13. Backcountry Snowboarding with a Catski Trip to Les Chic-chocs

Join us on this episode of The Chairlift as we recount our unforgettable catboarding experience at Le Chic-Chac catski operation in the Gaspésie  Québec. Discover the beauty and challenges of Quebec's premier backcountry snowboarding destination in the Chic-Chocs mountains, and get insider tips on making the most of your trip.  Whether you're a seasoned rider or new to the sport, this episode is packed with valuable insights and entertaining stories.

Trip Overview:

• Travel details and road conditions 
• Scenic drive along the St. Lawrence River with avalanche and tsunami warnings.

Le Chic-Chac Experience:

• Accommodation and Dining 
• First impressions: Observing the mix of snowboarders and skiers at the lodge.

Catboarding Adventure:

• Day 1: Catboarding on Mount Porphyre 
• Day 2: Exclusive catboarding on Mount York
• Guides: Jerome and Eric, providing excellent guidance and safety instructions.
• Group dynamics: Mixed levels of riders, with snowboarders excelling in deep snow.

Highlights:

• Chic-Chocs Mountains: Stunning scenery, deep powder, and challenging terrain in the heart of Gaspésie.
• Skilled guides, Avalanche safety gear and training.
• Advanced riding skills recommended for catskiing.
• Family considerations: Potential for bringing kids on future trips.

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Transcript

Snowboard Mom: 0:08

Welcome to the Chairlift, the show where we raise the bar on Canadian snowboarding. I'm your host Snowboard mom snowboarder for 28 years, and today on the show I'm gonna tell you about my trip to Lee Shh, on a cat boarding experience in Quebec. So stay tuned and join me for the chair lift Ride up the hill. Okay, so at the end of January, my husband's snowboard dad and I went on a solo trip to the Shik Shuck in Quebec. And this was really nice because we didn't have our two kids, which are Ollie and Kai. Ollie is 12 and Kai is eight. So this was going to be our first cat boarding experience. Now, maybe before I head into the story of our trip, I can tell you about, Lee Shuck, which are mountains out in Quebec. Uh, they are probably the most famous destination for back country riding in, uh, Eastern Canada because of their heavy snowfall. Uh, they get between three to even eight meters of snow, per winter. Three meters would probably be over 10 feet of snow. So quite a bit of snow there and we definitely noticed it when we got there. Uh, it's part of the range of the Appalachians, uh, so. The, the mountains are sizable, and you can do quite a bit of ski touring or split boarding in this range. But we went on a cat boarding experience. So we traveled there by car and of course, this fall we purchased an electric vehicle. There are so many chargers in Quebec. Uh, they're probably the most progressive province, in North America to drive an electric vehicle. So of course we took our electric vehicle, but um, with the charging stops from our place in the Ottawa gat, no area all the way to, Murdoch v It was a 12 hour journey from Montreal, I believe it's about nine hours, uh, straight from Montreal to Murdoch V. It's, um not a short trip. The gas area isn't really near any major hubs. You can fly into gas pay, but really, uh, most people end up driving in. Now I should mention something about the drive. It gets. Quite interesting as you drive up the shores of the St. Lawrence, uh, which heads into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on one side there were mountains and so we were passing by like caution potential avalanche zone. And then on the other side of the road there were other cautions side. Signs saying caution, potential tsunami. So, you know, I'm guessing that part of the road can either get, taken out by an avalanche or, um, major wave actions at any point in time. So as we were driving up the coast, um, yeah, there was some significant winds on our way to Murdoch v to Lasik shack. Uh, it was so bad the blowing snow that, you could barely see like five feet ahead of view. Cars were driving with all four ways on. Some of them were going like 30 kilometers an hour. Um, I'm sure. If snowboard dad were on here, he would say, ah, it wasn't too bad. But of course when we got to, um, the lodge at the Shake Shack, pretty much everyone the next day was talking about how bad the visibility was when they were driving in. We got to our, um. I guess it's sort of like a hostile, they call it the Bel. Uh, so that's where we stayed and it's a hostile style stay. Uh, we had a room with a comfortable queen size bed. Um. And a shared washroom, shared kitchens, uh, really large area for sitting. There is no televisions. However, um, and I don't think there was any wifi in the Oel, so, uh, keep that in mind. Um, but you know, really all the necessities that you need. If, uh, you didn't take a package, for example, that includes food. But of course, our package included all the food. Um, and so we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided in our package. So off we went after checking in and uh, we went to the headquarters. Place for the Chick Shack, and that's where they have all of the rental equipment in the basement. Uh, and that's where you meet your guides in the morning, in the basement. But in the upstairs, uh, there is a really nice large bar and they serve like microbrew. As well as,, lots of really great food. Now, the first evening we ordered a beef stew, both snowboard dad and I, uh, and each had a pint of beer and, um. Yeah, we were just looking around. The place was packed. Uh, and what struck me was that, yeah, it was a lot of dudes, um, you know, women were working at the bar, but mainly, uh, the guests, uh, were dudes. So, you know, we're there snowboard dad and I, and we're looking around, um, you know, the big dining area as well as around the bar and like snowboard. Dad and I are like whispering, like, so I. Who do you think snowboards and who do you think is a skier? And we're like, you know, analyzing everyone's style and what they're wearing and what they look like and their age. And we're like, oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's like maybe like there's a couple over there. They definitely snowboard, but I don't know. I don't see very many snowboarders, Darryl, they all look like skiers and we're like looking at each other like, oh man. Anyway. That was basically our first instinct. Um, but we were surprised the next day to find out that it was a pretty even 50 50 split and maybe even there were perhaps more snowboarders. The next day we wake up and we get our gear, and we get down to the headquarters, And when we got there, we had a full breakfast. You know, unlimited coffee. It's like a buffet, hot buffet breakfast, with sausage, bacon, potatoes, beans. I think there were yogurts and granola, there were toast. The only comment I would have is that they were a little bit understaffed to, uh, manage and fill up the buffet. So we had a bit of a lineup, for people waiting to, you know, scoop their breakfast Um, yeah, so then we went downstairs. And pick up our probe, our shovel, and. Um, our transceiver so that we're all ready to go for our cat boarding experience. Uh, they make you sit down, go through a presentation about safety, about perhaps where you're going, and then they sort of match you, uh, with the guide that you're going to be with that. Day, uh, and you have no idea like what the level of the other skiers and riders are going to be. So it's a little bit up to chance, um, as to whether you're gonna be with a strong group or, you know, maybe a few stragglers. Um, so like I mentioned, uh, we had, you know, it was pretty half and half. Our guide was Jerome. And our, I guess trailing guide, the guide that's in the back, um, making sure that, uh, no one gets lost. It was a, and they were amazing hosts. Yeah. They, they made sure that everyone was safe. Um, they made everyone feel comfortable. I mean, Jerome is a skier, but I guess he's okay for a skier.

