Friday, March 17, 2006
Mont Tremblant
Our discussions about what to do during the week long March break seemed to centre around skiing. Jenny has been enjo
ying her skiing immensely and has improved in leaps and bounds. Alex, with her new snowboard can't wait to master it and I would like to get my teeth into some challenging slopes. Our first thought was to travel to Collingwood, a two hour drive north of here and stay on the mountain. Further investigations revealed that all Canadians on the east coast hold the slopes of Mont Tremblant in highest regard. As we have never stayed in a ski-in-ski-out resort before we thought we could get away 
with it this time and, upon investigating Mont Trembant further, discovered a set of Condominiums called "La Chouette" in the ski village that were very moderately priced. So
after a long 8ookm road trip and a detour and overnight stay at Montreal we arrived in Mont Tremblant at 8am, put our gear on, purchased a ticket and got into the snow.We had a three night stay in the village and found the experience a real enjoyable adventure. The temperatures were very mild (above freezing to start with) and therefore the snow got soft by the afternoon but there was heaps of trails of all levels. Some of the trails were very long taking 20 minutes or more to get to the bottom and a 9 minute gondola ride back to the
top made it very comfortable. We experienced different weather and ski conditions on each day with a good start on Sunday followed by late rain, a wet day on Monday with snow in the afternoon and a windy snowy day with sunny breaks on Tuesday. Whilst the snow cover was not ideal, snow depth was about 110 cm so no chance of not having 
enough snow to ski. Some of the black runs were closed because they were too steep to hold snow on them. Jenny and I got to ski together during most of our stay as beginner, intermediate and advanced runs followed similar directions enabling us to take
different trails and meet at the bottom. Alex had a great time boarding with Julia and has improved dramatically. needless to say she had loads of energy on the slopes and spent her time going over jumps, having stacks, toboganning (this is where she unbuckles her board and sits on it like a taboggan) and boarding with speed and style. Tr
emblant had much longer runs than any slopes we have found so far and in fact is comparable to the size of maybe two Thredbos.After each days skiing the routine was for Jenny and I to return to the condo for showers and a 'plonk' whilst Alex and Julia headed for the spa, pool and shower complex for an hour or so. On there return we ate meals that we prepared in Waterloo and brought with us. The condo was fully self contained. As you can see form the pictures the ski resort has tried to
replicate a European alpine village. It is a pedestrians only village and is full of cafes, bars, restaurants and shops all underneath a huge variety of accomodation. Jenny and I spent each afte
rnoon walking through the village having a great time soaking up the atmosphere. Because we were in Quebec the standard language was French, though all French Canadians can speak English and anyone working in the cafes, lifts etc spoke both languages fluently. It was amazing to see how easily they changed from one language to another when we spoke to them. We really did feel like we were in another country other than Canada.On the Wednesday morning Jenny and I snuck out at 7am for a leisurelly breakfast at 'Le Shack' whilst Alex and Julia slept in. We packed up and left at 10am for the arduous trip back to Waterloo where we arrived safely home at 7pm (One hour delay in traffic jam getting through Toronto)
# posted by Dibbo @ 9:05 am 
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Hey this is a cool site, how do you set one up (OK I know find out yourself)can you add caption to the bottom of the photos?
# posted by 
: 12:32 pm
: 12:32 pm
HEY dad im finally checking out ur blog again....and i have added to mine!!!!! The snow Looks pretty good cant wait to go skiing or better yet boarding with alex ;-)
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