Mont Tremblant - November 25, 2023 (Opening Weekend)

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 suited up in the lodge, boarded the cabriolet to take us to the slopes! 

After heading through the clouds to reach the foggy summit, we enjoyed our first two laps on Beauvallon, enjoying our first turns of the year on the amazing snow conditions. 

As lines for the TGV lifts started to get long, we moved to exploring the North side, which surprisingly had next to no lift lines the entire day. However, this phenomenon had an explanation: snow quality. 

Since the North side held the only beginner terrain of the day, it was the most crowded and scraped off. This was combined with the fact that the run received almost no sun throughout the day, leading to what felt like an icy minefield of fallen skiers and snowboarders! However, the lower half of this run did seem to have less crowds and better snow than its upper mountain counterpart, so it wasn't all that bad! In fact, the majority of the day's runs took place on this trail!

After a quick break for lunch at the summit, we met up with my friend, a Tremblant passholder, who had drove up from Montreal. After one amazing lap on Beauvallon, which was relatively uncrowded and provided some amazing views of Lac Tremblant and the Laurentians, we were greeted by the largest lift line of the day, prompting us to stick to the slightly less enjoyable North side runs which benefited from no lift lines! 

A 20 minute lift line - yikes! 

Since no top-to-bottom runs on the south side were open due to race prep and construction work, everyone needed to download via the gondola. However, we had skied around 18 runs (most of which were half-mountain), and were more than happy to rest our legs and enjoy a sunset ride down! 

Overall, it was an amazing start to the 2023-24 ski season. My favourite run was definitely Beauvallon with its amazing snow and lake views, despite it only getting skied a handful of times due to its large lift lines! I guess everybody else also preferred it that day;)

Have a great season everybody, see you next time for Ottawa’s start to spinning the lifts!