10:13

I am kidding. We totally loved Jerome.

Snowboard Mom: 10:17

And of course, at the end of the day, um, the guides will order, uh, some fries and some nachos for their crew. Uh, they also, you know. Make sure that everyone is having a great time. Um, Jerome was definitely a powder hound and trying to ensure that we got the best tracks, uh, that day. The first day we went to, uh, I wanna say that that mountain is not the. Superstar location of, uh, the shit shack. Uh, if you are an experienced rider, like the real highlight for me was Mount York, but I can tell you a little bit about, uh, Mount P now. Right. So remember how the drive the night before I said there was a lot of blowing snow. Well, that pretty much dictated that there would be. Random pockets of snow on. Uh, so of course also gets, um, quite a few ski touring people that, skin up the mountain. Uh, so split borders, ski tours, uh, can gain access to that terrain while Mount York, is exclusive. To the Shik Shack, uh, as the only outfitter that can access the Mount York terrain. Uh, so we went up the first day and because of the blowing snow, you know, there were some areas that were really. Bear. Uh, however, when you got into the trees, um, depending on the run that you took and the side of the mountain that it was, it could get good, however. The way that the wind blew, I think didn't make for the perfect conditions. The conditions were still generally good. Like we all got some powder lines, uh, on, uh, oftentimes though, you know, you could tell that other people had. Been on those runs, they weren't completely like unwritten runs. Um, you're still getting completely fresh lines, like you can still get a lot of fresh tracks out there and especially, you know, on if the wind blew in the right direction, uh, that would've been really good. Um, one thing that I. Did notice is, um, all the snowboarders were fairly strong, um, and were riding the powder a lot easier than, uh, the skiers that were in the groups. You know, I should say like after a day there, because I knew it had been windy, I was expecting some bare spots, but honestly, like I thought we had a really, really good day. Um, but looking back on it now, like I think. You know what I'm, I'm saying like, oh, it wasn't as good and so on. Like, don't really listen to that because it was still really good conditions. It was still like really good powder. It is just when I compare it. To Mount York. Mount York was like next level. The terrain was more challenging. They had platforms. The powder was deeper. The powder was untouched because it's exclusive to the Shik shack. They had a lot of platforms to jump off of. So when you go to, you are close enough from the headquarters. That they can bring you back in the cat and, um, bring you back into the lodge for lunch. So you're in a really comfortable setting for lunch. Uh, you know, if you are, uh, feeling like you've had enough with half a day you can stay back. Uh, same thing. Like if you're finding yourself being tired and whatnot. Um, there's also the option of like skipping a run, staying in the cat. Um, but of course, both snowboard dad and I, uh, we were in for the whole ride and we did a full day. We went in for lunch. Uh. They were like hot sandwiches. They were really good. The one thing I would say is, you know, um, I think I would've liked a hot soup just to warm up a little bit. Uh, but otherwise, like, because we were riding powder, it's a little bit more work than riding groomers. And so we really weren't cold out there, even though it was in the like minus 20 Celsius mark. Um. Which is probably about the same thing in Fahrenheit. I don't know what it is in Fahrenheit. Okay, so a few words from our sponsors, uh, Stone Snowboards is sponsoring the show and our Mavericks Club. They also support some of our local shreds, So if you wanna consider a board company that gives back to the snowboarding community, do check out stone snowboards. Not just that, but they have really superior, craftsmanship and split board setups. For example, they got awarded one of the best US. Snowboards by Backcountry Magazine, and because of their direct to consumer setup, you can get a board for a fraction of the price, even a full setup, They have sales right now for full split board setups and with their floorboard technology, you will see that the core of those boards have a solid. So consider Stone Snowboards, StoneSnowboardsCanada. ca. And if you have any questions, our buddy Pat will be happy to answer them. Now back to the show. Um, we had a different. Guide for Mount York. Uh, Mount York was Eric, our guide, and Eric is a snowboarder. So, um, I think him and Snowboard dad really got along. Uh, he had ordered the same