My First Trip to Mont Tremblant
Call it a right of passage, expected, "normal", whatever. Â If you you live on the Ice Coast (east coast of North America), especially in Canada, you've torn up the slopes of Mont Tremblant... unless you're me.
Nestled less than 2 hours north of Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains, a short, yet direct flight away from Toronto's City Centre Airport, or a mere 6.5ish hour drive from Toronto, Tremblant, part of the Interwest family, offers the full village/resort experience. Â With 755 feet of vertical, a peak elevation of 2,871 feet, and the longest trail running a full 6 km, it is supposedly THE place to ski in the east.
Yet, somehow in my 6 years of snowboarding, until now, I've never made it to Mont Tremblant. Â So let's pick the tail end of the worst winter in recent history to make my first trek 7 hours north-east of home (Toronto), to get my first impressions of the village-resort.
Working my day job until midnight on Saturday, 9am Sunday seemed like a good time to hit the road. Â Not a ton of sleep, but enough. Â Not a coffee drinking... coke may have fueled me. Thank goodness for that glorious brown mixture served in a bright red can.
I was heading out with Terry, a friend from the Toronto Gay Ski & Snowboard Club.  We were actually going to be staying off-resort... WAY off resort (about 1h15 drive away) at Club GeoPremiere at Lac Morency in St. Hippolyte QC, as he had a timeshare there which allowed us a super cheap trip.  We actually had two other friends joining us as well.
Somehow we ended up with an adorable 2 bedroom private villa back up away from the road. Â I can just imagine what would have gone on in this secluded spot had other ski buds been with us instead of the relatively tame crew we were this trip. Â Probably better that way... Terry likes his timeshare membership.
A few wrong/missed turns early on from poor direction from the navigator (me) led to a few ignored directions later, which made our drive out a little longer than it needed to be. But we got there in one piece. Â Darin and Jordan, traveling in a different car, with a MUCH later start, arrived just a couple hours after us.
We hit up the local IGA and stocked our cupboards for the week. Â $350 in groceries later, it was time to start up dinner.
"What? Ian's Cooking?"
The confidence my travel mates had was astounding. Â Like fuck off bitches and get outta my kitchen!! Â I was taking over the kitchen, for dinners at least. Â Night one was a quick and easy pasta dish, naturally with my sauce made from "scratch" (not really, just partially).
Damn if everybody didn't ask for seconds, which due to the small pots supplied in the Villa meant firing the stovetop back up to make a second batch.
That trend continued for the next few days, but I learned how much they ate and started cooking enough for seconds and thirds the first time. Â Guess it wasn't all that bad having Ian cook for you guys afterall eh?
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Bienvenue a Tremblant
It's Monday morning... early.  We've Arrived!!  It's highly possible we took the scenic route once again, but this time not my fault.  The winter has been shit for skiing this year, it's late in the season, and we're wedged between Ontario's and Quebec's March Break weeks, so the resort is pretty quiet compared to normal.  That means we got premo parking!!
This is my first sight of the village at Tremblant. Â It's a cute village slapped very literally on the side of a mountain. Â That means a good bit of a climb just to get to the lifts, not all that fun traipsing in snowboard boots, even less fun if you're a skier... Â but they thought of that. Â In the middle of the main plaza at the bottom, there's the Cabriolet gondola which takes you and your gear to the top of the village.
Overnight a good 4 inches of fresh snow had fallen, we were anxious to get out and enjoy the mountain a bit. Â But there was one minor problem (naturally).
The Great Boot Fiasco
Ok, so it's been a shit year weather wise here in Ontario, and an abnormally busy day-job schedule this winter meant this was actually my first time out this winter. (Like... in MARCH!! What's wrong with me??) Anyway, packing late Saturday night before the trip, it became apparent that while I had almost everything at my condo, my boarding boots were missing. Â That could only mean one thing... they were still at my storage unit... on the far end of town.
So up extra early Sunday morning before we were to depart for a trip out to said storage unit finds me locked out. Â Damnit! Â I'd just recently switched units, and hadn't tested my new passcode yet. Â Of course it didn't work. Â And of course being early on a Sunday morning, the office was closed. Â So I was travelling without boots.
Rentals at Tremblant are a wee bit on the expensive side, they wanted $25/day to rent boots... I was going to be there for 3 full days, then I was heading to Jay Peak for another few days of boarding. Â These boot rentals were going to add up more than I'd anticipated.
