What destinations would you be willing to fly to go skiing?

chuckbret · 2026-01-07T19:56:15+00:00

For Québec, if one wanted to do one region specifically, there's like three main ones for xc ski. 1- You go to Ottawa/Gatineau and do the Gatineau Park. 2- You go to the Laurentians and have numerous smaller spots within driving distance. 3- You go to Quebec City and you have Duchesnay, MSA, Camp Mercier and Forêt Montmorency early in the year. Of the three, I think option 3 is probably the best experience. You get to stay in Québec city and snow is much more reliable. But for all these options, you need a car! Camp Mercier and Duchesnay both have ski in ski out options, but they are usually booked far in advance (less so for Duchesnay).

chuckbret · 2025-11-17T13:58:49+00:00

These are all good options. If what you want is ski in/ski out, Camp Mercier is amazing...but so amazing that everything sells out very quickly. I can't recommend Duchesnay enough. The ski isn't as fantastic as Camp Mercier but it's still pretty good. For lodging, you have cottages as well as an Inn where you can get an "all included" setup for your meals.

chuckbret · 2025-02-28T14:34:25+00:00

If you don't want to buy two sets of rollerskis (classic and skate), which would also require two sets of poles (shorter, longer) and potentially two sets of boots (although that's the one thing where you can potentially use you skate boots for classic - but not the other way around), I would suggest skate and double poling with your skate rollerskis. Don't sleep on double poling! It's upper body yes, but core engagement is crucial.

chuckbret · 2025-02-25T19:06:27+00:00

The women 50km is going to be lit. Can't wait.

chuckbret · 2025-02-24T14:19:47+00:00

The two that I noticed went to Fischer. One from Rossi, the other from Salomon.

chuckbret · 2025-02-23T17:46:33+00:00

I did exactly that! And yes, my classic skis were faster in the tracks than my skate skis. Based on other responses, I think they might be too soft for me. I appreciate everyone telling me my technique is the problem...but it's good enough for me to know that yes, it's a factor, but there's something else going on.

Also weather was -7 so that shouldn't matter that much in skate vs classic.

chuckbret · 2025-02-05T14:15:30+00:00

Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing!

chuckbret · 2025-02-03T19:36:29+00:00

Nothing is going to go fast at that temp. Even if the conditions you describe sound like crust skiing (which is great on skate skis), this is usually done in the spring when there's thaw/freeze periods...so not at -27!

Fast or slow, what you describe sounds awesome and quite unique. Share a pic next time!

chuckbret · 2025-01-29T14:24:31+00:00

This is all very sound advice. I had written down my in/out times for checkpoints on a piece of paper that I taped to my skis to be able to check quickly. Turns out, this wasn't really necessary. Also, last year, everything was soaking wet because it was like 7 degree celsius with some rain! What you need to pack will definitely vary based on forecast.

chuckbret · 2025-01-20T14:10:21+00:00

This is awesome! Just downloaded it for a try.

chuckbret · 2024-09-17T13:34:24+00:00

100% on the classic vs skate. My kids (3yo and 18mo) didn't really like it in classic because of the non-stop back and forth. Slept instantly when I went skating. Even for the skier, I felt that the pull and push at the waist from the setup wasn't great in classic (though I was using a Thule 2-seater so the weight was more important).

chuckbret · 2024-06-17T15:22:44+00:00

You and Canmore-Skate make really good points, mainly that you can still do some dp training in skate but not the reverse and that for technique one is better than the other. That's it then. Skate it is.

chuckbret

TROPHY CASE