Saving Mont-Sainte-Anne

By Published On: November 12th, 2014Comments Off on Saving Mont-Sainte-Anne

Eastern Canada’s last remaining FIS speed venue faces suspension

They say no good deed goes unpunished, and such is the case with the noble gesture on the part of a race organizing committee (ROC) that picked up an extra NorAm series during the 2013-14 season.

The willingness of the Mont-Sainte-Anne Resort and Ski Club in Quebec to host speed races when nearby Le Massif was unable to do so has now backfired with severe consequences, resulting in the suspension of the FIS homologation for super G and downhill on the La Crete trail.

“It was a bit of a domino effect,” says Ski Quebec Alpine General Manager Daniel Lavallee. “First of all, the NorAm was supposed to take place at Le Massif. But Le Massif closed the Charlevoix [side of the mountain]. … The Charlevoix is on hold for now. We don’t know if it will ever open again as the speed venue.”

Daniel Lavallee of Ski Quebec Alpin says frustration over the venue snowballed.Daniel Lavallee of Ski Quebec Alpine says frustration over the venue snowballed.

A Build-Up of Bad Blood

The fabled downhill track at Le Massif, La Charlevoix, was a $22 million investment in the future of Canadian speed athletes, funded by regional and national government grants, that now lies in limbo. After ownership of the mountain changed hands, the contract required the new owners to operate the facility for only a certain number of years and has since expired.

Lavallee did not criticize the new owners, citing that he understands they are in business and need to mindful of their bottom line.

“When we had to find a new venue, we asked Mt. Ste. Anne and the Mt. Ste. Anne Ski Club if they would take on the event,” says Lavallee. “They accepted, and that in and of itself ended up being a bit of a dual-edged sword. Because the ROC hadn’t organized a high level event for quite a while, [it] was not as ready maybe as they should have been. When coaches arrived, there was a lot of frustration with the way that the safety was installed or a lack of safety installed. There was a build-up of bad blood…between the coaches, the ROC, and it kind of polarized itself between mainly Western coaches and Eastern coaches, but also West and East U.S. as well.”

Coaches complained that the B-nets set by the ROC overlapped by too many panels, were not set in enough rows in some sections, and didn’t stretch to the bottom of the course because of the excessive overlapping. Once the fences were reset and a day of downhill training had been cancelled, some coaches still felt the trail was too narrow in places.

Green Mountain Valley School coach and former World Cup super G and Continental Cup downhiller Chris Frank, who has experience at speed venues worldwide, directly questioned the safety of the slope as a whole.

“Once the second row [of fencing] was added it cut down significantly on the width,” he explains. “There was very little to no room to bail. If the trail were wider with room to slide, one layer may have been sufficient. But at those speeds, hitting the net full-on — two layers was necessary to stop them before the thick woods.”

Frank adds that the trail was too narrow for downhill. “Some of the narrowest sections were the fastest, darkest, and most technical,” he says. “I think that the trail is borderline for super G. The narrow nature of the trail made it tough to set offset and slow the speed down. This compounded the risk of that venue. I was comfortable with my athletes’ ability, but others who I would like to make the transition to that level — I would not have let them race.”

Chris Frank, a GMVS coach with World Cup and Continental Cup speed experience, directly questioned the safety of the slope. GEPA

Chris Frank, a GMVS coach with World Cup and Continental Cup speed experience, directly questioned the safety of the slope. GEPA

Although Lavallee says he recognizes the shortcomings of the organizers to have the hill properly prepared in advance, he was pleased with the final product of the race series.

“In the end, I think [the ROC] did very good work,” says Lavallee. “But the frustration had snowballed. There were people in leadership positions who probably could have tried to calm things down a bit more. A lot of coaches left there very frustrated.” Lavallee added that Paul Kristofic, Alpine Canada’s representative on the NorAm committee and an Alpine Canada vice president, made a report about the piste to the FIS.

The FIS NorAm sub-committee report from June 2014 emphasized an overarching goal of hosting events at “technically appropriate venues with a focus on snow quality, safety, effective schedule management and overall race quality.”

After positive reports on most of the venues from the 2013-14 season, the report noted: “Playing host to the February NorAm Speed events, Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec, was a substitute venue for Le Massif, Quebec. Despite weather and track preparation challenges, both downhill races were held. It was agreed amongst the NorAm Committee members that future NorAm speed races at Mt. Ste. Anne will not be considered without a full evaluation of and execution of safety requirements.”

