Skiing into winter: New features abound this year at ski centres within a few hours’ drive of Montreal BY ROCHELLE LASH, THE GAZETTE NOVEMBER 17, 2011 Mont Sutton in the Eastern Townships, is known for its glades. Photograph by: Mont Sutton, Mont Sutton Montrealers are blessed with a unique and vibrant winter-sports scene, enjoying scores of alpine and Nordic areas within a few hours’ drive, both at home and south of the border. New features abound, on and off the mountains. When the lifts roll at Mont Tremblant on Nov. 24, Quebec’s largest downhill area will start its 20th season under Intrawest, which has invested approximately $1 billion to transform a neglected mountain into an outstanding ski and snowboard resort. Don’t just take my word for it. The annual reader survey of Ski magazine, one of the industry’s bibles, has named Tremblant the No. 1 area in the East for a remarkable 15th consecutive year. Tremblant scored particularly high for its superior cuisine and slopeside lodging that ranges from convenient, affordable condos to five-star hotels with deluxe spas and outdoor pools. The après-ski can’t be beat, with maple whisky and blueberry martinis at the swish Le Fairmont Mont-Tremblant and live music at Le Casino de Mont-Tremblant. All that jazz has cultivated more than a soupçon of glamour. Movie stars come and go discreetly, many arriving on private planes at Mont Tremblant International Airport and cocooning at the exclusive Hotel Quintessence. Sotheby’s sells multi-million-dollar real estate to sportsmen from Dubai, London and Geneva who are seduced by the scenic mountain golf, fly-fishing in the wilderness, thrilling car racing, high-stakes baccarat or blackjack and snow sports like dogsledding. Tremblant constantly raises the bar with non-stop entertainment. Quebec’s first Iron Man competitions are set for summer 2012, and winter polo on frozen Lac Tremblant, à la St. Moritz, will dazzle onlookers in 2013. But Tremblant’s appeal to most visitors is its mountain in winter. If you are watching your budget, it pays to look out for the frequent promotions. For example, you’ll pay about 20-per-cent less for lodging on a ski-and-stay package than if you purchase only lodging. And prices fluctuate throughout the season, but if you book your winter stay before Dec. 13, you will get 30 per cent off of the going rate for your chosen dates. So, a one-bedroom condo at the three-star La Chouette with a kitchen and a living room pullout sofa, starts at about $139 for four for most of low-season December, but an advance booking brings that down to $97 a night. The same 30-per-cent off deal is valid for four-and-five-star properties. And, there are free activities for teens and youngsters, such as skating, tubing and bonfires. Also for families, the Snow School has opened a Mother Nature Camp where kids play indoors and also learn to ski and ride. Also new this year is the chance to have parents and children take lessons together so that the grown-ups can learn to coach the little ones when the family is on its own. Still with novices in mind, Tremblant is re-contouring the gentle Algonquin trail for better access to the Versant Soleil, the newest and sunniest of the mountain’s four skiable faces. Some other behind-the-scenes work should also make for smooth terrain. The mountain’s new computerized snow-making system can adjust for our radically fluctuating humidity and surface texture, and a $380,000 grooming machine will level out bumps and faults. Some other behind-the-scenes work should also make for smooth terrain. The mountain’s new computerized snow-making system can adjust for our radically fluctuating humidity and surface texture, and a $380,000 grooming machine will level out bumps and faults. It will be a smoother ride getting there, too. Drivers will be happy to know that many roads around Tremblant already have been repaved in anticipation of the Iron Man cycling events. At Mont St. Sauveur, the dreaded lineups might be getting shorter and faster. Sauveur is introducing a practical hands-free smart card for smoother, quicker access to lifts. You won’t even have to take off your mittens; the card will activate the gate from your pocket. After an initial visit to the service desk to buy the radio-frequency identification card, you can update it online. Sauveur is as much of a party place as a ski-ride destination and its chic new lounge, the T-Bar 70, will be the epicentre of après-ski in the Lower Laurentians when it opens next month. In the Eastern Townships, skiing, riding and nature converge at the exceptional Mont Sutton, a pastoral mountain which counts 45 per cent of its terrain as glades – gorgeous trails carved through snow- tipped forests. This year, Sutton is adding more: Extase and Seduction are