Mont Tremblant Resort: Difference between revisions
→Natasha Richardson Accident: Session removed. The article is about the Mont Tremblant Resort, not about the people who died there. |
|||
| Line 58: | Line 58: | ||
There are also plans to build a lift on the Soleil Side as a new piste has been planned to be built to add to the pistes on the Soleil Side. This Piste will be a Green (easy) piste as there are only Blues (intermediate) and Blacks (Difficult) on the Soliel Side. |
There are also plans to build a lift on the Soleil Side as a new piste has been planned to be built to add to the pistes on the Soleil Side. This Piste will be a Green (easy) piste as there are only Blues (intermediate) and Blacks (Difficult) on the Soliel Side. |
||
===Natasha Richardson Accident=== |
|||
On [[March 16, 2009]] [[Natasha Richardson]] suffered a severe head injury when she fell on the beginner’s trail during a private ski lesson at the Resort. She died two days later at [[Lenox Hill Hospital]] on Manhattan’s Upper East Side after being removed from [[life support]]. |
|||
==Resort facilities== |
==Resort facilities== |
||
Revision as of 03:50, 19 March 2009
| Mont Tremblant Resort | |
|---|---|
| File:Mont Tremblant logo.png | |
 Mont Tremblant and pedestrian village | |
| Location | Mont-Tremblant, Quebec |
| Nearest major city | Montreal |
| Vertical | Template:M to ft |
| Top elevation | Template:M to ft |
| Base elevation | Template:M to ft |
| Skiable area | Template:Km2 to mi2 |
| Trails | 94 |
| Longest run | Template:Km to mi (Nansen) |
| Lift system | 1 gondola, 10 chairlifts, 3 magic carpet |
| Snowfall | Template:Cm to in per year |
| Website | Tremblant.ca |
Mont Tremblant Resort is a large, year-round resort in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, about one-and-a-half hours by car northwest of Montreal. It is best known as a ski destination, but also features a lake suitable for swimming and two golf courses in the summer months. The name of the mountain, Mont Tremblant, means "trembling mountain" in French. The summit is at an elevation of Template:M to ft, which makes it one of the tallest peaks in the Laurentians, the tallest being Mont Raoul Blanchard near Quebec City at Template:M to ft.
History
Joe Ryan / Château Beauvallon
The history of Mont Tremblant is closely intertwined with the story and development of Château Beauvallon. Both owe thanks to an adventurous Philadelphian named Joseph Bondurant Ryan, whose vision and love of the region left an indelible imprint on Tremblant and fundamentally shaped its destiny.
Born at the turn of the century, Joe Ryan was the grandson of Thomas Fortune Ryan, one of America's wealthiest railway tycoons. Along with his fortune, the younger Ryan inherited his grandfather's ambition. Ryan also possessed a love of exploration, wilderness and travel.
In 1938, Ryan visited Mont Tremblant for the first time, and after an arduous, unaided climb to the highest peak, fell in love with the mountain. From that point on, his life's goal would be to make the mountain accessible to others and to transform the region into a world-class alpine village.
In 1939, Ryan married Mary Rutherford, and Mont Tremblant was officially inaugurated. By the end of the year, Time magazine noted the Laurentians were a popular destination for American skiers.[citation needed]
Development
The first chairlift was installed at Mont Tremblant in 1939. The Mont Tremblant Lodge was opened the same year, and it remains in the pedestrian village.
In its early years, Lowell Thomas, the American radio broadcaster, was an avid skier who helped popularize the resort by broadcasting shows from the site. The resort named a ski lift and trails after him and after other early devotees.
Peter Ryan, son of Joe and Mary, developed into an accomplished downhill skier, but citizenship issues precluded his quest for inclusion on the Canadian olympic ski team. He turned his competitive fires to motorsports, where he excelled. His greatest victory was the 1961 Canadian Grand Prix. Peter Ryan was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1993.
The resort operated independently until 1991, when it was purchased by Intrawest, which immediately expanded the pedestrian resort village and built new ski lifts, including a gondola. Other changes included building the Grand Manitou summit lodge.
December 2005 labour disruption
On December 15, 2005, the union representing most resort staff staged a temporary work stoppage, starting at 10:00 am and ending at 11:30 am.
Two days later the union staged a general strike, and workers set up a picket line between the gondola and the pedestrian village. Management personnel were able to operate a small number of lifts, enabling skiers to continue to use the ski area.
While the strike was only supposed to last 24 hours, it did not end until January 2, 2006.
Future expansion
Currently, plans are being made to develop the real estate property of Versant Soleil. A man-made lake and a casino were scheduled to be ready by summer 2009. A gondola will link the base of Versant Soleil and the main resort village.
