Zig-zag through thigh-deep, virgin powder down 40-degree glades. Or slow the pace with a snowshoe trek through silent forests where you’re outnumbered two-to-one by moose. Après outdoor hot tub or sauna, gourmet eats await: smoked trout dressed up with ginger granita in a dining room with a view of wilderness.

The legendary Chic-Choc (“shick-shock”) Mountains on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula have long been the domain of hardcore backcountry trekkers. The envious rest of us were giddy when, in December of 2005, Chic-Chocs Mountain Lodge opened, otherwise known as Auberge de Montagne des Chic-Chocs. It’s the only full-service, backcountry ski operation in Quebec, an intimate 18-room, upscale, country-rustic inn smack in the middle of the Matane Wildlife Reserve. The lodge is so out-there, that you traverse the last 29 km (18 mi) from the nearest road via snowcat on a rumbling 90-minute ride.

Daytime is playtime in a hefty average annual snow dump of seven m (23 ft). Your backdrop: the St. Lawrence River. Guides school newbies, navigating untracked powder on short, wide “Meta” skis. Expect uphill aerobics. Backcountry snowhounds can fetch maps and a radio, and head off with a buddy. Summer? Just replace ski poles with fishing poles.
www.sepaq.com/chc/en/