Photo dump from Tremblant today. Anything above mid mountain to TGV or Lowell Thomas: five stars, piles of new snow especially on the trails they left ungroomed. Anything below or any of the other versants, two stars at best, most of it crusted over from rain.
After a restful night's sleep in our ski-in / ski-out condo, we were ready to hit the slopes for our second and final day of our little ski trip to further explore all Mont Tremblant had to offer. The hill had received a slight (3cm) dusting of fresh snow, and temperatures were forecasted to be hovering around 2C, making for some wonderful soft snow conditions! Additionally, 102/102 runs were listed as open, up from 100/102 the previous day, as Vertige and Zig-Zag, the Versant Sud's steepest runs, had finally opened. We boarded the Soleil chairlift after skiing down from the Porte de Soleil, and were surpsied to see a slight inversion, an extremely rare site for Tremblant! We then made our way to the unique glade of Les Bouleaux, known for passing under the Soleil lift and requiring a short, 3-minute hike from the junction of the Ryan Haut and Bas runs to reach the starting point. The hike, in combination with the run's long length, varied terrain, and is...
Three weekends ago, my friends and I headed to Tremblant for a one-night mini ski trip! We had rented a ski-in/ski-out condo, and it was our first time staying overnight at the resort. We left Ottawa at 5:30am, hoping to arrive at the hill before opening. Temperatures were forecasted to be in the range of -2 to +2C all weekend long, making for some of the best conditions we've ever seen at the resort! We arrived at 8am, and parked at the base of the Porte de Soleil chairlift. After gearing up, we boarded the lift, and skied down to the village base, where we picked up our lift tickets. The plan for this weekend was to explore as many gladed runs as possible, as none of us had ever been to Tremblant with snow conditions this good! The region had received a large dump of snow in mid January, with more smaller amounts of snowfall throughout the following week, and most notably had not received the freezing rain that the Ottawa region had suffered from! 100/102 trails and glades...
This was only my second day up in Tremblant this year, as my ski season so far has been interrupted by travel. Hopefully I will be able to keep going at a regular tempo now. It does look like I missed quite a dump of snow the weekend before, as coverage was a lot better than my last day up here on January 8. The base was fast and grooming was quite excellent. Unfortunately, cloud blanketed the top half of the mountain and progressively got worse as the day wore on; by mid-morning, the condensation from the cloud would freeze on contact on the outside of the googles, which meant multiple stops to scrape the ice off the lens. Still managed to get a decent number of runs in before calling it quits. Great success! The summit at 9:15am. The view up the mountain from the North Side base. For those who are not familiar with the resort, that's looking up Expo-Bas and Expo-Haut, and the top of Expo-Haut is halfway up to the summit. Looking up towards th...
It's a late start for me strapping on my plank this season, due to a variety of factors in December. However, I am glad to report that I finally kicked it off yesterday on Mont Tremblant. Given the rain and snow drought in December, I expected not more than half of the mountain to be open, and I was right. Most of the main face on the South Side was closed–including McCulloch and Kandahar–for snowmaking. Much of the north side was open though. I was also expecting a lot of ice, which there was, but the weekend snow did help and the snow ops team I think did a pretty great job given the challenging conditions they had to work with. There were even some ungroomed sides of the trails that were very ride-able. My usual pattern at Tremblant is to ride the North Side and sometimes Versant Edge in the morning before switching to laps on the South Side until my legs give out. Given that it's still early season legs for me, I figured it would be a relatively short ...
Last weekend, a few friends and I made the early morning drive from Ottawa to Mont Tremblant for our first day of the 2023-24 ski season! The weather was forecasted to be partly cloudy, with increasing sun in the afternoon. Temps would be on the colder side (-10C) in the morning, before warming to reach -2 later in the day. Despite the lack of rain and generally cold temperatures this past month, only 6 trails were open. Essentially, there was a top-to-bottom green run on the Versant Nord (P'tit Bonheur to Beauchemin Bas), and a upper half blue run on the Versant Sud (La Crete to Beauvallon Haut/Alpine). A staff member later told my friend that the lack of terrain on opening day (There were 16 runs open the same time last season) was due to the women's world cup race scheduled for the next weekend taking snowmaking priority. Regardless, we were more than happy to be skiing anything in November! We arrived just prior to lift opening at 8:30am, and after getting su...