Neither Kristofic nor Alpine Canada agreed to provide comment, deferring to the FIS review.

Four Decades Down the Drain?

Lavallee stands behind the slope at Mt. Ste. Anne and its history as a 40-year venue that has never solicited a negative report from a technical delegate regarding the safety of the hill.

“In all my years I’ve been on this piste both as a coach and with my job now, I never went there with a knot in my stomach saying I hope we make it through,” he says. “I strongly feel that it’s a safe venue, and history shows there has never been a bad accident that had to do with the design of the piste.”

Dustin Cook, a Canadian World Cup athlete with Eastern origins who placed second in both downhills of the NorAm series, echoes Lavallee’s sentiments. “It’s a narrow track for sure — not so bad if they groom it out to the edges properly,” he says. “But it’s a fairly easy track, so the narrowness, in my opinion, isn’t a big deal. It definitely didn’t seem unsafe to me.”

But Richard Jagger, who was the head men’s coach of the Alberta Ski Team during last season’s race at Mt. Ste. Anne, disagreed with both Lavallee and Cook’s assessment of the venue.

“Basically the run from the Bellevue turn down is too narrow for two layers of B-net or three depending on the turn shape,” Jagger explains to Ski Racing today. “I was not on the jury, so I was not involved in all of the discussion or any of the decision making. … The issue with the ROC was the unwillingness of the local volunteers to accept that in North America, the level of safety required has increased, and the track has not kept up with the changes in the standards of what is acceptable for a speed event.”

The palpable tension Lavallee described at the race came back to haunt the venue at the end of the season, he says, with supplementary reports questioning the piste.

Chuck Hughes, the Vermont-based TD at the series in question, also declined to comment on the matter but did indicate that he was not the author of any report that made its way to the FIS requesting a review of the venue.

In March 2015, Mt. Ste. Anne is slated to host the Canadian national championships consisting of slalom, giant slalom, super G, super combined and downhill races. Alpine Canada asked that the ROC audit the slope to see what could be done to improve the venue in order to host the national championships.

“We agreed to that,” says Lavallee, “but we were very clear with Alpine Canada that it had to be an audit for the national championship and not one to jeopardize the homologation of the piste because it’s our last speed venue [in the East] and we can’t afford to lose that.”

But that’s precisely what happened after an Alberta safety inspector and Pete Bosinger, Director of Events for Alpine Canada, visited Mt. Ste. Anne. The FIS homologation for super G and downhill was suspended until specific conditions are met.

Ski Quebec Alpin, Mt. Ste. Anne Ski Club, and the resort have agreed to cover 90 percent of the necessary alterations and improvements requested in the safety report.

“The other 10 percent, it’s mainly cutting trees in a certain section and extra snowmaking, and the mountain doesn’t want to do that because it would force them to have recurring costs every year,” says Lavallee. “Mt. Ste. Anne has been an extremely good partner of ski racing in Quebec. They’ve gone a long way in helping us our year after year.”

A Solution This Season?

What started as an audit for the national championships has now had a much greater impact on a venue that is supposed to host other FIS speed events this winter, including a Super Series event.

“I have to be honest, we weren’t aware that if we could not do all of the work that we would lose the homologation,” says Lavallee. “But that’s what happened. And for us, it’s not just losing the national championship – but even more important – is losing our only Eastern speed venue.”

Establishing and maintaining a speed venue has particular challenges in the East, where trails are especially narrow and typically lined by trees.

“We are really lucky in North America to take advantage of venues like Lake Louise, Copper, Nakiska and Aspen for NorAm speed races,” says Frank. “It is much more difficult to bring a safe venue in everyone’s opinion to the East. Sugarloaf and Le Massif are great, but I was disappointed to see the venue at Mt. Ste. Anne.”

Initially Lavallee did not get the sense that the national governing body fully grasped the severity of the situation not only for Mt. Ste. Anne but for all Eastern provinces and the country as a whole.

“If I’m a grower of corn, half my field just got shut down, but I’m still asked to produce corn,” he says. “I sense that Alpine Canada understands the importance and the trouble with shutting down the piste, and I think they are now in solution mode with us. And I’m optimistic and confident that we will find a solution.”

The fabled La Charlevoix at Le Massif is now closed.The fabled La Charlevoix at Le Massif is now closed.

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.