Showing results for tags 'mont tremblant'.

Mont Tremblant - January 8, 2023

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 Edge and Soleil lifts. (Apparently, the versant soleil was skiable if the Casino Gondola was taken back to the main lodge, though I didn’t want to undertake such a long traverse and end up back on the bottom). After getting dressed and arriving at the main base area, I opted to take the Flying Mile lift (no line), due to the 20 minute line for the enclosed gondola. Turns out, this was for a reason. The entire flying mile area was under intense snowmaking, making the lift ride a miserable experience of being blasted by many snow guns, all inside a cloud of no visibility! I can see why there was no line!After skiing down to the upper mountain lift, the TGV, I took another no-vis lift ride to the summit, where conditions were even poorer, with no visibility and brutal wind. It seems like upper mountain clouds, wind, fog, and snowmaking clouds all combined to create a ‘perfect storm’ of sorts! My first few runs were on Le petit bonheur and Beauchemin Haut, upper mountain blue and green cruisers. Surprisingly, despite despite being brutally cold and without decent visibility, the snow was amazing! Some small ice patches were found, but otherwise, the grooming team had produced soft, granular snow, on a flat (non mogulled) surface, making for some excellent carving conditions! As seen above, only the bottom of the Lowel Thomas chairlift had decent visibility. After a few laps of the upper north side chair, I decided to head down to the lower north side, after hearing rumours of sun exposure. These were true, and I spent the next 2 hours on the lower north side, lapping the trails off the Expo and Duncan lifts. As you can see below, the layer of fog is actually where the upper mountain is supposed to be! This was the expo chair on the lower half of the north side:Some ungroomed terrain on the north side-I passed on it!The visibility on the upper north side finally improved by 1pm, leading me to try the Lowell-Thomas lift once again after lunch, followed by the black diamond trails off the Duncan express (Superieur and Jasey Jay Sanderson), which boasted some amazing snow conditions and views! Lines were usually less than 3 minutes for the singles line, and maybe 5-10 depending on the time for the regular lines. By 2pm, I headed to the main (south) base to take another warm up break and have a snack. To my surprise, the sunny skies on the north side were replaced with clouds on the south side! I then boarded the gondola as it’s line was finally quiet. Though visibility was still poor, there were some patches that allowed for views. By 3pm, conditions had deteriorated significantly on every side, leading me to stay on the upper south side for my last few laps, in almost total whiteout. The wind had picked up, leading to what felt like being blown uphill by a frigid and penetrating wind in some places! At 3:30, I made last lift on the TGV, and decided to take the long green run, Nansen haut and bas, to the bottom. While the upper portion was windy and cloudy, the lower portion avoided the snowmaking clouds, and was a pleasant run with amazing visibility and no wind. I was also able to ski the open glades off the sides of the trail, where I enjoyed some nice powder stashes. I even tried out the Tam-Tam area, Mont Tremblant’s section for beginner glades, before reaching the bottom and heading home.All in all, it was a cold, windy, poor-viz, slightly crowded day, though the awesome snow and many open runs did make up for the day’s downsides. I boarded the bus at 4:30 for the long journey back home, eager to return again in the next month!

Mont Tremblant - November 27, 2022 (Opening Weekend)

Matteo C posted a topic in Ski Reports

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 headed to the gondola. At the main base, I met up with my friend and old neighbour from Montreal, who is a new Tremblant pass holder. A record breaking (at least in my books) 16 trails were open on opening weekend, in contrast to the 4 last year! Below is the trail map displaying the runs and lifts open: The forecast was warm and partly sunny, with temperatures reaching 6 degrees at the base, and 2 at the summit. After waiting in a non-existent line, we boarded the gondola and were whisked up to the summit. Arriving on the summit, we put on our skis and weaved through the horde of people crowding the area. I was initially nervous to see how my new equipment would perform, as I had almost no idea what to expect. I thoroughly enjoyed my Elan Wingman 78 C skis, as well as my Atomic Hawk 110S boots. Being both stable and lightweight, they were an amazing step up from the rental equipment I had grown up using. We started by skiing P’tit Bonheur and Beauchemin Haut on the North side, followed by Alpine/Beauvallon and Nansen on the south side. We chose to lap the upper half of the mountain, as on the south side, the Johansen trail was a narrow band that quickly turned to moguls, and the north side run out trail was relatively flat. This kept us mostly on the Lowell-Thomas and TGV chairlifts, which had lines of 0-3 minutes, rare on a weekend for Tremblant! The snow conditions were amazing for November despite the majority of the snow being man made, the warms temperatures meant slushier, yet still firm, conditions. There was ice on the steeper sections, though it wasn’t as hard as it could have been. The downside to the softer snow was that moguls did form, especially on steep portions, though they were not too intimidating and easy to navigate. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the views as we ate the overpriced food from the Grand Manitou lodge cafeteria:After lunch, we went to ski the only black diamond run open, Taschereau. This run had some amazing views of Lac Tremblant, and wasn’t intimidating. We then ventured to the north side base, and made last chair up the Duncan expressOur last few runs were spent on the south side, enjoying the blue cruisers Alpine and Beauvallon-even checking out the terrain park: At 3:30pm, the lifts closed, and we made our way down the south side to reach the base village. We took the short green trail Roy Scott to avoid the narrow strip of Johansen that had been covered in large moguls, as no one seemed to even be attempting it! The 'strip' can be seen in the image below: After reaching the base village, we parted ways, and I boarded the bus for the long ride (in the dark) back to Ottawa. Overall, this was an amazing start to my season, and, even as I write this 3 days later, my legs are still sore! I realize we were incredibly fortunate to have had such great conditions, warm weather, and low crowds for this early in the season, and I can’t wait to return in the new year!