Hiking: Des Cimes Trail

This is a 13.7 km hike with 390 m of elevation gain located in the Mont Mégantic National Park. The drive from Montreal is about an 2h30min. The cost is 8.75$ if you don’t have a SEPAQ Anual Card. This trail is located in the Franceville sector.

The hike is moderate, but if you do it at this time of the year snow might make it a bit more laborious. In the other season this would have been a walk in the park but I did do it with fresh snow and it made it a bit harder. It did help for the slip once I’ve put the trail crampons on but the constant motion of raising your leg higher up to get it out of the snow got more tiring than I normally get. If like me you’re not an experience winter hiker, I would begin with 1/3 less than what you are use to hike to be on the safe side on your few first hike to get the feel for it.

Mont Megantic National Park is one of my favourite places to hike and winter just like summer gives you beautiful views. On this hike we encountered 3 views points, 2 with great views and the last one we were in the fog which still made for a great view.

The trails are well indicated and maintain, we didnt get off track once. I went with light winter boots and gaiters on this one. Knowing I would be in a good amount of snow the whole hike I wanted to maker sure to keep my feet warm. I also used the hiking poles and trail crampons. If you feel there’s less traction on your crampons there was a lot slush along the way and we had to clean them often to keep good traction.

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