 Poster: A snowHead
|
Where: Mont Tremblant circa 1.5 hours from Montreal. According to the numerous signs in town, the best ski resort in Eastern North America. Manchester-Heathrow-Montreal with BA and AA on the way out. Montreal-LHR-Manchester on the way back with Air Canada and BA. Loft suite at the Hilton Homewood, which is no more than a minute’s walk from the lifts.
When: 24th Feb – 3rd March i.e. half term week
Who: Family holiday – Mrs TFS, the Mini-Ploughs (now aged 16 and 15) and your correspondent, in his usual mode as “Tail End Charlie”. By a huge and happy coincidence, Mrs TFS’s triathlon training partner from home and her family were also in town for the week and we spent a lot of time skiing and eating “mob handed”. They were “high rolling” in the Fairmont!
How: Booked everything through Ski Safari who were very good. We had specific flight requirements and couldn’t face the faff of researching these ourselves and once lured into letting someone else do the hard work, you might as well go “all in”. The ladies at Ski Safari must have thought we were a complete pair of Muppets given the basic questions we sent their way…
Why: The Mini-Ploughs’ swimming commitments ruled out flying out on Sat 23rd, so we needed to go Sunday to Sunday. European options given these date constraints weren’t hugely tempting or particularly good value, so Canada came into play. The time difference on the West Coast was too much of a challenge for just a week, so the Eastern side it was.
How much: Lost count at £5k for flights, hotel and transfer. Lift passes and ski hire a bit steep by European standards but not too bad. Not cheap overall but Canada for a week was never going to be!
Day 0: Leisurely start (9am departure) to Manchester for 2pm flight. All very smooth to Montreal. Through immigration etc. in no time at all and straight into the transfer for a “lively” trip to Tremblant through the snow. The hotel was expecting us, lift passes and ski hire docs were ready for us, so we had nothing else to do bar find some food and go to bed. Ironically, as we walked through town (5 minutes from top to bottom) the slushy conditions had me thinking that we could do with it cooling down a bit to preserve the snow. Our suite had a separate main bedroom with a second bed on a mezzanine level. The Mini-Ploughs shared the mezzanine level and apparently had some fearsome wrestling matches for territory in the bed that wasn’t quite big enough. It also had a kitchen which is presumably useful for those driving with access to proper supermarket. For those reliant on the “Magasin General” in town, it wasn’t much use. Though the fridge was handy for beers!
Day 1: Early start, due to time difference. Used the time to unpack, pin down a few details like the location of the ski hire shop and then avail ourselves of breakfast. This was included in the price and certainly did the job without testing the definition of “gourmet”. Maple syrup came with a lo-cal option which was a nice touch if rather missing the point of maple syrup. For unexplained reasons, on a couple of days there was an option for some kind of beans (not baked) rather than pancakes etc. I didn’t see anyone eat as much as a single bean! Coffee was on the weak side, though I think this is a local feature as even the Starbucks in town struggled to provide anything stronger than weak dishwater.
Once kitted out with skis, we headed to a large ski lift queue as the gondola was shut. I say a large lift queue, but it being Canada, the skiers in the queue were well spread out and falling over themselves to let people in front, so things cleared pretty quickly. This was the only queue we encountered until our final day (Saturday). Whilst the air temperature was OK (minus single digits) there was stiff breeze blowing and it was chuffing cold. We were all glad of our handwarmers and regular trips inside to defrost.
Food on the mountain was pretty good. We had pasta and sauce every day ($62 for 4) except the last day’s treat but there were also chips, chicken nuggets, burgers, pizzas, sandwiches and the ubiquitous poutine for those so inclined. Unlike at Banff, packed lunches were banished to a separate room rather than being allowed in the main area.
Not the best day’s skiing overall but the flat light and swirling snow did give my new goggles an excellent workout. The swirling snow was caused by a howling gale that blew all day. This was so strong that small children and unwary adults were being blown over and polling was necessary even on some reasonably steep downhill sections.
Dining options in town were pretty good too (though again, not exactly gourmet fodder) and all only a short walk from our hotel. We generally paid circa $120 each evening for a main course and drinks. In fact, nothing is more than a short walk from anywhere in Tremblant. It’s a purpose-built resort, which looks like a cross between Disneyland and Centerparcs, with one exception – the Fairmont Hotel. This looks like it was designed by someone straight from a Cold War era Soviet school of architecture but seems popular all the same!
We met up with our friends from home during this evening out into town. We hadn’t planned doing anything specific together, but they have two kids of similar(ish) ages to the Mini-Ploughs and they got on so well together that they immediately started campaigning for us to ski together too. So we did, and jolly nice it was too, as we could leave the kids to argue on their own chairlift whilst we travelled up more calmly a few chairs behind.
