# Tremblant Jan 9-11, 2017



## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

A buddy and I drove up on Sunday, arriving at around 5:30pm. The drive from the NH seacoast area took us nearly 7 hours but we had a navigation issue that tied us up for at least 30 minutes at the very end. You would think a Disneyland-ish ski village in the middle of the mountains would be pretty easy to find but the signage threw us off as there's an original Mont Tremblant village nearby.  All signs are in French and even a couple of folks I asked directions from spoke nothing but French but were helpful. 

When you get beyond Montreal and enter the Laurentian range it gets snowy fast, which we were glad to see. Also, we drove by a surprising number of ski areas that I'd never heard of, including one with more night skiing trails than any place I've ever seen. On the whole it's an easy drive. 

We were winging this whole week and my friend made reservations for lodging in the village for a two bed hotel room on the drive up.  They quoted us about $220/night Canadian, which seemed very reasonable for a place near the ski lifts so we weren't expecting much. It turned out to have a separate bedroom, kitchen, and living room and was about as close to an HSQ and gondola as it could possibly be.  Also, we had underground heated garage parking which cost $15/day, which we happily paid for because it was damn cold. The view from the window that night:





About the village: I've got a frame of reference from spending time at ski areas with similar setups including Whistler, Squaw, Solitude, Stratton...they vary in size and the Whistler one is in its own category in that it's basically an actual town. Certainly, in the east, Tremblant stands apart. There are ALOT of resto-bars there and also hotel chains including Westin, Holiday Inn, and Hilton. 







The Euro feel of the village no doubt causes some to roll their eyes for the artificial factor but the fact that the majority of the staff and guests are speaking French brought it home for me. I felt that I was much further away than a 6+ hour drive. 

I'll bet you're mostly curious about the skiing. Only 5 pics per post so that's coming soon.


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

Tremblant is a big eastern ski area and it skis big. On day 1 it was about -15F when the lifts opened and would only get into the single digits that afternoon. That slowed us down with the usual problems. They were blasting snow guns which added to existing visibility issues. We stuck to the south side of the mountain and the gondola. Days like this are about the only days I'll subject myself to gondolas but I was glad to have it. 



With it being so cold, the camera didn't leave my pocket while outside. Even in the gondy, the windows were so fogged/frosted, you could barely tell where you were. The pic above is from a break in the summit lodge. Here's the other direction!



The snow quality was styrofoam, thanks to the cold. Although the summit elevation is around 2600', it has a remote alpine feel like Jay or Sugarloaf. At least on the south (village) side, there was very little in the way of bumps unless I missed them. 

Day 2 brought comfortable temps and a couple inches of fresh snow, however visibility at the summit was this:



We spent most of the day on the north side, which we liked better. More interesting terrain and good conditions. We did some runs off of the Edge lift which has long, mellow glades which I really liked.


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

Glade pics:


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

Pic from the north side base lodge. In the lower left, an unfortunate gentleman was being loaded into his friend's Impreza after being sledded down by patrol with a splint running the whole length of his leg. 



Near the summit facing the south side on the way back. I don't know what ski area that is. 



Day 3. 9" of snow fell overnight. Holy shit. Winds were fierce, causing power outages for the summit lodge and shut down the entire north side. The gondola opening was delayed for awhile but we eventually got up there, doing some delightful powder filled runs on the south side. 







So we did some lunch, hoping that the north side would open up but we knew time was running out. I was thinking if they didn't get it open by 12:30 or so, they'd say screw it. During lunch something funny happened. The sun came out for the first time in days. We walk d out to the Flying Mile HSQ. As we were loading, the lifty told us "Bonjour, the Duncan is open!"  The Duncan is a north side lift from the base. We went directly there from the summit.


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

We enjoyed spectacular runs that made the whole trip worth it.


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

After awhile, the crowds grew back there; you can see in the last pic that there's only a few cars in the north side day lodge lot so they were all coming from the village side. 

Last run of the day towards the village



I'd recommend paying Tremblant a visit for the skiing alone, even, unless you're a complete off piste beast.  Tremblant has that but, snow conditions being equal, VT would be superior I imagine. However, snow conditions are not always equal between those areas. Tremblant exceeded my expectations. We enjoyed light crowds this week, which is the only way I'd come here personally.


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## SnowRider (Jan 13, 2017)

Were you up there when it switched to rain? Wondering how bad they got hit. gin a transitional day. In such circumstances, our grooming process takes two to three times the normal working time. Several sectors, including all our glades, will remain closed and we will concentrate our efforts on the core of the mountain. We plan to open 49 trails today and we are very optimistic to open a larger part of our terrain for the weekend."


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

SnowRider said:


> Were you up there when it switched to rain? Wondering how bad they got hit. gin a transitional day. In such circumstances, our grooming process takes two to three times the normal working time. Several sectors, including all our glades, will remain closed and we will concentrate our efforts on the core of the mountain. We plan to open 49 trails today and we are very optimistic to open a larger part of our terrain for the weekend."



