Journal Entries

Exploring the region around Montagne Noir near Saint-Donat. Last week we came here for alpine touring and snowboarding. This time we decided to do a loop via cross-country skis.

First backcountry trip of the season with @reneetougas. Renee was on her backcountry skis, and I was on snowshoes carrying my snowboard. We explored a new backcountry ski area near Saint-Donat called Montagne Noir. The day did not disappoint!

After almost 10 years, I finally had to replace my Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork winter poles. I have been incredibly happy with Black Diamond poles, however this time I decided to give the MSR Dynalock Ascent Carbon poles a chance - for no other reason than to try something different. What I like about them: they are very light, they break-down super small, they have 20cm of adjustability, and the locking mechanism can be tightened without tools. All I hope for now is that they stand-up similarly durability-wise to the Black Diamonds... we shall see.

The first step in my transition back to snowboarding... a new pair of boots! I purchased these while on our family Christmas trip to the Eastern Townships. Super comfortable (much more so than my telemark boots in the previous post). The continuation of the black/orange theme is purely coincidental...

Despite the rain over the last couple days. there was still an opportunity for us to go for a hike before the end of the year. Back to our new favourite place (Saint-Donat) and a nice view on Cap de la Fée.

Out with the old... my Telemark gear is now listed for sale... in pursuit of that ever elusive pain-free foot. More details forthcoming.

Night boarding at Sutton on Boxing Day. I could get used to this!

A @reneetougas in it’s natural (preferred?) habitat.

The whole family joined us for our hike today - an increasingly rare, but always fun time. Today was beautiful with not overly cold temperatures and gentle snowfall for the entire day.

In this photo: @celine and @brienne, with a photobomb of @mypictograph poles in the bottom left corner.