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Félix Savard-Côté : Skieur ascendant montagne / Skiing Life’s Peaks

  • February 17, 2021
  • Ned Morgan
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Mots :: Maxime Bilodeau.

Félix Savard-Côté est un accro de la glisse. S’il le pouvait, cet adepte de ski hors-piste passerait chaque seconde de son existence sur les hauts sommets, à dévaler la poudreuse. C’est pourquoi rien ne l’empêche de fréquenter quotidiennement les Chic-Chocs, son terrain de jeu de prédilection qu’il skie à raison d’environ 150 jours par année. Lorsque l’or blanc se fait rare au sol, on peut croiser Savard-Côté dans les sentiers qui sillonnent le mont Albert, sa montagne préférée, où il peut courir jusqu’à 145 km par semaine en été. Une forme de méthadone comme une autre.

« Je la monte et la descends deux fois en moyenne à chaque sortie. Ça m’aide à demeurer en forme pour le ski hors-piste », nous racontait-il en septembre dernier. Savard-Côté trépignait alors d’impatience en vue de l’arrivée de la saison froide. Dès la levée du corps, à 4 h 30 du matin, il scrutait la météo à la recherche du moindre risque de gel accompagné de quelques flocons. « J’enfile généralement les skis en novembre, parfois dès la fin octobre. Chose certaine, on ne me revoit plus avant mai ou juin. »

La passion dévorante du skieur naît au pied du mont Vallières-de-Saint-Réal en décembre 2012. Ce jour-là, il enfile pour la première fois un équipement de ski hors-piste de seconde main, puis part à l’assaut de la longue crête dénudée qui caractérise cette bosse de 917 m. « Je n’avais aucune expérience, je partais de zéro ! Ç’a pourtant été une des plus belles expériences de ma vie », se souvient l’autodidacte. Le Gaspésien d’adoption – il est natif de Drummondville – est happé par une avalanche de sensations inédites. Sa vie venait de prendre une tout autre tangente.

Felix-Savard-Cote-Skieur-ascendant-montagne-Skiing-Lifes-Peaks-photo-by-SIMON HEBERT
Photo: SIMON HÉBERT

Au fil des années, il articule petit à petit son existence autour du ski hors-piste. En 2016, Savard-Côté quitte son emploi d’aubergiste au Sea Shack, qu’il juge incompatible avec son mode de vie souhaité. Aujourd’hui, il bosse comme monteur de lignes pendant la belle saison, assurant la maintenance des nombreux parcs éoliens de la Gaspésie. Un gagne-pain qui lui permet de gagner juste assez pour subvenir à ses humbles besoins. « En parallèle, je m’astreins à la simplicité volontaire. Certains parlent de privation ; je vois plutôt cela comme un sacrifice », nuance-t-il.

Cela vaut aussi pour sa vie intime, assez tranquille. La seule beauté sauvage de sa maîtresse dame Nature suffit, semble-t-il, à le garder accroché. Ça, et son fix régulier de poudreuse immaculée. « Je puise du sens à même la montagne. Une vie complète à s’y consacrer ne serait pas une vie perdue », soutient Savard-Côté, qui rêve d’un jour dévaler la neige éternelle des glaciers de l’Himalaya, l’équivalent de La Mecque pour lui. « C’est véritablement de l’ordre du spirituel. »

8b1c8038fe95 1


Félix Savard-Côté is a ski addict. If it were up to him, this freeride skier would spend every waking moment ripping down powdery slopes. It comes as no surprise that he spends nearly 150 days out of the year skiing in his backyard—the Chic-Chocs. When the fluffy white stuff is in short supply, you may bump into him running along the trails around his favourite mountain, Mont Albert. That’s where he has been known to run up to 145 kilometres a week during the summer.

“I usually run up and down the mountain twice every time I go. It helps me stay in shape for backcountry skiing,” he told us last September. Savard-Côté was then shivering with anticipation of winter’s arrival. From the moment he got out of bed at 4:30 a.m., he obsessively checked the weather to see if the temperature had dipped below freezing. Or better—if any feather-light flakes were hanging around.

Felix-Savard-Cote-Skieur-ascendant-montagne-Skiing-Lifes-Peaks-Chic-Chocs-photo-by-SAMUEL PELLETIER
Félix Savard-Côté is just another skier. Aside from the fact that snow runs through his veins. Here he’s on a pilgrimage in the Chic-Chocs. Photo: SAMUEL PELLETIER

“I usually pull out my skis in November, sometimes even at the end of October. One thing’s for sure, you won’t see me again until May or June.” Savard-Côté’s all-consuming passion for skiing started at Mont Vallières-de-Saint-Réal in December 2012. On that fateful day, he decided to test his luck and tackle the long, barren, 917-metre high ridge on a pair of second-hand backcountry skis. “I had no experience whatsoever, I was starting from zero! It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life,” remembers the self-taught skier. The honorary Gaspésien—and Drummondville native—had thrown himself head-first into a brand-new adventure. And at that moment his life took a drastically different turn.

“I usually pull out my skis in November, sometimes even at the end of October. One thing’s for sure, you won’t see me again until May or June.”

His life started to revolve around backcountry skiing. Savard-Côté quit his inn-keeping job at the Sea Shack in 2016 because it didn’t fit with his unconventional lifestyle. Today he works as a lineman during summer doing maintenance work at various wind farms in Gaspésie. He earns just enough to lead a modest lifestyle. “I’ve chosen to live a simpler life. Some may see it as deprivation, but I see it as a sacrifice,” added Savard-Côté.

Felix-Savard-Cote-Skieur-ascendant-montagne-Skiing-Lifes-Peaks-photo-by-SIMON HEBERT
Photo: SIMON HÉBERT

His motto is just as valid when it comes to his private life. He has eyes only for the untamed beauty of his one true love: Mother Nature. That, and his regular fix of waist-deep powder. “I feel a sense of purpose when I’m on the mountain. Doing only this for the rest of my life wouldn’t feel like a waste of time,” explained Savard-Côté, who one day dreams of carving his way down endless glaciers in the Himalayas. “It’s from a sort of spiritual order.”

Excerpted from Vie en montagne Winter/Spring ’21.

Quelles frontières / What Limit? Winter-Spring ’21 Vie en Montagne Out Now

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There are some first times that we will always remember. Like the time I skied off-piste through the alpine highlands of le parc national de la Gaspésie.
@shimizuimg getting those January goods ❄️ #mountainlifer
With four decades of ice canoeing under his belt, Jean Anderson has dominated a sport that's unique to Quebec and that he helped shape.
Featuring three gravel and three MTB events, the series explores the intense competition and love of the sport among 60 of the world’s premier cyclists.
Winter commute with #mountainlifer @michelle_pittam ❄️🚵‍♀️🌲
@lhymnedestrembles.ca is no mirage. Set in the lush Laurentian forest, yet easily accessible (less than an hour and a half from Montreal), this luxurious ski-in ski-out residential resort by @groupebrivia is nestled at the foot of the Versant Soleil side of Mont Tremblant. The Tremblant region is a perennial destination for outdoor enthusiasts from around the world, and within the province, attracting 3.5 million visitors annually.
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