snowboard as snowboard dad, so they had, the whole, hometown hero connection. Um. And basically they both had the same goggle style helmet style. So. You know, in the end, I really feel like your experience may depend on also the guide that you have and, um, their level of comfort bringing you on certain terrain, but also I. Simply their guiding style in general. Uh, so Eric was not shy about bringing the whole group on some fairly challenging terrain. Like many of the runs that we had had, um, what I would call like a break in the run where uh, there was definitely like. Areas that you had to jump over, a, a small drop, uh, to get through the run or do some very tight maneuvering to get through a section, for example. Um, and of course over some of the platforms, he was basically saying like, oh yeah, you guys. All have the ability to jump, uh, this jump that is, man built. Uh, and I thought that was amazing. Like it really pushed, some people out of their per like comfort zone a little bit, but like not too much like. Just when they were willing to do it. And there was always a little like way of getting out of it if you wanted to as well. Like you didn't need to hit like a small cliff or small drop, uh, but you know, if that's what you're seeking, you're, you're seeking to get out of your comfort zone. Um. It was there and you know, the landing was always, uh, super deep and soft. Um, so it was a guaranteed good time, man. It was deep on Mount York, like some of those runs. Um, our guide was saying like, yeah, I don't think that run has been touched in like a month and a half. Um, and we went at the very end of their low season. When they have low season, they're only bringing people up on the cat once a week. While during high season, from what I understood, they were bringing people up the mountain like pretty much every day. Um, so. If you do have the opportunity and you see the forecast is good in Murdoch, Phil, there's snow. Um, I highly recommend going, uh, during the low season. Um, you're like pretty much guaranteed, like untouched, uh, powder riding. If you go after a snowfall and even like, I would say probably like weeks after a snowfall, there's probably like untouched powder or untouched runs like entire runs, uh, in their cat ski operations. And by the way, when, uh, they bring you to Mount York, they have a cabin at the base of the mountain. You know, it, it's like a rustic cabin. Uh, they have a wood stove in there and they put, um, a bunch of the coolers in there with everyone's lunches that they have prepared for you. And they make sure that, that, um. That wood stove is burning hot so that when you do go in, you have a place to warm up, um, and you can put your sandwich on the wood stove, heat it up so that you have a fairly warm lunch, uh, and that you're comfortable and away from that cold. Um. So Mount York is a little bit further from their headquarters. It's um, if I remember correctly, it's about like a 45 minute cat trip just to the base of Mount York. Um, and then they bring you up. Uh, but you stay there all day. And of course, because Mount York's a little bit further, um, yeah, you, you may not get like as many runs as doing, for example, one option that you do have. If you're not able to spend so much money, uh, on the cap boarding experience is that you can stay at the Chick Shack, um, and enjoy like their headquarters food bar, the whole ambiance. Um. You can also go just skinning up. Uh, which is something I thought I was gonna do. Um, in fact, like I loved my experience so much that I was thinking like, man, like I'm off of work right now. Um, I was like, maybe I could stay. A little bit longer, maybe I could just like spend my days here and skin up the mountain, enjoy the powder, enjoy like the wilderness, the outdoors, the amount of snow that they get. Um, and just be in a small town with good ambiance. Uh, you know, you would get back every day, like every night we would get back from. Riding, by the way, we only had two days of riding, but three nights and people were just eating food, drinking good beer, having good conversations, like we were looking at the photos of the day and talking about some of the gnarly like runs that we did, and then like what? Were the plans for the next day. I know the last day that we were there, like the guides were like, come on, like you guys should stay longer. We should like ride tomorrow. We've got space in the cats. Anyway, they were like totally pumping us up. Um, I wish I could have stayed longer. Um, you know, and while we were there. Snowboard. Dad and I were like, oh, we wish we would've brought the kids as much as it was nice to like have an adult snowboard trip. I think that both our kids, Kai and Ali