Meathead East Coast Skiing Adventure Movies & Films

By: Erik Olson

Watching the weather is essential for the powder craved skier. During the winter months it’s pretty typical for me to be checking the various weather service websites multiple times a day in hopes of finding some clues to where and when those heavy snowfalls are predicted to take place. In mid March a large system was full of moisture and tracking into Ontario and Quebec. This system would be missing New England as it headed too far north.

As I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be skiing anything fresh that weekend my phone is rang and it was Geoff. Now from experience, when Geoff is calling and there is a major snow storm barreling down somewhere on the east, I usually know what I’m in store for… The oh so familiar, flying by the seat of your pants, last minute, adventure into the unknown.

The group consisted of the meatboss/Geoff, photographer Dan Brown, fellow Line shredder Jeff Curry and myself. On the drive up it was clear that this region had been getting pounded with snow. Quebec City was pretty much buried and as we continued on the snow banks that lined the highway seemed to only get larger along the way.

When we arrived to Le Massif, we had just enough time to get a few runs in and learn our way around the mountain. The staff at Le Massif was very receptive to us and offered early access the next morning. On top of early access, we were going to be guided around the mountain by Jean-Luc Brassard (Olympic medalist/mogul champion).

That afternoon we retreated to the nearby port village of Baie St- Paul which would provide our shelter for the brewing storm. We awoke pre-sunrise the next morning and were met at the door with a chest high snow drift blocking the exit.

As we drove out of the Baie St-Paul, we came upon a local highway worker who communicated to us via hand signals and broken English(about as poor as our French) that the highway was closed and he didn’t think it was opening anytime soon.  The fast thinking leader of the group and pilot of our Subaru told the worker that we would just go up ahead to turn around. Without a second of hesitation, Geoff gunned the meatwagon and made a run for Le Massif! After all, we had fresh snow and early access waiting for us. We didn’t come all this way to let fresh pow get cut up while we waited the storm out in town.

Well, it turns out we were pretty much the first and only people at the resort for quite some time. When we finally met up with Jean-Luc he gave us the low down on the situation. Due to the blizzards conditions most of the employees hadn’t made it to the mountain yet and the lifts were on hold. Instead of waiting around, the Le Massif team arranged for some laps with snowmobile tows until they officially got the chairs running.

Over the next couple of days, Jean-luc and another local guided our crew around the mountain and showed us what the mountain had to offer. Le Massif is definitely one of the most unique mountains on the east. The trails practically run right down to the Saint Lawrence River and start about 2,500ft. above.

This creates amazing views of the seaway from anywhere on the mountain. A considerable amount of terrain is devoted to glades and natural bump runs. Over all, I was really impressed with Le Massif and highly recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity to shred with the Quebecois.