Return to Mont Tremblant: In Search of Meaning ...
The Canadian resort of Tremblant is not like any other resort in Canada; but that which it is, it is. And I love it.
Let’s get one thing straight right now; I love Mont Tremblant. Whatever I say in this piece, remember that I love this place. And, after reading this, I hope you will, too, becuase it is genuinely amazing.
Why start like this? Because it’s so easy to focus on everything that Tremblant is not. This is especially true for those of us in the UK who are weighing up spending thousands of pounds to fly all the way across the Atlantic for … for what? 82km of pistes? Disneyland on snow?
But there is more to this place. Far more than can be discerned from first impressions, or even second impressions. Far more than sometimes even what the resort will have you believe. Sometimes, you have to go somewhere, or even go back to somewhere, and stand at the foot of the slopes surrounded by families and friendship groups all having fun, to finally “get” a place.
During a short, bitterly cold visit to Tremblant in January 2025, I was forced to come face-to-face with a question that I had been asking myself for many years; who is Tremblant for? What's the hook to get Brits and Europeans on a plane halfway round the world to see and ski this place? And, stood in the main square one evening (admittedly after a few exceptional locally-brewed red ales) it hit me.
This is a place that can be whatever you want it to be. Part Disneyland on snow, part serious skiing destination whose true character is obscured by whatever a piste map says about it. The Canadian resort of Tremblant is unlike any other resort in Canada; but that which it is, it is. This is Skiing Unlocked's review of Mont Tremblant and a wider search for its meaning, and spoiler alert ...
I love it.
Main Street, QC
There is a reality to skiing Tremblant that you only get to experience when you are actually here. The first skiing came to the area in the 1930s, when a group of Canadian-American businessmen set out to create a landmark resort for the Canadian East Coast. Initially named Mont Tremblant, the resort itself has been rebranded in recent years to just Tremblant, although the official name for the city remains Mont Tremblant.
Tremblant’s role in the history of Canadian skiing is huge, and starts early before spanning Olympic golds and 007. The virtual founders of women's skiing in Canada, Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele, grew up skiing here, and after forming the entirety of Canada's female ski team at the 1948 St Mortiz Winter Olympics they led a crusade to re-invent women's skiing across the country.
Rhoda’s son John Eaves became a world champion ski ballet dancer - effectively freestyle skiing but without the jumps, rails and pipes. He was also a stunt artist, most famously portraying James Bond in that bobsled run-chase from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. There follows a long, long list of World Champions and Olympians, skiers and snowboarders, alpine and freestyle that define a history that is impressive even by Canadian standards, and this seeps into everything the resort does.
In the 1990s, the resort was sold to Intrawest, whose landmark investment in the village transformed it into the globally-focused resort you see today. This included the development of the upper resort village as a Quebec-inspired pedestrian village. At first, this seems a little fake – the clapperboard covering on the buildings giving away that this is only an imitation of dark, heavy stoned original Quebec architecture – and, as a result, it’s all to easy to begin sliding down a spiral of thinking that this is nothing more than “Disneyland on snow”, a fake castle dedicated to dressing skiing up for people not used to it.
Tremblant draws in a huge number of people who aren’t “used” to skiing. The soft patter of Mexican Spanish on the transfer up from the airport gives away one key market for the resort, but you will share the lift with so many weekenders from Boston and New York who also aren’t used to the snow. Yeah, sure, they might ski on their own, small, home mountains but, to them Tremblant is a destination, somewhere to really ski.
And, as if to prove the point, Tremblant hosts several events throughout the season that reinforce this as a ski destination beyond refute. The end of season Caribou Cup - which sees skiers in fancy dress trying to ski across a pond of water, then keeping going down to the Caribou bar - may not be the best example of this, but it is a Tremblant tradition like few others. The season kicks off with the 24h of Tremblant, a charity endurance skiing event that has raised millions of dollars for charities over its generation of existence, and, since 2023, Tremblant has joined the real big hitters and hosted a stop of the Women's FIS Alpine World Cup.
Space Mountain
The skiing in Tremblant consists of 82km of pistes; 82km of rollercoasters and log flumes and petting zoos. It sits primly on a small mountain that summits at 875m first termed “trembling mountain” by the local Algonquin indigenous population and later translated by the French from the 16th Century onwards as Mont Tremblant, a name still carried by the nearby old village and collectively by the wider community.
The mountain consists of four distinct faces, two of which spill down from the top station to the main village on the South Side (Versant Sud), and to a parking lot and sub-lodge on the North Side (Versant Nord). South Side is the biggest and busiest mountain face, featuring plenty of the resort’s powerful, carving blues and blacks as well as the beginners’ area flowing down Nansen.
Nansen is the resort’s longest run, flowing and winding its way through the trees down the southwest corner of the face. Enclosed by trees, as indeed the whole mountain is, there is a peace to skiing Nansen that is unparalleled almost anywhere else; I would be willing to bet every penny I had that you cannot find a better area to re-tune your skiing or learn to carve than Nansen.
Things turn gnarly on the North Side; black diamonds dominate, as do many of the resort’s glade runs. This isn’t a place for sending huge cliffs or waist-deep powder – that’s for resorts out west – but the pre-prepared and thinned glade runs are a fantastic challenge to any level of skier. You can also really dial up the adrenaline with Dynamite, featuring an ice wall to challenge even the gnarliest skier.
