Gaspesie Trip: An Intro to the Chic-Chocs



Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to meet Santa and get introduced to the backcountry of Gaspesie by my good friend Yannick, a chroniquer for Zone Ski, as well as some of the local professionals. Here's an outline of my trip, including the spots we checked out and some personal tips.

Day 1: A Rough Start at Mont Lyall

After a long drive from Montreal, we hit up Mont Lyall for a one quick lap. I enjoyed it but it was rough intro to skinning up, partially due to the approach and the difficulty of the runs. The runs range from expert to extreme. It took us an hour to the base and another hour of tricky switchbacks to get to the summit. We rode down one of the newly open wooded runs on the right and headed for Murdochville for a couple of days.



Day 2: The Recovery at Mont Miller

At Murdochville, we met up the Chic-Chac team. They are the ones who primarily develop and maintain Lyall’s runs. They’re a hardworking team. We enjoyed a mellow day going up and down a t-bar at Mont Miller, also ran by Chic-Chac. A little hill with fun woods and short ungroomed trails.

Day 3: The Luxurious Catskiing at Mont York and Mont Bell

The second day was luxurious day of catskiing at Mont York and Mont Bell. An area that you aren’t able to really get to unless you have a snowmobile (or a catski). It offered some great powder and modules to jump. It made for a great day. Yannick returned home and I warriored on.


Day 4 - 7: Back to the Wild in Champs de Mars

After some driving Gapse and Perce for two days, I ended up in Saint-Anne-des-Monts to meet up with a local guide, Felix Savard Cote. This guy really knows the Chic-Chocs. Finding it useless to cut trees down to open trails, he incessantly travels in the Chic-Chocs to find new runs that are there naturally.



He introduced me to one of the classic spots, Champs de Mars. It offers some runs that are nice for learning how to ski in the backcountry with its intermediate difficulty runs. Get there early, it gets crowded by the afternoon. I enjoyed it so much that I went back for some more exploration one more day before heading back to Montreal.

Final Thougths

If I were to do it all over again, I would Airbnb in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and strictly split-board in the Chic-Chocs reserve. Murdochville is fun and it has a great New Years party (so I’ve been told) but unless you are shelling out big bucks for catskiing, you are going to be crowded out. The next trip will hopefully incorporate some backcountry camping and some runs down Mont Albert, the biggest mountain in the Chic-Chocs.

And here's how I spent my holidays away from Montreal. By far, Champ de Mars is the place to check out to start. Grab a guide book and look at all the cool spots. Hogsback is another spot that is a good place to start. Needless to say, get avalanche safety training and go with a guide or experienced people in the backcountry.


About the author: Greg Gibson has been climbing since 2010 and started MTL Climbing with Kushwant Bussawah to help bridge the gap for his friends trying out climbing and help share cool areas and trip stories. When he is not trying figure out how to get up a rock, he works a day job as an engineer.




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