Le Massif is a striking slab of ski-hill geography east of the Charlevoix region of Quebec. Geologists tell us it’s a depression that was scooped from the Earth’s crust by a cataclysmic meteor crash some 350 million years ago.

An hour’s drive from the provincial capital, this resort on the verge of a boom is situated next to Baie-Saint-Paul.

With its runs sculpted from dense forest, Le Massif soars above the north shore of the sparkling St. Lawrence River like a primordial sentry.

There’s something epic about the surrounding landscape, and perhaps Charlevoix in general, that tends to attract dreamers.

Investing in Le Massif's Future

In 2002, Cirque de Soleil co-founder and former owner Daniel Gauthier decided Le Massif was the sort of place he could put his considerable financial resources into.

So he bought the sleepy ski hill.

For this multimillionaire, the potential of Le Massif was obvious. The abandoned railway line linking the resort to Quebec City—similar to the ones you find at European ski resorts—begged for a refurbishment.

The respectable 770 metres of vertical, the highest of any ski resort east of the Rockies in Canada, was nothing to sneeze at.

Then there was nearby Baie-Saint-Paul, a village with a uncontrived charm that has long lured outdoor enthusiasts and artists.

Skiing Le Massif

On a balmy April morning, I carved my skis through buttery snow, following my 67-year-old guide, Denis Robichaud, a former civil servant whose retirement passion is skiing.

From that height, the hazy St. Lawrence looked more like a sea than a river. The forest crowding the edge of the run was a mix of birch, cedar, fir, hemlock and aspen.

Here and there, granite capstones poked above the melting spring snow like a monk’s shaved head.

“I ski about 80 days a season. We’re lucky here; [the glades] are about 90 per cent natural snow and only 10 per cent man-made,” Robichaud says before schussing down a wide run that snakes its way down to the base lodge.

History of Le Massif

The first ski lift started turning at Le Massif back in 1992.

But this conspicuous monolith was capturing the attention of diehards as early as the 1980.

They'd shuttle from the base to the top in a rickety old bus for one laborious run after another. Up and down, up and down—now that takes a serious love of skiing.

Bold Changes Ahead

Now, with one of Quebec’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, also an avid skier, at the helm, Le Massif is set for bold change.

Visitors to the resort this winter will be met by lift and terrain expansion, part of a long-term plan that will boost skiable acres by 30 per cent.

Already, a new eight-person gondola, plus two other new lifts, will enter service this season.

All this is just the beginning of Le Massif’s transformation, and a planned $230-million investment will focus on three nodes:

• La Montagne, with accommodations and services centred on the mountain’s 806-metre summit

• La Ferme in Baie-Saint-Paul, featuring a 150-room hotel with a spa and restaurant that showcases Charlevoix’s agricultural bounty, farmers market and train station

• La Base, on the St. Lawrence riverside, with yet more chalets, boutiques and hotels
 
Gauthier also bought the antiquated train tracks with the dream of creating a unique resort-city rail link, enabling skiers to board in Quebec City and literally step off the train and onto the slopes a few hours later.

With a fleet of eight railway coaches undergoing complete makeovers, and ongoing upgrades to the 140-km line, departures are expected to commence in June of 2011.

But nothing happens in Charlevoix quickly; people are drawn here because life ebbs and flows at a more natural pace than it does in the centre of political power just a short drive west along the St. Lawrence.

Artists go there for the simplicity of life, and to feast on the watery filtered light of the mighty St. Lawrence.

Thankfully, Gauthier was astute enough to realize the worst approach would have been to impose his development ideas onto Charlevoix with the subtlety of a meteor.