RESORT  REPORT

 



The Château Mont Sainte-Anne 


  There are fifty-six ski runs and early in the morning,
 when I looked out of my window of my hotel, (The Château Mont Sainte-Anne.) I could see the big yellow machines grooming the runs, combing them till they looked like fine corduroy.

 The resort makes it's own snow and this combined with the generous snowfall of the Canadian winter gives them a long season. Up on the hill there are the seven powerful four-hundred horsepower pumps that draw water from the St Anne River, 2625 feet below. Air and water pipes are driven at pressure to combine as jets of snow at the seven hundred points where the 'snow cannon' can be connected.

We found ski runs for all abilities ranging from 'Green' to 'Double Black Diamond'   Now until then I thought the latter was a brand of cheese, but then. I was there to check out the 'winter fun' for non skiers. As yet I have not had the courage to engage in a sport that seems to defy logic, i.e. strapping planks to the feet and hurtling down a slippery slope. Perhaps in the future I may. I was certainly envious of the kids on ski boards who took off into the air as they  launched themselves off specially designed humps.

Children were skiing from four years old and taking group lessons. The nursery slopes  were just outside the hotel and kids on skis, each a 'well wrapped up bundle.' were travelling up a hundred yards or so on a kind of rubber moving pavement before skiing down to stop with their skis in a perfect snow plough position. They used no ski poles, being small, their centre of gravity was much closer to the ground than mine. Though to be honest, the last time I tried it my centre of gravity was 'on' the ground much too often! 


Really small children, like the toddlers that ride around in push chairs, were to be found on mini-skis being taken around a winter wonderland trail of nursery rhyme or cartoon characters and when Mom and Dad went skiing there was a crèche where they could be looked after.

Mont-Sainte-Anne 001 418 827 4561 
web page www.mont-sainte-anne.com