The boys hit the gondola to get a run in while I hit the shops to look for sales. Â Burton came through with an amazing late-season sale. Â Walking away with a new pair of boots that cost me less to buy than I would have spent on rentals for the week.
FINALLY - Boarding
Full disclosure, the visibility was shit this first day on the mountain. Plus temperatures and tons of humidity from fresh precipitation will do that. So the above pic is actually from Tuesday when the fog cleared. So there weren't many speed records set on our first day. Â But the riding was mostly epic.
Ok, so this isn't my first "big" mountain experience; I've been to Whistler a number of times, consider it home even (Toronto is just where my condo, family, friends, job, life are), Tremblant isn't Whistler. Â But for affordable and regular riding, used to the speed bumps we call ski hills in Ontario, to get decent runs this close to home, I found myself yet again kicking myself wondering why it had taken me so long to get here.
Riding a board, you've got to be paying attention to where you are.  Particularly on the north side, Tremblant has a lot of both flats and rises, not friendly to boarders.  But with a fresh layer of wax on my board (applied just before leaving for the trip), if you get and keep your speed up going into the plateaus, it's not major issue getting through them as long as they aren't iced up.  You can keep up, or even get ahead of your buds on skis pretty easily.  Just hope to hell the newbs stay on a path that allows you to get around them without slowing up.  Some of the plats are a bit long and if you get stopped at the wrong spot, just unstrap and hike.  It's easier.
The Lodges
For me at least, one of the highlights of skiing a legit mountain are the on-mountain lodges. Â Well, at Tremblant, here is the official review: Â The Lodges are pretty, nothing special, but great to hang out in. Â But eat downstairs in the bagged lunch area. Â Cause the cafe food is VERY over-priced and sucks. Â If you're not a bagged lunch kinda person... then ski to the bottom to the restaurants in the village. Â The lodges are only good for drinks for you.
Myself, I just put up with the poor over-priced food cause I'd rather be on the mountain eating. Â It's just who I am.
Post Ski Tubing
After a hard day on the slopes, you kick back with a couple of bevvies and hit the tub.
Alright, so Lac Morency where we were staying, over an hour away from Tremblant, isn't really geared towards those visiting Tremblant, it's meant more for those visiting St. Sauveur.  So the scheduling didn't line up great for making it to the tub, but we managed to sneak it in on our first day of skiing anyway.
A bit small, so a little cozy with 4 full grown men in the tub, but it was fun night aside from the constant threat of ice falling off the roof above us. (never happened, at least not while we were in the tub).
After day two, Darin and Jordan had gotten a suite at the Hilton Homewood Suites right in the village at Tremblant for the night. Â Holy hell. Â So here's the general rule for staying on resort; if you're all about the hot tub relaxation after a day on the slopes, you book at the Homewood suites.
Hot, large, and sexy, this is the tub you wanna be relaxing in. Â The beautiful underwater lighting leaves a few dark spots to cuddle into if you happen to be there with your special someone.
Village Day
Darin and Jordan went home early on the Wednesday, something lame about "oh we have to work tomorrow". Â Like call in sick. Â Geeze.
It was just as well actually, because the rain just dumped down on Tremblant on the Wednesday. Â When I snowboard travel, I like to take "village days", and take some time to just absorb the atmosphere around the resort.
Early afternoon Terry came off the mountain, soaked like a wet dog, after what he reported to be a decent morning on the slopes. Â But we called it a day and headed back to our Villa.
We skipped the small hot tub that day in favour of enjoying the private sauna that our villa was equipped with. Â We had it set high... so I was hot.
Smoking is hazardous to your health
Afterwards when I headed outside for a post-sauna smoke, I needed to cool down a bit, so I decided it was a good idea to just go out naked.
Here's a tip, no matter how crusty the snowbank looks, don't lean on it. Turns out getting back out is a little more challenging than it may look... I just kept sinking deeper.
PS... thanks Terry for standing there laughing and taking pics instead of helping me out.
Those Sweeds who do this on purpose... they're just crazy!!! (Though I do have to actually admit, it was a bit refreshing... next time I'll just ensure it's a bit more controlled so I can get back out).
Thursday Travel Day
This trip isn't over yet... I'm abandoning Terry and heading off to Jay Peak for the Big Gay Jay Weekend with the Boston OutRyders...
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