Tremblant

Dec 27^th 2010

Mont Tremblant: Mecca for skiers, snowboarders, spa-goers, sightseers, and tourists alike.

Everyone should go. Here's why

Pros:

- The Village is fantastic. I’ve you’ve been to Stratton Mountain in Vermont, you know a good Village. Well, the one at Tremblant is about ten times better. In addition to several bars, clubs, and pubs (all of which are 18+), the restaurants are amazing, the shopping is great, there are tons of little dessert and snack places everywhere, and there’s a little charming general store to boot.

- The gondolas are sick. So warm, so accessible, and no ridiculous line-ups.

- When you’re skiing down the mountain, you get the view of the frozen lake and Village below. Gorgeous.

- If there’s no snow, there’s tons of snow making. The powder is phenomenal.

But also...

Cons:

- I’ve never been on a more crowded mountain. Being a snowboard, you have to be careful of the people around you. Especially hoards of joeys that come speeding down the trail like it’s their driveway. Which brings me to my next point.

- Joeys: Those guys that bomb down the ski hill in pizza-pie ski formation, wearing jeans, a beanie, and an unzipped Giants windbreaker or something like that. But the ones at Tremblant are Quebcoise hipsters so they wear snow pants that are pretty much just around their knees, flannels, and flat brim hats. ????? Read this article for more about Joeys.

- The trails are great, but there’s always a fork or two at the end. Make sure whoever you’re skiing with is on the same page as you about which way to go.

- If the forecast for tomorrow says windy- STAY INSIDE. There were 30 mph winds that had me stopped dead several times, even if I was at a cruising rate. It also made the trails icy and rocky. Not fun. Especially when you can’t see, with all the snow blowing past you.

Dec 28^th, 2010

Cross country skiing at Mont Tremblant- DO IT. It’s beautiful- a winter wonderland at its very greatest.

The trails range from very easy to experts only, though my advice to anyone would be stick to very easy. The trails take you along a river, through very well-groomed forest, and through little clearings with benches and things like that for resting.

One of the quirks of the trails- you can feed the birds. Even if you don’t have bird food… they still come sit on your hands. It’s a little scary though… once one comes the rest of the birds flock around you.

Either way, it’s a great work out and even if you look like an idiot doing it (which I did), it doesn’t matter much because not one single person on the trail speaks English probably. It’s all the French people. All great stuff.