.
Thursday I woke up on the train at around 6:30 and made my way to the dome-top car for a coffee and a look at the new scenery. I was surprised that there was no snow but reassured myself that there would be lots in the mountains. After a lot of tech-deck ripping and talking about shredding mountains with our skis, the train arrived in Gaspe, QC. We hung out at the train station for about an hour before our ride showed up. This wasn’t and issue because the walls of the station were very climbable and session I did. We loaded up our gear in Guillaume’s truck and after a few errands in Gaspe we were on our final leg towards Murdochville. Upon arriving in Murdochville and more specifically the Chic Chac auberge, we unpacked our stuff and acquired our touring gear. I got 178cm, 100mm waist, Rossignol skis with releasable-heel touring bindings as well as Black Diamond climbing skins. I was happy with my set up except for the missing screw used for securing skins.
Friday was our first day skiing. We jumped into Guillaume’s truck and drove 3km down the road and as we unloaded we were met by three 1000cc long-track sleds. These sleds towed us up the east face of Porphyres all day with rope attached to their tunnels. It was great because I skied both up and down the mountain. I could not keep track of the number of runs we did but we skied the shit out of an area the size of a fairly large resort without another track in sight. It was nice to ski some challenging terrain. After a few warm up runs I got the feel back and was rippin' fast GS turns in the open areas as well as some exciting straight lines through trees to boost little gaps. Saturday started inside with the classroom section of the course. We did an overview of the course, our skiing background, and our expectations for the course.
Class started at 8:00 on Sunday with AVALuator and route planner cards as well as doing route choice exercises from the Canadian Avalanche Association website. We planned where we would go for the day of skiing with the map provided with the course that rates the avalanche terrain in the Chic Choc’s. We left the Chic Chac at around 10:00 with plans to ski Champs de Mars. Whe
n we arrived at the trail head we decided that because of the snow conditions the skiing would be better on Hog’s Back. We geared up at the trail head for Hog’s back and went over essential gear to have at all time in the back country. We preformed a beacon check to make sure that everyone’s beacon was working properly in both the send and receive settings. On the way up we took turns leading the group working on route finding and avalanche risk mitigation techniques. On the South summit ridge we practiced snow pack evaluation techniques like ski cuts and the hand-shear test. We ate lunch at the South summit before heading to the North summit to check out the East face. We saw an old slide on the face and we talked about skiing it or not. After some deliberation we decided that its was not the ideal route because of the low snow pack, a sketchy run in, and no clear flowing line down the face. The group decided to ski down the west face and dig a snow pack analysis pit as well as execute a mock multi burial avalanche rescue scenario. With the snow pack analysis lesson we learned tests such as the burp and column test along with key snow observation points.
Monday morning was once again bluebird so the crew and I skinned laps of the wall situated in the outskirts of town; cornice session, afternoon copper mtn + one more cornice drop.
Tuesday We planned to drive to the Chic Chocs and ski La Mine for the day but on the drive there Byron lost control of his car and slid off the road. His car was completely written off so we had to call a tow truck. To get to a phone we piled all the gear from both vehicles into P’s Landcruizer and drove to the a five star lodge in the Chic Choc’s. To kill some time we played hackey sac and looked at the snow study plot beside the parking lot. It was a long drive back to Murdochville with six dudes in a truck going in the opposite direction of the fun skiing. When we arrived back at the Chic Chac, J, Pete, Alan, and I decided to skin up Mt. Copper and build a jump for the next day’s forecasted snow. Wednesday Alan and I planned to skin to the summit hut on Mt. Porphyre and then ski the wind loaded western slopes.
Thursday was my last day skiing for the season so I thought I’d go out with a bang. It had been snowing for two days straight in Murdochville and there were fresh tracks to be had. Alan and I headed up Mt. Porphyre on Pierre’s sled to ski laps while he groomed the sledding trails. We got three runs in before breakfast on some good snow. When we returned to the Chic Chac we found out that the people booked for sled skiing had cancelled because they thought there was no snow! After having a good chuckle about that, Guillaume, Pierre, Mathieu, Charles and I headed for Mt. York. The sled skiing was killer on the 45o slope. That afternoon we headed back to Gaspe to catch the train home.
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