Tremblant Vid

I have uploaded this in HD, if you want to view it go here and click [View in HD]. [edit] they've disabled the audio due to copyright, nice.

Winter Wonderland

Last year the whole family took up skiing and tagged along with our friends the Emersons on their annual ski trip. This year the destination was the same as last year, Mt Tremblant in Quebec, about 100kms north of Montreal. Same deal this year with the exchange rate making a shift to Vermont or the Rockies an expensive prop, so Wednesday at 5:20am we backed out of the driveway and headed up the 401 to Tremblant. This particular day we were expecting a huge snow storm and the weather didn't disappoint at all keeping us to between 80-90kph instead of the usual 120 due to low visibility and slippery roads. Our Murano broke down about 30ks east of Cornwall and we had to be towed back to the local Nissan dealer for some help. The cause was a snow clogged air filter, a known design problem with our model apparently, thanks a bunch Japan. The delay cost us a couple of hours or more but the Emersons weren't fairing much better being stuck behind a big accident about an hour up the road. By the time we caught a feed and got back on the road the accident had cleared but the Emersons were not far ahead of us. The timing of everything worked against us though putting us clear in the middle of Montreal peak hour traffic and the snow just kept coming. We arrived at Tremblants village within minutes of the Emersons after a 14hr drive that should have taken about 7.But the thing about snow is that while is sucks to drive in it you need it for skiing. So an additional 7 hours of driving converts nicely into 3 days of awesome skiing conditions, so it's all good. The kids all had a full day lesson and Jo and I locked in an afternoon session. While Jo and I skied in the morning we hit a few Green runs to get back into the groove and then headed for the summit again. Up there we found Abbie tagging a crying Cam and their instructor no where to be seen. Gathering up our crew we headed off down the run where Abbie had last seen their group. We caught up with them and the guy was pretty apologetic when he realised a) he'd left some kids behind and b) it was their parents who had discovered the mistake and corrected it (some luck on a mountain that size, dunno what he would have done if we hadn't happened upon them). Cam was basically freezing so we headed off down the hill the fastest way, a big Blue run that had Jo a little worried but she handled it. Finally we got the kids down, the last part with Cam under his instructors arm (it's a very steep section) and we got the kids into their lunch room where they warmed up with 3-4 bowls of soup each. Jo went back to the room for Cam's balaclava and I got the kids all chem-heat-packs for their gloves and boots. Problem solved and we could head out to our own lessons.Jo really enjoyed her lesson, she wasn't expecting to, and came out of it with better skills and more confidence. My lesson wasn't as good as I joined a group that had been together all week and their instructor kept pretty tight with them and I didn't get much attention, some of the group were pretty average skill-wise. My skills aren't great but I can get down a Black diamond, even if I don't look pretty doing it. Having said that I did pick up some good tips and my skiing improved for sure.

The next few days had us all improving and hitting Greens and Blues as a family and occasionally with our group, Misho, Predrag and their kids who are better skiers and boarders than us, often hitting the double Blacks. One double black is called Vertigo and it's like looking down a white elevator shaft, I decided not to take that one... I would have bounced maybe twice on my way down the 80-100 metre drop. We all had a lot of fun and the kids found the long Greens to be a lot of fun due to the sides of the trails offering little diversions around the snow making equipment and sometimes through the trees. They would all take these small trails and try to catch some air off small jumps, Abbie and Cam were getting really good at this and totally fearless. Once both of them wiped out in the trees, no harm done but it was a good thing Jo missed seeing that one. Every night had us in someone elses room, pouring Caesars, Appleton rum, sweet reds and chilled beer. We took all our nightly meals and feasted on Shepards Pie, Osso Buco and quiche while everyone shared their meals with everyone else, a great atmosphere. My legs were pretty down after 3 days skiing and it was a tired family that packed the car and started back to Oakville on Sunday morning. Misho had suggested a different route home and so we let the GPS do the talking and set off back via Montebello and Ottawa. The drive required us to take a ferry and I didn't have any cash, luckily we had just enough in shrappnel in the car to pay the $8, some of it in US coins :-), as they didn't take any plastic.

We're already looking forward to our next skiing trip, hopefully sometime this month we might head off to NY state and ski with our neighbours the Davis's. Can't wait!

Andy, out.

PS: A video is coming, having problems uploading to YouTube atm, bear with me.