Limitless horizons.(Quebec touted)
Quebec's winter affords a wide variety of world-class attractions and unlimited opportunity for adventure.
Horse races over the frozen Riviere Saint-Charles. Scaling the "sugar cone" at the Montmorency waterfalls. Whether it's dogsledding, bobsledding or ripping down a luge, Quebec's historic archives are filled with old photos and lithographs of Quebecois celebrating winter in the most remarkable ways. Because we've been doing it for centuries.
In 1756, Quebec City hosted the first curling games in North America. In 1851, we built the first indoor skating rink in North America at Le Club House in Quebec City. And the rules of ice hockey were drafted in Montreal in 1877. The first snowmobile was built in 1922 in the little town of Valcourt. And today, the Quebecois' passion for snowmobiling finds expression along the world's largest network of snowmobile trails -- nearly 20,000 miles of them.
If anyone can rhapsodize about snow and ice, from snowflake to iceberg, it's world adventurer Bernard Voyer. What else could have inspired a boy from the town of Rimouski on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River to conquer the magnetic and geographic North and South Poles, climb Mount Everest, explore the world's highest active volcanoes, and Quebec's wildest rivers? "All the passion I have today for exploring the planet comes from my childhood," says Bernard. "Winter was my first taste of adventure. It taught me that I could go anywhere in the world, do anything. It's the most beautiful, most dramatic, most powerful season of all. If there weren't snow on Everest, I wouldn't have climbed it!"
From Abitibi-Temiscamingue to Chaudiere-Appalaches, and from La Mauricie to Centre-du-Quebec and the Coastal region, winter is the season for adventure. Quebec has 30 major cross-country skiing centers and thousands of miles of well-maintained trails, including the renowned and spectacular 60-mile run called "La Traversee de Charlevoix." From Quebec's dogsledding clubs and operators, you can learn the history of this tradition and experience the true adventure of travelling by Alaskan husky.
For thrills, it's a toss-up between luging and snowmobiling. To learn all about the history of the "ski dog" that became a"Ski-doo," visit the J. Armand Bombardier Snowmobile Museum in Valcourt. Along Quebec's nearly 20,000-mile network of carefully maintained and well-marked snowmobile trails, you can venture from village to village, pulling your snowmobile right up to the door of your cozy auberge or country inn.
But don't let the adrenaline rush obscure the peacefulness and majesty of
the wintery countryside. Do like Bernard Voyer: look for the magic. "In
winter you can see the wind, how it sculpts the snow and ice. And you can
see life all around you, in the tracks of animals and people. Wherever I go,
there is not a single body of water, not a river, lake or stream I see without
imagining how magnificent it would look frozen!"