There are also plans to build a lift on the Soleil Side as a new piste has been planned to be built to add to the pistes on the Soleil Side. This Piste will be a Green (easy) piste as there are only Blues (intermediate) and Blacks (Difficult) on the Soliel Side.
Resort facilities
As of 2005, Mont Tremblant had been recognized by Ski Magazine as the #1 ski resort in Eastern North America for 8 consecutive years. The main resort offers more than 600 acres (2.4 km²) of ski and snowboarding trails in 4 distinct areas: North Side (Versant Nord), South Side (Versant Sud), Sunny Side (Versant Soleil) and The Edge (Versant Edge).
As of the 2005 winter season, the resort had 94 marked downhill trails, the longest being 6 km (3.73 miles), and 16 were designated easy, 31 intermediate, 37 difficult and 10 expert.
The resort features 13 ski lifts, including 1 gondola, 5 detachable chairlifts, 3 regular chairlifts and 3 magic carpets. Total lift capacity is 27,230 skiers per hour.
The top of the mountain has a chalet and restaurant, Le Grand Manitou, open in the winter and summer.
Pedestrian Village
The pedestrian village developed by Intrawest has made Tremblant unique among ski resorts in Eastern Canada due to its pedestrian-only layout, shopping, nightlife and slope side accommodations.
There is an open gondola-style lift called The Cabriolet which connects the upper and lower parts of the pedestrian village. From the top of this lift, the main gondola is available to take skiers to the summit of the mountain. There is also a ski trail running through the village for skiers to access the lower level of the village and transportation.
It is important to note that Mont Tremblant Resort and the municipal village of Mont-Tremblant are separate entities.
Activities
Mont Tremblant enjoys year-round activities which take advantage of the surrounding environment (mountains, forest, lakes and rivers); most are setup on daily schedules and usually take the form of tours in small groups and are accesible to families; most are run by independent operators or specialized guides.
Summer activities include airplane tours, all-terrain vehicle tours, croisieres, boating, caleche rides, canoeing trips, cycling, dune buggy tours, fishing tours, golf, helicopter tours, hiking, horse back riding, lake cruises, mountain biking, paintball games, rafting, rock climbing school, spas, via-ferratta, waterskiing and wakeboarding, white-water rafting, and zip-lines.
Winter activities include cross-country skiing, dogsledding, downhill skiing and ski schools, helicopter tours, horseback riding, ice-climbing, paintball, sleigh rides, snomobiling, snowshoeing, and spas.
Lodging
Mont Tremblant has a wide variety of hotel and condo accommodations, many of which are situated in the pedestrian village at the foot of the mountain.
There are additional condo and chalet accommodations located adjacent to the pedestrian village which are managed by the resort's rental agency or other private rental agencies such as Rendez-Vous Mont-Tremblant. These accommodations feature shuttle bus service which provides guests some of the same convenience afforded to people staying in the pedestrian village.
Most condo accommodations at the resort area are privately owned. The resort or rental agencies act as a rental broker for these properties by handling maintenance, reservations and other guest-related tasks on behalf of owners. Most of the time, this is transparent to the renting visitor. By using this model, Intrawest does not have to keep its capital invested in additional real estate and its associated costs.
There are also many privately owned chalets of all levels (from budget to luxury) in the immediate area.
Surrounding area
The surrounding hills and valleys are filled with trails for cross-country skiing and hiking. The ski trails connect with other ski trails in neighboring towns, making it possible for nature lovers to undertake ski excursions lasting several days going (or coming from) as far south as Blainville, Quebec on the outskirts of Montreal. The network of cross-country ski trails consists of over 100 km of terrain, much of which follows the Diable river and its adjacent coniferous forest.
The surrounding valleys have small lakes, dense boreal forests and thousands of vacation cottages. There are also world-class golf courses, hiking trails and small rivers suitable for canoeing and swimming.
There are many trails for mountain bikes and a special "route verte" rail trail paved for road bicycle use. The cycling/multifunctional path was built on an abandoned right-of-way of the Montreal-Mont Laurier railway; so cyclists do not have to share a path with motorized vehicles.
The area also features a race track called Circuit Mont-Tremblant. It once hosted IndyCar, Formula One, Can-Am, Trans-Am competitions and currently hosts the Grand-Am Cup. In 2007, the track hosted a round of the Champ Car World Series.
References
See also
External links
| Quebec City area | |
|---|---|
| Montreal local area |
|
| Laurentides area: Montreal-area Laurentians | |
| Eastern Townships: | |
| Gatineau area: Ottawa-area Laurentians | |
| Lanaudière area: Montreal-area Laurentians | |
| Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean | |
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | |
| |
