For me, the club’s ski weekend at Mont Tremblant proved to be a good transition from my five weeks of summer fun in Australia back to the cold reality of regular life in Montreal. I arrived home on Thursday at 11 pm after more than 24 straight hours of flying and changing planes. The next afternoon I quickly packed anew and set off for Tremblant. Fortunately, the forecast was for highs of -3 to -5 C — the next polar vortex was not scheduled to arrive until Tuesday!
Checked in on Friday evening. The accommodations were as comfortable and well-appointed as promised. Located 1.5 km from the hustle and bustle of the downhill ski resort, the Hotel du Lac buildings are situated on a hillside overlooking Lac Tremblant and facing the ski hill across the lake. The units were fully equipped condos, right down to the kitchen wares and washer and dryer. Most of the 35 or so people up for the weekend had already gone out to dinner, many in the resort village.
On Sat morning, my jet lag kicked in and I slept late. By the time I stumbled down to breakfast, most people had eaten and were in the throes of animated discussion of what to do that day. I did not pay any heed to this debate — having not been on skis yet this year, I had very limited ambitions. I was not looking to try to keep up with any of the other winter-hardened participants! I saw there was snow on the ground, so my plan was simply to go to the nearest ski centre and just try to get out on my skis for a bit.
I took my time to get ready and then made the short trip to Ski de fond Mont Tremblant (aka Domaine St Bernard), arriving at 11:15 am. I looked at my skis, which I had quickly grabbed from the basement. Hmm, still lots of wax on them from whenever it was I last skied about 10 months ago. It looked like it might be blue wax, so I just decided to give it a try. I skied with new-member Virginie, who was also skiing for the first time this year.
We skied on the A1 loop, around 7 km long. The conditions were good, all things considered. I had heard that there had not much been much snow lately, but the center had a good base, good grooming, and one cm of fresh snow from the night before. So the skiing was very pleasant, especially for a first outing of the year. After doing the A1, we went out for more, going to the A3 and following it as far as the bridge over the river to the northern section of trails. A total of 16 km, not bad for a first day.
Back at the hotel, I was in the hot tub when I first heard that one of the hotel buildings was on fire. Fortunately for those of us on the weekend, it was a standalone building a few hundred metres from the main complex where we were staying, After changing, I went to see for myself. The building was indeed in flames, cause unknown, but it had been safely evacuated. The building was clearly going to be a total loss and the firefighters were working to ensure that the flames did not spread to the neighbouring building. But there was a group of forlorn young skiers, just returned from their day on the slopes, coping with the realization that they had lost any possessions left in their rooms. Very sad, but the important thing was nobody was hurt.
A wine and cheese was hosted by Cheryl and Helene in their condo before dinner from 5:30 pm. It was only then that I learned that many people had opted to forgo skiing as they had lacked confidence in the trail conditions. Most of the group had gone to the Parc National du Mont Tremblant (aka Lac Monroe). While many did go skiing, many others went snowshoeing instead. It turned out that some others had decided to spend the day enjoying the charms (and shops and cafés) of nearby St Jovite. The important thing was that whatever they decided to do, everyone had a great day! At the gathering, acting-president Keith (T0m’s words not mine, Messenger boy) made the official speech — I explained that due to my jet lagged state, I had not yet been medically cleared to resume my role as Beaver Tails President!
At 7:15 pm we made our way down to have dinner in the spectacular dining room facing the 
lake. Below the windows a feeding station was surrounded by several deer. A rumor that patrons could point out one of the deer and order fresh venison was not substantiated. It was not an issue for us, as our group menu gave us a choice of chicken or salmon.
The next day I again slept in and was one of the last to arrive for breakfast. It was snowing and the ski conditions looked promising. But after a good first outing of the season the day before, I was not looking to do much, if anything at all. I think some people shared my sentiment, as I heard some talk of checking out and heading back to town. In the end, I went back to Ski de 
fond Mont Tremblant (aka Domaine St Bernard) to ski, this time with new-member Paul. That year-old wax was still holding up, so I didn’t touch it. We skied on the A1 loop, encountering several other BTers along the way. It was another 11 km for me, not bad at all for a first weekend of skiing. And one of the best parts was that I skied the entire weekend on last year’s wax!
After a languid lunch at the relaxing Couleur Café in St Jovite, I hit the road for the return journey at 3 pm. Oh oh, was it already 3 pm? And there was still snow falling? That could only mean one thing. Sure enough, traffic delays on the 15 began before Ste Adele. I took the first exit and took the 117. Once I got through Ste Adele, it flowed smoothly and I only rejoined the 15 after I got past St Jerome. But it still took about an hour longer than usual to get home. Oh well.
As you may have noticed, my report for this weekend was light on details of what much of the group did. I kind of sleep-walked (and sleep-skied?) my way through the weekend, and so I was less engaged than usual with what everyone else was doing. I picked up on many of the missing details by checking out the many photos on the web site submitted by the participants. But I did get enough of a vibe from everyone there to know that the weekend was a great success. Many thanks to the work done by Helene and Cheryl to make this weekend possible!
P.S. The reference to “Fire and Ice” was made famous by a short poem published by Robert Frost in 1920. if you are curious, you can read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_%28poem%29