Eastern Snowboarding

Riding and Driving While Sliding: A Mont Tremblant Odyssey

Apologies for not being around the past few days! I was riding at Mont Tremblant last weekend, and the trip back took a full day longer than expected thanks to the crazy weather most everyone on the east coast is getting hit with. So I really haven’t had time to write up my trip until now. Here’s how it all went down.

Thursday

We left Toronto in the middle of rush hour, destined for Ottawa. The plan called for us to stay the night in Ottawa courtesy of a friend, then finish the drive to Tremblant Friday morning. Tremblant is a good 7-8 hours from Toronto, so travelling via Ottawa let us get some sleep (we often take an overnight bus, which sucks). We got to Ottawa in about five hour, and hit the hay shortly thereafter.

Friday

We were back on the road for Tremblant around nine, which wasn’t the ideal scenario to me but I didn’t have much of a choice (I am always the early riser in the group, the guy who gets pissy waiting for everyone to hurry up, get their gear on and get on the mountain). After many wrong turns we arrived at the Lodge de la Montagne, a reliable hotel  in the middle of the village (we cover this hotel and others in the Tremblant guide, located here). We were geared up and on the hill by noon.

By the time we got on the mountain, we realized that whether we got up the hill at nine or noon was rather inconsequential; it was going to be impossible to stay outside all day. Any exposed skin froze in a matter of seconds; the windchill hovered around -30c. This marked the first time I had to ride with absolutely every inch of my skin covered, so I took a picture to commemorate the occasion:

It sure was cold.

We generally avoided the south side of the mountain, as it is far and away the most popular and attracts the most learners. Instead we stuck to the north side and rode black diamond runs like Geant. The riding was pretty icy and cold, and so while it was good to get some turns in on a real mountain we only lasted about three hours.

Saturday

Saturday was an amazing day. The temperature rose considerably, the sun was out, and the resort wasn’t too busy at all. Tremblant opened The Edge for Saturday, which excited us a lot; The Edge has several extremely challenging but fun glades. We rode The Edge most of the day, ducking branches, dodging trees and gapping small creeks. Tremblant was also blowing snow into the glades all day, so although it was pretty cut up in many places the conditions still weren’t too bad. It became apparent Saturday that Tremblant wasn’t going to be opening the Soleil side all weekend, which had more glades, so we knew we were lucky to have at least some.

We rode hard pretty much the entire day before taking the last gondola up to the south side to cap it off. A word about the south side: there are many flats along the green runs. So while they may be long and enjoyable, many require you to strap out and some point and skate.

Sunday

Sunday was jackpot day. A huge storm moved into Quebec, dumping loads of snow by the hour on Tremblant. Although the snow didn’t start until 10am, most runs were covered in fresh almost immediately. The Edge turned into a soft powder paradise. We rode it all day, hooting and hollering on every run.

A stupid policy

One thing that drove me nuts about Sunday though was the fact that despite driving snow and limited visibility, Tremblant continued making snow. This made it impossible to see, and created some of the most dangerous skiing conditions I have ever seen in my life. There were many areas near the mountain’s summit that were simply impossible to navigate due to the fact the resort had guns running. While I can appreciate the effort to create the best snowbase possible, do snowguns really need to be running during a snowstorm?

The real fun started on the way home. Once we realized the storm wasn’t going to let up, we packed up and headed for Ottawa. But an hour into the drive, conditions became so treacherous it was apparent we weren’t going to make Ottawa. So we stayed on the major highways, drove into Montreal and spent the night in a Radisson off the highway. Highlight of the night was my exposure to La Cage aux Sports during a Canadiens game… ET LE BUT!

Ahem.

I’ve updated the Tremblant Guide with some more facts and thoughts.

Anyway, it was a great trip all around. Next up: Whistler, January 18. I can’t wait.

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