Day 2: We were awake early again. In fact, whilst the kids were soon into normal sleeping ours, Mrs TFS and I remained on the “wake up before 5am then fall asleep on the sofa at 8pm” routine that has served us well during previous holidays involving several time zones. Despite this, there was no chance to use our “first tracks” passes as it was -27C when the lifts opened. It was still around -20C when we headed out circa 930am, and this temperature prevailed all day. There was much less wind though, so we had an excellent day in good visibility. The ski area is not the biggest in the world, with limited “vertical” but there is a wide variety of terrain covering steep, icy double blacks, cruising blues and blacks, trees, moguls and snowparks. I think the only thing lacking was a halfpipe. The lifts range between fast and very fast, other than the one serving the “Edge” area. The edge of what is not entirely clear, but if trees and moguls are your thing, this is the place to be. Somewhat to my surprise, I discovered that I like trees and moguls in combination, helped by the facts that Tremblant doesn’t really do narrow, giving me plenty of time to fire up my oil-tanker like turns.
It was sometime during Day 2 that parts of my face froze to my array of buffs. This necessitated the reappearance of my mid 90s era balaclava which brought a certain sartorial elegance to the otherwise conservative Tremblant slopes. Whilst the balaclava prevented further damage, I suspect my face will still be peeling for several days yet!
Days 3 and 4 were much the same as Day 2, albeit trending warmer in the afternoon to the extent that the afternoon break was merely a “nice to have” rather than something necessary to avoid frostbite.
Day 5: There was some serious action on this day. The three oldest kids went off to tackle a scary double black called Dynamite. We’d watched a lot of people tackle this from the chairlift and seen precisely no-one complete it without having wiped out. Being responsible parents, we went with the kids on a reconnaissance run on an adjacent piste, to suss out a way to detour past the big drop off that caused everyone to wipe out. This was successfully done, but my role in this resulted in a minor loss of concentration, a severe loss of balance and a total loss of dignity as I ended up sliding headfirst down an icy stretch of piste for what seemed like an eternity. My pleasure at avoiding injury and at keeping my skis and poles close to hand was more than offset by the peels of laughter from children, wife and several chairs on the lift that was, of course, immediately over the scene of my fall from grace. Dynamite itself was successfully navigated by the kids though none of them wanted to give it another go!
To this insult was added injury a short time later when I was attacked by the Edge chair. This is the only non-detachable lift in the resort and in my desire to avoid being taken out at the knees as it approached, I misjudged my entry to the seat and collected a severe blow to my elbow. I was in agony and incapable of speech other than – allegedly – a stream of industrial strength profanities as I thrashed around trying to relieve the pain. My lift-mates were as sympathetic as one might expect in such circumstances and needed assisting from the lift at the top as they were still laughing so much!
The day ended with a somewhat surreal experience. I was lumbering down a cruising black run when the local junior race club came past. They were practicing their short turns and going pretty much the same speed as I was. It felt about as likely as being out for a bike ride and getting involved in “through-and-off” with Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome. For the record, the racers were averaging 4-6 turns to each one of mine.
Day 6: Sadly we were on our own for this as our friends were heading home. It being Saturday with good weather, a busy day was forecast, so we got our act together and got out for “first tracks” at 8am. We had some decent mileage in our legs by the time the crowds reached their worst at 1030am. After a 15 minute wait for a lift, we had an early lunch at 1130am, managing to find some seats, albeit in the nether regions of the packed lunch room. Curiously, there was little by way of crowds in the afternoon. I have no idea where everyone went. The restaurant was like the Marie Celeste for afternoon drinks at 230pm. I was definitely feeling the pace in the final stint, and had a couple of clattering traverses of a blue mogul field that I’d generally been dealing with quite well. Being naturally optimistic in outlook, I took solace from the fact that whilst my technique is generally ropey, it must at least have some correct elements as when not tired, I’d been linking 3-4 turns on said moguls quite regularly and slowing/stopping under control.
This day saw a strange incident at lunch. The menu at the restaurant offered chicken nuggets and chips or hotdog and poutine. One Mini-Plough wanted chicken nuggets and poutine which I duly requested. I’ve never suggested to the Pope that he is protestant, but I doubt he could have looked more surprised than the counter staff did. In fact, they looked positively offended at the mere thought of chicken nuggets and poutine. Is there some local by-law that categorises chicken nuggets differently to hotdogs precluding them from being served with anything more than chips and gravy?