On the last Saturday of March, my friend and I decided to ski Tremblant for our last ‘big mountain’ ski day of the season, in addition to it being his first time at the resort. Conditions were extremely windy, cold for spring (-5 to 1C without windchill), and snow conditions started alright and ended poor. That being said, we had a great time, and got to explore the terrain off every lift on the mountain that day! Since the temperature never exceeded freezing, the obstructed sun did not soften the snow as the daily conditions report said it would, leading to overall poor snow conditions due to the freeze the previous day. Nevertheless, all lifts and 102 runs were open, with 2/3 having been groomed the previous day. The snow on the Versants Nord and Edge was the least icy and wind-exposed, so we spent the majority of the day there,...
Last Sunday, I headed to Tremblant with the Carleton University Ski Club, making use of the 50$ lift tickets and inexpensive bus transportation for my last ski day of the Christmas break. With the warm temperatures and amazing snowfall brought by December, I had done most of my skiing in +0 Celsius weather-however, this day at Tremblant would be an exception. The temperatures were forecasted to range from -11 to -20, depending on the wind chill and elevation, so I knew temperatures would be unpleasant! I arrived at 9:30am, where it was clear that snowmaking was in full swing. The mountain had warned that conditions and visibility would be impaired due to the low temperatures being utilized for snowmaking, in addition to the closing of the Soleil side (2 runs), due to a power outage. Nevertheless, they planned on having 60 of their 100 runs open, and every lift except their...
After months of anticipation, my 2022-23 ski season had an amazing start at Tremblant! This season, I bought new equipment through my favourite local ski shop, Kunstadt Sports. Additionally, I joined my university ski club, which provided a discount on equipment, as well as half-price lift tickets and transportation to Tremblant! After not skiing any large mountains last season, I was eager to return to Tremblant. I also hoped to finally be able to ski the more difficult runs open, as I had not done so on my last visit due to the differing levels of ski ability in my family. I was quick to sign up for the first bus of the season, which would run on Tremblant’s 4th day of the season. After an early morning bus ride, we pulled into the parking lot. After depositing our gear at the Chalet des Voyageurs, we received our lift tickets, and...
Sunday and the last day of March Break in Quebec. The time change was painful but the mountain was perfect with all 102 trails open. Temperatures in the morning were around -3c and by the afternoon +3c. Bonus, zero wind. We rolled in around 8:30am and stayed till last chair. The day was that good with perfect groomers or moguls and trees galore. The crazy thing is we though it would be super busy, we were wrong. Most lines were less then a couple minutes. Maybe all the March break holiday people left on Saturday? Anyway the snow was soft enough to hit the trees without fear and everything just felt right. Get up here as the next couple weeks maybe a melt down. On the edge of Expo Haute Tension mogulfest Top of Le Edge Me somewhere The Taiga glade is vast. Wow
Soft turns and fog was name of the game on Friday. We rolled into Tremblant around 9am after a easy two hour drive from Ottawa. The place was busy with almost all the parking lots at capacity. The temperature was around zero and with no wind the top third of the mountain was a total white out. First off the lineup at the gondola was insane because the lift was not moving. We quickly moved over to the Flying Mile and then skied down to TGV to get to the top. The gondola started back up soon after. With 93 trails open there was plenty of options. We started with Laurentienne on the Soleil side. The snow was nice and soft. Tremblant had gotten about 25cms over the week. Options were soft groomers or natural bump runs. The forgiving moguls on Jasey-Jay Anderson were really nice. The fog was a bit of a bummer as you really couldn't rip the steep top pitches as the visibility was very limited. Maybe if we knew the mountain better it wouldn't have mattered. Regardless warm weather and no wind...
Wow, what a killer weekend at Mont Tremblant! I drove up late Friday to meet some buddies from Toronto who had a hotel room a few minutes from the resort. Our expectations were not high as it was early season and there was the 24hr relay race on the south side. Tremblant brought the goods though. They had just gotten 10cms and on Saturday they opened up "Le Edge" for the first time this season as well as the runs off the Expo Express Quad. We had powder skiing on December 6th! along with 49 open runs on Saturday and 53 on Sunday. The temperatures were hovering around -15c in the morning and -8c in the afternoon. Lots of snowmaking was happening. Anyway, after railing some groomers on the North Side we got in a couple of powder runs going down Fuddle Duddle and Windigo then hit Le Edge for more all-natural tree runs. We stayed on the Edge side for a while before heading back to the south side for some afternoon groomer action. Sunday was a repeat with lots of powder stashes left in the ...