would've really loved the powder. There is one part of me that wonders if like Kai fell in that powder that. He would be trying to swim out of it forever because he's so small. Um, but I think Ali is more than, I mean, Ali is a better snowboarder than I am at this point in time. Uh, so, and he's almost as big as I am. So, you know, Ali wouldn't have had an ounce of a problem going there. Um. However, I do want to caution that, you know, if you do cat go cat boarding, um, I recommend that you have like. An advance level of riding. Um, otherwise you may either be too exhausted to do a full day or, um, you'll feel as though you're slowing down the group. If you do go, uh, and you feel like, you know, you're not sure if your experience level is high enough, um, I suggest going with a group of other people that are at your level so that you can fully enjoy it, and that the guides can bring you in something that is appropriate for your skill level. Okay, so I've pretty much told you my experience with, uh, the Chick Shack. Um, now we're gonna talk to snowboard dad, and he's gonna give us his take on his trip to Le Shik Shuck with the cat boarding experience at Le Shack. So, snowboard dad, how are you? I'm good. Okay. So. Tell me, um, how about you tell us how was the drive getting there? it was a little, uh, white knuckle. There was, uh, a lot of blowing snow on the road, uh, especially as we, uh. Got into, uh, the gas bay region and, um, the road kinda winds along right along the, uh, the St. Lawrence Gulf of St. Lawrence. And, and, uh, on one side you've got the, the, the, the, the Shuck Mountains and on the other side you've got, uh, the Gulf and uh, the road just kind of wind meanders along and winds along there. It's quite a picturesque. Um. Uh, uh, spot, but, uh, during the winter with the, um, there's a lot of wind coming in there and there was a lot of blowing snow. So, uh, many times I could not see cars in front of me, uh, as we were driving, so we had to slow down quite a bit. But, uh, yeah, that's consistent with what I said earlier. And, uh, yeah, I said that you were probably going to say that it really wasn't that bad. I was Okay. I'm used to driving in the snow, so, uh, um, you know, it was okay. All right. Okay, so we got there. We settled our stuff, we got in the lodge. Um, okay, so. I told everyone about, like how we picked up our gear and they gave us like, you know, some avalanche, you know, just tidbits, some information. And by the way, on the first day too, they gave us like a full, um, well full like a. A rundown of how to use our, your probes and how to use your transceivers, and the whole procedure on how to work as a group to, um, find someone that's, for example, buried at an avalanche. Uh, so that was really good. So tell us about. Your experience on our first day riding? Um, well, the, the, the conditions were pretty variable. There was a lot of, uh, windblown snow. And that snow was, uh, like sandpaper. On the board. So your board was running pretty slow in a lot of sections. Um, it was a little hard to predict'cause you'd go through windblown areas and then you'd also get a little deeper into the trees. It was a bit less windblown and, and, uh, things would speed up. So it was, it was, uh. Slightly difficult to manage just, uh, between running on sandpaper and, and then gliding like you would normally glide. So, um, definitely made for, uh, an interesting day, uh, trying to, uh. Snowboard. I felt a little bit like I had a hard time snowboarding. Uh, almost like my, my, my snowboard was too long. Uh, it was difficult to sometimes to, uh, quickly maneuver, uh, in tight turns and tight trees in, in some spaces because, uh, uh, the board just wasn't pivoting through the snow very well. Okay, and so let's contrast that. To Mount York. Oh. Uh, night and day, I guess on York. I don't know what the, um, what, what direction the face, uh, it faces, but, uh. The, uh, it's definitely not impacted by the wind. Um, in fact, I think, uh, blowing snow was just, uh, causing, causing, uh, uh, that snow to accumulate. And it was meters deep in there. It was, uh, it was pretty, uh. Pretty epic all time. Deep, deep snow, um, bottomless. And, uh, the pitch is, uh, pretty steep in a lot of sections. So, um, kind of exactly what you want, steep and deep. So, um, and, and, and on that mountain there was actual, you know, uh. You would think in the East Coast there wouldn't be much in the way of avalanche, uh, concern. But, uh, but in fact, uh, with the snow conditions, the way they were, it was pretty deep. Um, you could definitely see how sections could easily slide'cause it was so steep, uh, that, uh, there's definitely avalanches. In fact, uh, even just, uh, a week or so ago, we got