new double-black diamond glades and Crocodile and Entonnoir are formidable “triple-diamond” experiences – steep and bumpy to the max. On the easy side, the Petits Wapitis Learning Park also is expanding its terrain. Online, we “like” Sutton’s new 3D interactive trail map where everyone can share photos and videos. Ski Bromont continues its almost perennial expansion with a new chairlift and four new runs lit for night-skiing and snowboarding, all on the pastoral back-of-mountain face, Versant des Épinettes. And penny-pinchers will love the new M2J card, a best-buy season pass valid Tuesdays to Thursdays, day or night, starting at $59.99. In Charlevoix, getting to the mountain on the new scenic train of Le Massif de Charlevoix will be a highlight, in addition to skiing and riding the highest vertical in Eastern Canada (770 metres) and soaking up spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River. The scenic Winter Train, with gourmet cuisine by Le Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, will cruise from Quebec City to Le Massif starting Feb 3. When skiers arrive at the village of Petite Rivière St. François on the shore of the St Lawrence River, they will board Le Transit, a transfer gondola, to get to the main lifts. Off of the ski slopes, in the wilderness of adjacent Mont Ligouri, Le Massif invites you to “rodel,” a new luge-style adventure on a rollicking seven-kilometre run. South of the border, Montrealers can revel in a multitude of mountain experiences throughout New England and upstate New York, with many “bests,” “firsts” and “mosts.” Loon Mountain, one of about 10 terrific ski areas in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, is tops in the east for snowboarding with six terrain parks geared to every level of freestyler. Sugarloaf in northern Maine has opened vast new terrain and now is the largest area in the east with 1,056 acres, which includes its distinctive Fuji-like summit snow cone of heavenly open, treeless fields. The mighty Whiteface in Lake Placid, N.Y., a former Olympic mountain, has the highest lift-serviced vertical drop in the east (964 metres). And one of our closest neighbours, Vermont, is synonymous with great skiing in the Green Mountains. Two family-friendly resorts in the pristine, snowy Northeast Kingdom of Vermont have major news. Quiet Burke Mountain is making big noise with five new trails, a high-speed quad and ecological wind- turbine energy. Innovative, feisty Jay Peak, where half the clients are Canadian, is shedding its down- home image and morphing into a modern resort with a $250-million investment over the past few years. The spiffy Hotel Jay will open next month, adjacent to the deluxe Tram Haus Lodge. And, although Jay’s micro-climate results in an exceptional snowfall, its new weatherproof water park will be the rage for its hot tubs and indoor surfing under a retractable roof (let’s hope it works better than Montreal’s famous retractable roof!). Stowe Mountain Resort, which for most of its more than 75-year history has been known as a rugged destination for advanced skiers, continues to reinvent itself as a thoroughly modern four- season vacation spot with more mellow terrain for newbies and luxurious living worthy of such visiting movie stars as John Travolta and Ethan Hawke. Stowe encompasses two adjacent mountains with different characters that gradually are being integrated. This year, all eyes will be on Mount Mansfield, where a new high-speed chairlift will replace the old ForeRunner quad and, starting Nov. 19, riders will zip aboard using a new, hands-free electronic card for quick access. The resort still is riding the wave of the spectacular five-year, $400-million development, Spruce Peak at Stowe. It is the most ambitious recent tourism venture in the northeast, with new lifts and trails and a slopeside hamlet of dramatic alpine architecture, starring the luxurious Stowe Mountain Lodge, now doubled in size to 312 gorgeous suites. Visitors are coddled with The Spa’s Healing Lodge and a fabulous heated outdoor swimming pool, gourmet comfort food at Spruce Camp Base Lodge, and the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Centre, hi h thi th ft d t It h k Pl ldi kh f ii Visitors are coddled with The Spa’s Healing Lodge and a fabulous heated outdoor swimming pool, gourmet comfort food at Spruce Camp Base Lodge, and the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Centre, which this month featured maestro Itzhak Perlman leading workshops for young musicians. However mellow Stowe’s scene has become, with an engaging cultural calendar, lavish accommodations and gastronomy, the swift new ForeRunner chairlift still leads to the steep, chilling Front Four trails, which remain among the great challenges of eastern skiing.