Well I had an airmiles ticket for Tremblant burning in my pocket and figured Friday would be the day. The weather was looking a little suspect but while it rained in Ottawa, Tremblant got 15cms over night. Heading out in the morning it was raining pretty hard but just after the turn off north on highway 323 it turned to snow and would snow for the rest of the day. We arrived just past 9 after a easy drive. What luck 15cms of semi-dense powder, no lines, no wind and temperatures around zero! We did some north side trails before hitting the Edge for its 9:30 opening. Conditions were amazing, so soft, so fun. Later in the day things would get a little more sticky as the temps rose especially on the bottom half of the trails. All 102 runs were open and we got our fill. The new Lowell Thomas Express Quad is fast. The Edge...
A storm rolled in Monday night. I was night skiing at Camp Fortune and it hit hard around 8pm. By Tuesday morning, Tremblant was saying it had 17cm of fresh on the mountain. We hit the road taking the 2 hour drive northeast. With over 2000ft vertical Tremblant is a leg burner when your used to smaller resorts in the Ottawa area. Today would be a killer. Loads of fresh lines, warm temperatures (-3c) and no crowds. In fact you could ski onto most lifts. We parked at Soleil then double backed to the gondola. Our first run from the top was C.B.C and the new Taiga tree run. After that we moved over to the Edge side and hit up the expanded glades off Reaction and Extension. The conditions were amazing, so much fresh snow and so much terrain. We checked out the new Lowell Thomas lift and the redone Le Grand Maniton while hopscotching around...
Mont Tremblant is located in Québec's Laurentian region and is commonly referred to as the Disney World of Skiing. The ski resort is most known for its large and expansive pedestrian village located at the base of the mountain, featuring hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment. The mountain itself offers 102 trails, spread over 4 sides of the mountain, making it the largest ski mountain in Quebec. Tremblant also has the second-highest vertical drop for skiing in Québec, allowing for long descents, with all levels of trails offered, including plenty of glades. The mountain has 14 lifts, that include 7 high-speed detachable quads, and 2 gondolas, giving a quick and efficient ride back up the mountain. The Grand Manitou, the large summit chalet, offers meals and great views while taking a break. The Mountain and the Ski Trails The South Side is the main side of Tremblant and the first side you will typically see when approaching the mountain. Here you will find the pedestr...
Not being an early bird type, I made it up to the hill just before 2. It turns out that at Tremblant there is a full day rate, a half day rate, and a why are you so late getting here rate of $27 that starts at 2pm. I got my warm up in by walking uphill to the Flying Mile lift as both the Cabriolet and main gondola were closed for the season. It's ok though, I really need to improve my cardio for all the spring hiking I plan to be doing! I headed immediately for the north side, and was not disappointed. I started out easy on Beauchemin and then switched over to Lowell Thomas and Duncan. I got a lot of great runs in on Saute Mouton, Jasey-Jay Anderson, Superior and Devil's River. Saute Mouton and Duncan lower section were more like slick groomers with few bumps,...
We arrived Friday evening to the Cap Tremblant, which is a fantastic condo/timeshare resort in the (actual) village, with most units offering a fantastic view of the south side of Tremblant. After a quick trip to the adults only hot tub, we took advantage of the condo kitchen to do make BBQ chicken with homemade Guinness BBQ sauce, and to prepare pizza sauce for Saturday's dinner. The Cap Tremblant units also offer BBQs, but it was far too cold to light one up this time around. This was to be a bit more of a low key trip, since on Saturday we'd be joined by my friend and her nine year old daughter, who are beginner to intermediate level. They ski Cascades frequently so Tremblant is a much more involved experience for them. So I planned to keep things easy Saturday, and then ski Expo on Sunday. I had promised my...
Got in some great early season skiing on Friday at Mont Tremblant. Some buddies were staying slope side for the weekend which made things extra awesome. The day started cold like -20C cold but there was little or no wind except at the top. Over the day things warmed up to about -10c and the sun came out a bit. The groomers were fast hard pack with some cake on top. Also, several runs on the north side were not groomed yet half blasted with snow mounds but still open (Jasey-Jay). Those were interesting bump runs! The best condition steeps were Ryan, Tashereau, and Mcculloch. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for skiing on Saturday. Overnight we got 7cm plus The Edge and Soleil opened up for the first time. I'm sure I'll hear about how much powder I missed! Regardless this season is off to a great start. Ski on! Beauvallon Haut with the lake below. My buddies Demon snowboard by Libtech. Top of the...