My Season Highlights: Tremblant, Canada
- Henry
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
To mark the end of the 2024/25 season, Henry looks back on some of the best moments of the winter that was. Join Skiing Unlocked as we reminisce on the places, people, and moments that have defined this year.
How do you remember a place you last skied 10 years ago? And not just skied, skied day in day out with some people who were and still are your best friends. How do you recompute a place that's thousands of miles away and you know you'll only get to go back to once or twice in your life?
I'm not sure you do.
That's why I found myself on a plane to Montreal repeatedly asking myself "what the fuck am I doing?!" for seven hours straight. I'm back in Tremblant, the best resort on the East Coast - Canadian and American - and one I spent my season in 11 years ago, from January to March 2014.
Two days later and I've just skied the pants of the best resort east of the Mississippi. Ticking off all the fond memories from all four sides of the glorious mountain, Tremblant has brought back all the memories in a heartbeat.
The best part about coming back a decade later is seeing things as an adult, not the child I swore I wasn't but in reality I definitely was. This was a time to ski, not to make bold assertions about how I was going to hit a 180 of this kicker (yes I said that, and no I didn't hit a 180).
This time I was able to just ... ski. Ski all four sides - Versant Sud, Nord, Soleil and the Edge, enjoying every turn and just exploring, with no agenda, no memories, no preconceptions, just ... ski.
I'm aware this isn't the usual insightful season diary I normally publish. I'm aware this isn't fully of useful tips or gushing praise for the resort currently hosting me on a press trip. This is a resort that I knew so intimately a decade ago and had built up such an idea for the possibilities of how it could have changed that I'm a little dumbstruck at how little it hasn't.
It is the same place I skied ten years ago.
And I think, I know, there is a beauty in that. I loved this place for the people I met and the skiing I skied. And by the sounds of that, that at least remains unchanged.
Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to sit down and write more eloquently about the skiing or the bars at Tremblant. For now, I'm going to enjoy my beer and watch the hockey, and see you on the slopes first thing.
Don't call this a comeback; I've been here for years.
Saturday 18 January, 2025
How do you, or can you, understand a resort like Tremblant? Disneyland on Snow? Or something more?
There’s a huge dichotomy I’ve come to understand about Tremblant, and it’s one I’m really struggling to reconcile.
On the one hand, I’ve seen first hand that this is “Disneyland on snow” for a huge number of people. I was genuinely surprised to see an incredible number of families with children of all ages running and skiing around this weekend. For every adult in the hot tub ordering an Aperol via their poolside bar service, there was a child ordering a hot chocolate. The queue for ski valet first thing in the morning was two-thirds children.
And the whole resort is build to imitate what a ski resort should look like, literally; when the resort base was rebuilt in the 1990s, at a time when Tremblant decided to re-orientate itself to the outside world and become a world-renowned ski destination, it was rebuilt to look like what a traditional Quebec village.
Now, I love this place, and the people that work here, and I really don’t want to offend any Quebecois, but it all looks a bit .. fake. Like someone created a theme park ride inspired by Quebec and skiing, but exaggerated to sell a certain idea.
I spent time in more bars over the past few days than I did during my entire season here. I watched ice hockey every night of the week, and enjoy superb beer brewed behind my back in the microbrewery we enjoyed, or just down the road in Montreal or Quebec City.
Dare I say it, I even got my boogie on in the Caribou bar, where I did spend all my season when not skiing. I enjoyed cocktails at a fancy cocktail bar that couldn’t quite hide the dancing cages that came out when the tables were put away after food service ended.
The resort was busy and bustling, full of people from Montreal and Ottawa, New York and Boston, enjoying their ski holiday – even if it was just a weekend – by sharing a few drinks, and a dance, or watching the game at the bar.
But I think therein lies the beauty of this place. Perhaps it is Disneyland on Snow, but if, as an industry, we’re worried about uptake of snowsports, surely having somewhere like this where anyone can come and ski (and trust me, not to judge but “anyone” really was out in force this weekend), and, critically, have an amazing time, at whatever age, is awesome.
Perhaps it is the perfect place for a friends' weekend away, leaving the wives and girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends back home and dancing late into the night after a few beers or cocktails. Jetlag had me slammed in bed by 10pm each night, but the empty faces around the breakfast buffet each morning was testament to the shapes thrown on the bar at the Caribou the night before.
So what? The skiing is great here, it really is, punching far about the limited 82km available. It’s a bustling town full of children and families, friends and couples, here, simply to enjoy themselves. So what?
Yeah, that’ll do it.
Cheers to that; santé.
.jpeg)