a big. We got two big dumps of snow and, uh, there was, that was enough to cause a, an avalanche that, uh, uh, went right across the road, um, that we just talked about having lots of blowing snow on. On the way in, um, and nobody was hurt there. But, uh, just to give you an, an example that, uh, there are in fact truly avalanches, uh, in Quebec. Yeah. I, and I think, you know, the Gas Bay area is known to be like one of the only true big mountain backcountry experiences that you can get in eastern North America. So it really is a unique experience. Um, in terms of like, what. What would you say about the guiding and so on that, you know, we were in a group. Um, what did you think of all of that? Um, I thought it was, uh, it was fine. We, we, I think we got lucky, uh, with the group that we were with. Uh, I don't think we had anybody in our group that was terribly slow, um, that held back the group by too much. Um, they would comment that, uh, uh, it was obvious that, uh, snowboards have a much easier time going through the deep snow. So, on Mount York, um, it was always, the snowboarders were the first ones down to the bottom. Uh, we were constantly waiting for the skiers to catch up. They just had a much harder time skiing And, uh, uh. Bottomless powder. So, um, they weren't going as squa as quick as us, but, uh, nonetheless, I think they were all, uh, all the skiers we had in our group were, uh, were, uh, no, no one was an amateur. So, uh, we were able to kind of, uh, quickly load up and it was enough to get to the bottom, get a breather in, and then hop in the, uh, hop in the, uh, cat for another trip back up to the top. Yeah, so we were doing like what, seven, eight runs a day. Do you remember what the name of the ski hill that's actually beside the headquarters? Like we actually did a run with the cat on that ski hill. Do you remember what the hill was named? Yeah, it's Mount uh, Miller. That's right Miller. So, yeah, so there is actually a ski hill right beside, um, and I think that mountain can also be pretty good. Like it didn't seem like there was that much traffic on that mountain. And so you can get some good powder turns there, even with a tea bar run. Um, I have a question for you, Darrell. If, um, you know. Would you go back? What, what are your thoughts? Oh, I would definitely go back. It was, um, it was a great experience. Uh uh, the snow was really good. Uh, they get a lot of it. Uh, I forgot to mention as we came in to, uh, Murdoch fill right where, uh, the Shik shack is located, uh, it was pretty obvious that the snow banks that had been snowing there a significant amount, especially compared to, you know, the rest of Quebec, uh, which we had been, uh. Traveling around, uh, quite a bit already, early season and, um, uh, they definitely were in full winter mode. The, the snowbanks were meters and meters tall, um, and they were, there was a lot of snow there, so definitely worthwhile, uh, for anybody interested in going. They get a lot of snow and, um, it's really. Uh, a great experience. The, um, and the cat, the cat boarding there is a lot of fun. Um, also on Mount York, uh, the runs that they've built, they built up all kinds of platforms, um, uh, that, uh, make and there's, there's several cliff drops, um, along that run. It was pretty challenging terrain at, uh, lots of opportunities to get in the air. Um, and, uh, to do some cool stuff and, and, uh, they, they made sure to, to, to clear landings and things like that. So it was, it was well thought out terrain. A lot of fun to ride. Um, and definitely worth going back there. Awesome. Thanks so much snowboard, dad. Thank you. All. I hope you enjoyed this episode all about our trip to La sh. If you like the show, don't forget to smash that five star rating on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or the listening app of your choice. Leave us a review and you have a chance to get a wonderful 6 8, 6 cozy to keep your beverages cold. Just make sure to take a screenshot of your review and send it. To us via Instagram at Kai Ali Shred. The link is in the show notes. If you are interested in helping out with the Mavericks, it's our competitive. Kids Snowboard club. We have a fundraiser where you can win one of two Grom stone snowboards. We have a one 15 centimeter and a one 30 centimeter kiss model. It's a full chamber kids board. Yeah, check out the show notes. You can find out how you can, uh, purchase tickets for the draw, and the draw will take place around April 4th. We will be announcing the winners on the Facebook, uh, page for the gathering groms, but we'll also make sure to contact the winners via email. Or text message, so hope you enjoyed the show again. Let's raise the bar on Canadian snowboarding.