I was there yesterday morning and light rain was falling. It had rained overnight. It looked like the afternoon was going to be ok, overcast but with soft conditions. Whoever hit the glades at that point were happy campers, I'm sure. A lot of that stuff wasn't easily accessed on Wednesday due to the power problems. The streets in the village were very shiny yesterday morning.


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## SnowRider (Jan 13, 2017)

Could be worse, looks like they may have escaped the worst of it compared to NNE resorts. Heading up from Portsmouth tonight and hoping for the best.


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## tnt1234 (Jan 13, 2017)

Great report!  Looks like a good trip.


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## Jully (Jan 13, 2017)

So overall midweek crowds weren't bad? Were most lifts ski on or were there small lift lines?


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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

Jully said:


> So overall midweek crowds weren't bad? Were most lifts ski on or were there small lift lines?



They weren't bad. The gondola line was like a Loon midweek gondy line. The lifts were ski on except for that last bit I mentioned but that was due to abnormal circumstances.


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## deadheadskier (Jan 13, 2017)

Looks great. Ever find a decent brew? Unless I missed it, you didn't mention beer in the trip report, which by the way is a rule you established.

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## Edd (Jan 13, 2017)

deadheadskier said:


> Looks great. Ever find a decent brew? Unless I missed it, you didn't mention beer in the trip report, which by the way is a rule you established.
> 
> Sent from my XT1565 using AlpineZone mobile app



Touché. The answer is no, but a few places had Goose Island IPA, which is low on the IPA hierarchy but it'll do in a pinch. 

I ate enough poutine to sweat gravy for days, but I never did try this place and I loved the name:



This place was the closest thing we found to a ski bar, as in they were always playing ski videos so we popped in each night for a couple. The night of the pow day I tried chatting up a couple of young servers about the stellar conditions. They were unaware that the conditions were good at all and showed no interest. 



I had an excellent dark and stormy at a very cool little place. I asked what this fantastic ginger beer was and she showed me the bottle. 



Driving back through VT, we Yelped a place to have a bite and landed on The Mad Taco in Montpelier. Now that was good. We saw that there were a couple of other locations, including the MRV. I've gotta hit that on my next trip there.


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## Jully (Jan 13, 2017)

Edd said:


> They weren't bad. The gondola line was like a Loon midweek gondy line. The lifts were ski on except for that last bit I mentioned but that was due to abnormal circumstances.



That's pretty good then!


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## SkiRay (Jan 13, 2017)

Edd said:


> I was there yesterday morning and light rain was falling. It had rained overnight. It looked like the afternoon was going to be ok, overcast but with soft conditions. Whoever hit the glades at that point were happy campers, I'm sure. A lot of that stuff wasn't easily accessed on Wednesday due to the power problems. The streets in the village were very shiny yesterday morning.



So it rained there too... What a great report. Have not been there in many many years..


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## deadheadskier (Jan 13, 2017)

I find it bizarre that Quebec is so behind the times with their beer game given they excel in all things culinary.

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## Glenn (Jan 13, 2017)

Excellent TR Edd! My wife and I are considering a trip up there some time.


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## Warp Daddy (Jan 13, 2017)

Ah the Verant Nord and the Duncan est Magnifique


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## tnt1234 (Jan 13, 2017)

Yeah, it's crazy about the beer, right?  Maybe too cold to grow hops, so they just don't understand it yet?

Mad Taco - had it for the first time this year at MR valley - with Hill Farmstead on tap...awesome...


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## Warp Daddy (Jan 13, 2017)

The Duncan lift line


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## bigbog (Jan 13, 2017)

Terrific TR and pics Edd!


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## Oncefast (Jan 13, 2017)

If you skied down Lowell Thomas to the Tunnel glade, you came out to a clearing from which a boot pack led to the top of the Expo lift(not running). From there you could get runs off Expo, Nitro and Dynamite with little company. This was a one and done for us as the line for the Duncan was 15+ minutes. Tremblant is great, but did not enjoy the squirrelly rides through Montreal with some of the worst drivers north of DC.


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## Warp Daddy (Jan 13, 2017)

Bottom of the Versant Sud near the Gondi in the village


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## Warp Daddy (Jan 13, 2017)

Versant Nord base near the lift


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## Warp Daddy (Jan 13, 2017)

Our St Lawrence Ski posse , i am the grinning fool seated on the right in black


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## JDMRoma (Jan 13, 2017)

Awesome report Ed !!

May need to visit this place soon !


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## Edd (Jan 14, 2017)

Oncefast said:


> If you skied down Lowell Thomas to the Tunnel glade, you came out to a clearing from which a boot pack led to the top of the Expo lift(not running). From there you could get runs off Expo, Nitro and Dynamite with little company. This was a one and done for us as the line for the Duncan was 15+ minutes. Tremblant is great, but did not enjoy the squirrelly rides through Montreal with some of the worst drivers north of DC.



I saw the folks hiking up and we considered it but passed. Was having a ton of fun without the extra exertion. 

Bypassing Montreal is something I'll consider next time. The route Google takes you through is a narrow mess of a road. Going up we were in and out in about 30 minutes but it was much longer heading back because of a truck breaking down.


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