Snowboarding

A Guide to Mont Tremblant

What follows is personal opinions on the Mont Tremblant ski area, and are based on personal experiences only. Everyone’s experience will be different! As I return to Tremblant, this guide will be continually updated.

Also be sure to check out our guides on Whistler and Blue Mountain, both Canadian ski resorts.

The resort

First, I must admit that Tremblant will basically kill any desire you have to snowboard in Ontario ever again. Whereas I was generally okay with freeriding 500 or 700 foot hills in Ontario until now, discovering a huge mountain within a day’s drive of Toronto has convinced me that a couple of weekend Tremblant trips would be far better than individual day trips to Ontario.

As I have mentioned previously, Tremblant is a pretty serious mountain; it has 13 lifts, almost 100 runs, and about 2100 feet in vertical drop. In fact, according to Yahoo, it has the highest vertical in eastern North America. The size and vertical are not comparable to most major resorts in the west, mind you, but the terrain can keep you interested for several days of consecutive skiing or snowboarding.

Tremblant has the look and feel of a typical Intrawest property, with a few ‘Quebec-isms’ thrown in. The main village is really nice, featuring a varied selection of shops and restaurants; of course, it’s also really expensive, just like most other large resort. It’s certainly bigger than a place like Blue Mountain’s main village, but noticeably smaller than Whistler’s. And because you’re in Quebec, you can get service in English or French, and there’s plenty of beer available at lunch. (Tip: if you want to look like a local, drink Labatt 50. Or ‘cinquante’ as we half-jokingly called it.) Note that the legal drinking age in Quebec is 18.

The village is one giant hill, which means getting from the bottom to the top can be a major pain in the ass. There’s a free Cabriolet gondola that takes folks up and down. The real gondola to the top of the mountain lies at the top of the free Cabriolet gondola.

As with Montreal, don’t feel obliged to try out your French. Every service worker you encounter will greet you with “bonjour” but will immediately switch to English once they determine you’re not a francophone. You can use the typical “bonjour” or “merci” but I wouldn’t try struggling if your French is lousy, as you don’t need to and I don’t think most everyone there is interested in helping you practice.

The terrain

None of the Tremblant terrain is overly difficult. Even the beginners in our group could handle black diamonds easily. Double black diamonds were a bit of a challenge but still easy to handle.

The mountain is split into a few distinct areas:

• South side: This is where the majority of terrain lies. It was a wide range of green, blue and black runs, and most runs terminate at the village gondola. The top half of these runs are great for speedy, wide-open groomers; unfortunately, most merge together just below mid-mountain, forcing you to dodge large packs of beginners to reach the bottom. My recommendation: most runs pass a lift half-way down. Take the lift back up instead of going all the way to the bottom, unless you absolutely have to.
• North side: Two lifts service this area, which feature long, steep, fast blue and black runs with a few glades thrown in for good measure. I spend most of my time in this area. There’s also a base lodge on the north side that’s not nearly as crowded as the village, making it a great stop for bathroom breaks and lunch.
• The Edge: Definitely the place to be if you’re into glades. A blue groomer cuts through the middle of this area, which is mildly entertaining. Definitely try Haute-Tension if you’re looking for some seriously steep, challenging glades.
• Le Soleil (Francais for “sun”): This area has several nice glades and a pretty speedy groomer. The glades aren’t quite as fun as The Edge, though.

Mont Tremblant lodging and restaurants

I’ve only stayed in two hotels thus far:

• The Tour Des Voyageurs hotel: We (eight person group) had a great suite with two bedrooms, a huge ceiling, two bathrooms, a kitchen, TV, fireplace and three balconies. The hotel had free wifi, although each room had some sort of bizarre pay-per-day Ethernet hookup as well. It had all sorts of shops, cafes and restaurants both inside the building and outside, meaning we didn’t have to walk far for anything. It’s not a luxurious hotel, but it does the job.
• Le Lodge De La Montagne: We found the accomodations for eight people here to be a bit smaller. No cafe or restaurant, either. However, a big plus to the location: it’s situated just a short walk from the main gondola, and skiers can ride directly to the equipment room (not as easy for snowboarders, as there’s a large flat to traverse).

Mont Tremblant Restaurants and Bars

• Casey’s: This is a typical grill that’s good and reasonably priced. Nice choice if you don’t feel like trying anything new.
• La Diable: They have very good microbrew beer, if you’re looking to try something new.
• La Savoie: You’ll love it if you’re into Fondue. Pretty expensive, reservations required.
• Pizzateria: Good pizza and other Italin food. Great atmosphere. Nice place for dinner once you’re out of your gear and ready to eat.
• Fat Mardi’s: A New Orleans-themed restaurant and bar. Nice staff, great food. Yummy jerk chicken sandwiches. Mmmmmm!!
• Le Shack: Typical sports bar, nothing special. Gets very crowded.
• Bullseye: Located across from Le Shack, it’s a great little place to sit down and have a nice dinner, or just to head over for some beer and football. We went here when The Shack was packed and were pleasantly surprised.

More information on Mont Tremblant

• This nice Burlington Free Press article on Tremblant provides some more colour on Tremblant.

Changelog

• December 2006: Created original blog entry
• December 2007: Turned into guide, added restaurants, added to all headings

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