It was the last trip of the year – I went sampling to Parc Tremblant, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive north of Montreal. The snow water content was already very high and the metamorphism of the snow advanced. Snow temperature was almost uniform in the first 15 cm. There is not snowmobiliing the park during winter, so pollutants should be considerably reduced. Additionally, it is far from larger cities and there is not much to the West either.
The weather was great and I had no problems sampling at 5 different spots in the park (40 samples in total). Only a few trails were open due to the melting season, but it was enough for me. I have sampled up a mountain (about 250 m up from Lac Monroe and near a smaller lake (Lac-des-Femmes). I am now pretty confident in using my protocol, so everything went smoothly. I hope to get additional meteorological data from Tremblant, which is the next Environment Canada meteorological station.
After a long day, I was able to bring my samples back to the lab still frozen and in original state, where I put them into a freezer immediately. Nice. So – with the last samples coming in from Alaska this week, my collection will be complete; I have more than enough to do over the summer.
