STEEP SKIING CAMP 2021

Winter is already leaving us at the end of March. It's time for training! Postponed for a year given the pandemic, the Mountaineering Camp developed by Ski Chic-Chocs can finally be implemented. Six goats from our team traveled to Gaspésie to live the experience. Overview of adventure.

Wednesday evening, eve of departure for Gaspésie. The luggage is completed, the final preparations are completed. The splitboards are ready, the touring skis too. As I finish filling my bag with my skins, my sleeping bag and way too many intermediate layers, Pascale calls on my cell phone. According to our guide and owner of Ski Chic-Chocs, Stéphane Gagnon, the conditions are not optimal, but safe in the Chic-Chocs. We have a choice to push back – again! – training where to go all in .

Composed of Pascale, Émilie, Maryse, Manue and I, our group of adventurers in search of challenges, decides to go to their destination and live the experience, for better or for worse. We leave for Sainte-Anne-des-Monts as planned, Thursday morning March 25th. We are thirsty for knowledge, knowledge, learning on the ground. To get out of our comfort zone (from home too, but that's another story!). The spectacular Mines Madeleine sector in the Chic-Chocs Wildlife Reserve awaits us for three days of pure thrills in mountain skiing.

Navigate the high mountains

The objective of our training is to give us basic tools to navigate in high mountains and descent techniques in steep terrain. We will learn to plan a route based on weather patterns, avalanche bulletins, and learn mountaineering equipment such as ice axe, harnesses, ropes, crampons and ski knives. All guided by an incredible team of luminaries certified by the Canadian Association of Mountain Guides (ACGM: Philippe Gautier and Stéphane Gagnon, surrounded by their colleague to respect the ratios.

It's a challenge to move and ski with full bags! Even more when the conditions are difficult. We had to adapt to a changeable weather changing from a spring afternoon under an azure blue sky, to windy and colder days. These upheavals make us realize how much we are at the mercy of Mother Nature in the mountains. She always wins. Rarely human.

Our two nights of winter camping quickly turned into one. A beautiful, under the full moon. But the storm was waiting for us the next day, the winds, the expected centimeters of snow and the return which was going to be quite stormy.

Thanks to this adaptation - and especially to our week of vacation - we were able to enjoy a mind-blowing day of descents in the corridors and bowls, under the sun, on the summit of Petit Mont Saint-Anne as well as the Cuve de the Eagle. An excellent dose of adrenaline for all!

Head full of ideas

We come back from this training with a head full of ideas. Personal challenges to overcome. Goals to set for the next few years. The Mountaineering Camp is an introduction to a whole other world! This is why Les Chèvres de Montagne have decided to collaborate with Ski Chic-Chocs in order to offer training focused more on progression than on an introduction to high road sports.

Progressing is a bit like getting started: sometimes you don't know where to start! Thanks to this collaboration, Les Chèvres are continuing their mission to provide unique experiences and pass on knowledge, all in a festive (our trademark!) and safe environment.

We thank our dedicated guides who were able to endure all our giggles – who participated too! With whom we experienced thrills, who gave us confidence and who transmitted their knowledge to us with so much passion and truth. Our next goal? We are working for you, dear Goats, on the development of these new training courses for winter 2022.

Stay tuned! Memorable experiences await you, we promise.

Written by Élisabeth Beaudoin (Les Chèvres de Montagne)

Thank you to the whole Chèvres de Montagne team for this event and for the beautiful moments! See you soon!