Montreal Snow Shoe Club

The MSSC organized an array of races, but they are best remembered for their night-time torchlit processions from McGill's Gatehouse up through Mount Royal Park, wearing their traditional take on the outfits of the old Québécois trappeurs and the infamous tasselled 'tuque bleu'.

In 1840, the first twelve members of the as yet unnamed Montreal Snow Shoe Club (though mainly Anglo, there were several French names too) started by meeting up every Saturday to 'tramp' out into the surrounding countryside.

After a walk of between ten and twelve miles, they repaired to a well-known café on Saint Jacques Street, where the proprietor, one Monsieur Tetu, "afforded every luxury relished by the jolly crew".

[3] Tetu's was well-known not just for his choice viand and Henry Hogan's bowl of punch that "served to magnetize those from whom old age had eradicated their tender passion;" but in the continuing melodic synonyms of the club's first historian, Hugh Becket: "Dame Rumour has accused more than one of the handsome fellows who stretched their pedal extremities under mine host Tetu's mahogany, of being attracted thither through the mesmeric influence of the fair dame presiding over the establishment in conjunction with her lord".

Its 'rules' were drawn from the unwritten traditions of this "Band of Brothers", when memory stood in the place of Minutes and loyalty to the common law of Snow Shoers made any formal code unnecessary.

The races were concluded with a large dinner given for all the competitors; involving toasts, prize-giving, speeches, snowshoeing songs, jokes, dancing and "bouncing," the name given to an unusual but favourite custom of the Montreal snowshoers.

[5] It is not known when the MSSC members first adopted the outfits they became known for, or when the first moonlight processions were led up Mount Royal, but in 1859 a reporter from the Montreal Transcript joined the club for one such tramp and recounted his experience, Half past seven o'clock!

The annual races were held at the end of February and the stewards who oversaw the events were usually commanding officers stationed in Montreal, such as Generals Eyre, Williams, Paulet, Lindsay and Michel.

[3] Since 1997, the Tuques Bleues Celebration has been organized by Les Amis de la Montagne (a charity that works to protect and preserve Mount Royal Park), re-introducing snowshoe tramps by traditional torchlight up the mountain.