Attached to the southeast corner of the hill is Versant Soleil – the Sunny Side. Serving a sub-section of the resort home to the local casino, a bulk of the resort’s chalet accommodation, and yet another parking lot, the series of blues, greens and blacks running down this face are somewhere you can really get the miles in.
Finally, the northwest corner; The Edge. This is where you’ll find loads of glades, uphill touring tracks-cum-twisty turny downhill tree-lined couloirs, all of it completely ungroomed; this is mogul country. And don’t worry, the single lift that serves The Edge is an old, slow, fixed grip chair, meaning you have plenty of time to contemplate your fate on the way up …
You won't find 11km run valley runs here like you do in Whistler. You won't find endless powder here like you do in Colorado or the BC Interior. You won't find heli-skiing adventures to whisk you off to far flung peaks and valleys. That's not what Tremblant is about. Instead it is about carving, bumps and trees. And that which it is, it is, to an exceptional level. The cold conditions available means the snow is generally of an exceptional quality, and the care taken to thin the glades or leave the moguls to develop into the challenges that they are is a credit to the pisteurs here.
Make no mistake, when the snow comes it is glorious. There are several pockets of trees on Versant Nord through which you can get completely lost - metaphorically more than physically - enjoying some top quality tree skiing as you go. If you want it to be, this is serious skiing for serious skiers.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Like most North American resorts, the old village of Mont Tremblant lies a few miles distant from the resort itself. Unlike most North American resorts, however, the foot of the slopes in Tremblant is a self-contained resort destination, featuring everything you need to make a holiday of your time here.
The headline hotel is the Fairmont, Tremblant’s only ski-in, ski-out property. This 4* hotel features everything you could want from a hotel-resort, including in-house ski rental and valet service and poolside bar service in the divine outdoor hot tub.
Further down the village, towards the foot of the pedestrian gondola, is the Ermitage du Lac, a comfortable, quiet apart-hotel that offers a huge variety of suites and apartments, outdoor hot tub and ski lockers.
Back to the Fairmont; the army of "Cast Members" – concierge, hosts, cleaners, and valet staff – swarming all over the place was a culture shock; there was always someone on hand to take things off you or give things to you, almost without asking. Outstanding service all round, but certainly something new and different for those of us used to "slumming it" in Premier Inns.
Whilst the Ermtiage is infinitely more comfortable than any mid-brand chain, it was the quietness of this place that set it apart. You're not being proffered a hand at every turn by staff, you are free to pour your own coffee whenever you like, and your boots and skis can dry in their own dedicated ski locker which never sees any queues …
This isn’t a place to expect haute alpine cuisine served on alpine terraces basking in sun. This is a burgers and fries and pizza type joint, and beer, plenty of beer. Some of it big brand North American lager, but plenty of it brewed in tanks and bathtubs behind glass screens whilst you sit there watching the hockey on the TV above the bar.
On the one hand, Tremblant is a resort for families; children splash freely around the outdoor hut tub, ordering milkshakes and hot chocolates from the bar, and feast on a seemingly endless supply of French fries.
But once the sun sets and the lifts stop turning, another side to Tremblant comes out. Pick a bar, pick a poison, and keep the party going. From bars selling home-brewed beer to cocktail bars that can’t quite hide the dancer’s cages above the bar for when the tables are pushed back after food service.
And then there’s the Caribou – or P’tit Caribou, to give it it’s full title.
The Caribou is the life and soul of Tremblant’s nightlife. Huge, dark and bouncing, Caribou has been voted North America’s best ski bar for 11 years running between 2014 and 2025. It is they place to be, with beer flowing, a DJ playing at virtually all hours, and plenty of space to get up on the bar and throw some shapes.
What was once our gritty, grimy seasonnaires bar has elevated itself, developed notions, and helped drag the resort from a faux, Disneyland on snow to a serious resort for … you guessed it, serious skiers.
Final Thoughts
Standing in the main square one evening during my visit, I think it finally hit me. For so long I had been trying to find the "hook", what the draw was for people to fly half-way round the world to see and ski this place. The question I had been confronted with was how to sell "Disneyland on snow" for people who want serious skiing.
That's the thing, however. Mont Tremblant can be anything you want it to be. There’s so much to do, to see, to ski, to eat and to drink here in Tremblant. The skiing is impressive, really impressive, with an incredible snow record and so so so much skiing to keep everyone happy. Regardless of what you see on a piste map, this is the skiing equivalent of Mary Poppins’ handbag, with new experiences being pulled out with every turn and every new run tried.
In town, regardless of whether you are there with friends or with family, there is so much to see and to do. Ice skating and laser quest can entertain the kids, or ice hockey and small-brew ales keep the adults fuelled long into the evening.
And if you still think you’ll get bored? Some of Canada’s best cities are less than two hours away, even more less than four. It has never been easier to get between them, either, with a direct public transfer from Montreal Airport to the foot of the slopes.
Tremblant sets itself up as a destination for people who don’t often ski; a “Disneyland” on snow for those who never set foot in a ski resort. It is that, no doubt, but it is so so much more than that. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a serious ski resort for serious skiers.
And that, I suppose, is why I love this place …
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