Finished my second day of skiing at Mont Tremblant this afternoon. Figured I’d do a TR/review of the place, so here it is.
I’ll start with the layout of the mountain. There are 4 sections, South, North, Soleil, and Edge. South is more or less the main section and has the base village at the bottom. The real skiing is served by 3 lifts. The Flying Mile HSQ serves the lower portion, the TGV HSQ serves the upper portion, and the Express Gondola serves the full run. There is a Cabriolet to move skiers between the day parking area and the lifts, to eliminate the need for any vehicular traffic in the village, but it does not serve any skiing terrain. There is another gondola that connects to the Casino at the bottom of the Soleil side that isn’t used by many skiers and serves no terrain. There is also a triple called Porte Du Soleil that is right between the South and Soleil sections that serves some condos and another parking lot. There is terrain for all abilities from first timers to seasoned experts.
The Soleil side is shown on the map as being part of the South Side, but in reality, it is directly between the South and North sections. It is served by one HSQ called Le Soleil. The Casino Express Transfer Gondola connects the area to the base village at the South Side. The terrain is mostly long blue groomers. The runs have a lot of character and go on seemingly forever. The section faces due south, so the trails get a lot of sun, hence the name Versant Soleil, which means sunny side. It isn’t very crowded either.
The North Side hasn’t been developed at the base and is the starting point for many day trippers as it has the closest parking to actual skiing. No need to ride a transfer lift or a shuttle bus to get to the action. It is actually an eastern exposure and gets the morning sun, so best to go there for first tracks. It is served by 3 lifts. The Expo Express serves this separate peak on the lower section. The Lowell Thomas Triple serves most of the upper trails. The Duncan Express serves the full vertical, but you can’t get to some of the trails that the Expo Express serves, as it’s on a separate peak. There is a bit of a runout at the base, but not too flat.
The Edge section is the smallest. It has only one trail that can be lapped, two connector trails, one to the North side and one to the South Side and the rest is tree skiing. Trees were not in play due to a freeze thaw. It is served by its own fixed grip quad called The Edge. It’s shown as part of the North Side, but in reality it’s way out there and pretty much on its own. On a powder day with the trees in play, this section must be really nice, but likely gets a very long lift line.
What I liked:
Terrain and scenery: The view from the top of the mountain is one of the best in the east. You can see Lac Tremblant, which is completely frozen over as well as multiple other ski areas. There are plenty of pictures of it at the bottom of the page. The terrain has a lot of variety and the runs off the Gondola, Soleil Express, and Duncan Express seemingly go on forever. They are about 2,000 vertical. The other lifts also serve runs that are of pretty good length. Except for a couple trails at the bottom of the North Side, all runs have very good pitch.
Lodging: The base village has many lodging options that are all ski in ski out. We stayed at the Homewood Suites which turned out to be a great option. It proved to be ski in ski out in the truest sense and very nice. It was also a bit pricey, but that’s to be expected when you consider the location. While fake, the village is convenient when staying on mountain and has many shops and restaurants all within walking distance. Of the three mountains I’ve been to with a base village (Stratton, Steamboat, Tremblant, all Intrawest-owned), Tremblant has the nicest one as it’s modeled after Quebec City.
On Mountain Food: Tremblant has some of the best food options I’ve seen in the east. The Grand Manitou lodge at the summit and the base lodge at the Versant Nord are cafeteria style dining and have a good variety of options. They have the usual burgers, chicken fingers, fries, pizza, etc. but have some fancier options as well. The summit lodge had a pastry spread which I got some stuff from as well. There are also many restaurants in the base village at the South Side. The ones we ate at in the evenings were pretty good, but on the expensive side for what they offered, again location related.
What I didn’t like:
Crowds: The mountain gets pretty crowded, and it isn’t easy to avoid waiting in some long lift lines. The biggest issue is at the bottom of the North Side. You’re faced with the really long line at the Duncan Express, or the medium line at the Expo Express. You get on Expo and then realize that you have to wait in another line about the same length for the Lowell Thomas Triple to reach the top. Once you get into that “hole”, you’re immediately part of the problem and there’s no way out without a long lift line. Even if you go there intending to lap some of the expert terrain off Expo (which doesn’t line up too bad), you’re going to have to wait to get out when you’re done. As all but 3 lifts are high speed, their clientele isn’t used to loading fixed grips and the Lowell Thomas Triple constantly stopped and started.. The Edge and Porte Du Soleil lifts aren’t as bad because Edge serves only expert terrain and Porte Du Soleil doesn’t get many riders as it’s a real estate and parking access lift. The South Side is much better. The gondola only really lines up in the morning, and right after lunch. The line moves pretty quick as well. We waited about 8 minutes with a close to full maze. TGV and Flying Mile were no more than a couple minutes all day.
Conditions: As there was a freeze thaw before we got there, conditions were pretty icy. Not totally within their control but still worth noting. We hope to find better conditions on our next visit.
Pics are below. Enjoy!!
I've lived in New York my entire life.
Locked
top of the UPPER Duncan near the summit