This day also saw a strange incident in the pre-lunch lift queues. A local skier not only gave way to ensure “alternation” continued as it should, but actually reversed back up a shallow incline to achieve this. Nothing unusual about this one might think – we were in Canada, after all – but being a local, the apologies and pleasantries were conducted in French. Based on my experiences in French lift queues, I was momentarily as surprised as a protestant Pope might have been.
The return journey: This was all tediously routine until around 30 minutes before our flight took off. The transfer car turned up early, the traffic was lighter than expected, the automatic checkin booths and bagdrops worked perfectly, US immigration was sailed through (we were going via Philadelphia) and the IPA in the restaurant was nicer than expected. Not only that, but the seats by the gate had USB chargers built in. Then the announcement came – flight to Philadelphia cancelled due to bad weather. Cue mad dash to collect bags, re-book and check-in. I think we ran from one end of the airport to the other three times. The Skiing Gods were onside though, as we got what must have been the last 4 seats to Heathrow that evening. Even better, the Mini-Ploughs were one behind the other so still able to argue with each other (“We’re not arguing, Dad. We’re just sisters!”) with Mrs TFS and me dispersed throughout the cabin, so I had a very relaxing flight home as “Billy No Mates”. 5 hours at Heathrow waiting for a connection to Manchester wasn’t ideal but better than being marooned in Montreal with no clean “smalls”, which was a seriously possibility for some time.
Strava
Mrs TFS lent Elder Mini-Plough her Garmin for an afternoon and said Mini-Plough now sits proudly atop the rankings on Strava for the full Laurentienne run! The Garmin itself records a top speed of 86kmh which sounds awfully fast for the heiress to the Snowplough "fortune" to be hurtling down as icy hillside. 
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 6-03-19 17:42; edited 3 times in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Seems like you had a good time, but reading between the lines it doesn't sound like Tremblant was worth the cost/journey/hassle etc. for a smallish resort with fairly grim food. In retrospect would you have stuck with the Alps?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
Thanks for posting. I had toyed with the idea of Canada via ski safari for half term just gone. So really interested to read your experience. In the end we didn’t as we found an affordable way to get the flights into Europe (thanks to snowdave and found good accommodation thanks to flangesax), but Canada is still very high on my must do one year list.  . Not sure it will be before the kids finish school / leave home though!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
@foxtrotzulu, the food was fine. Just not gourmet which I thought worth posting for those for whom gourmet food is a key requirement. The coffee was sh*te though!
We could doubtless have done some more research on Euro options but weren’t motivated to go down this route given other commitments in life. So Canada was a sound option. And we were all “skied out” by the end so whilst the runs were short the aggregate effect was no different to that obtained from a bigger ski area. No two trips down any piste are the same for me given the random behaviour of my skis so 100k of pistes on a map are equivalent to an infinite distance in real life!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
@The Flying Snowplough, thanks for posting, sounds like fun.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@pam w, poutine is a strange concept. Why anyone would invent it is beyond my comprehension. Why anyone would then like it is even harder to understand!
Chips and gravy on the other hand are the food of the Gods!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I do love your reports - just pleasantly spent part of my lunch reading this!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
@The Flying Snowplough, thanks really enjoyed this. One question though, how are you and the kids finding the jet lag on return. I have two boys of a similar age and we have been to Breckenridge, Whistler and Banff for previous week long trips at February. We loved all of them BUT the jet lag on return was a big negative. Just wondering if Tremblant would have been a better option in this respect.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@The Flying Snowplough, smashing report, thank you! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
@London_Falcon, I'll let you know re jetlag. We just got home this afternoon! I don't think it will be an issue tbh. I was much easier than when we went to Banff a couple of years ago. The kids were barely affected whilst out there after the first night, sleeping 9-630 which is pretty much standard UK times for them. Ironically on Tuesday and Thursday they slept later in Canadian time (630am equiv't to UK 1130am) than they do on UK time those days for swimming (515am)!
Thanks for the positive comments in general. I bashed the report out whilst waiting for flights, which is as go a way as any to fill time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
interesting your half term was the week after ours, I wonder if that helped the pricing at all???
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| kitenski wrote: |
| interesting your half term was the week after ours, I wonder if that helped the pricing at all??? |
I have to confess I didn't burden myself with price info for weeks where we couldn't go so I can't comment! On the cost front, I did get stung for $3 for a Kit Kat one lunchtime. At least tax was included. According to our friends, I complained about this one Kit Kat every evening over dinner!
Edit - Talking of costs, I've been tallying up and the base price of "£5k" was actually only £4300, so overall, it was almost "bargain basement" notwithstanding the Kit Kat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
