How We Do Ski Trips

We are at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, this week for March Break.  This is our fourth ski trip to Quebec and I think we are experts enough to allow me to write this post.  You can check out our ski trip recaps Here. When we went to Bromont we rented a house and drove to the ski hills.  At Tremblant, we are at a hotel outside of the Village and take the shuttle to the hill.

We get our skis tuned up.  Dave bought all of the tuning equipment and can do it for us.  It is nice to know that everything is waxed and sharpened ahead of our trip.

We are up early and at the hill for opening time. We find it best to get out there early and get some runs in before it gets too busy.  Then we can break for lunch around 11:00 or so and anything we do after lunch is a bonus. Skiing in Quebec and other regions is a lot different than Southern Ontario where we ski every week.  The runs are longer and more challenging, it is usually way colder.

We eat breakfast in our hotel room. This helps with getting out of the room and onto the hill quickly.  Cereal, yoghurt, English muffins/bagels, egg bites, and coffee.

We bring a backpack to the hill. Since we don’t really have a home base like we do at our regular hill we like to have some water, snacks, and our Go Pro equipment. Sometimes Dave skis with it, sometimes he leaves it in the lodge. 

We bring the Go Pro and take lots of videos of the kids skiing.  The kids can wear it on their helmet or Dave holds it.  It’s always a fun evening activity to go through what we did that day.

We hot tub.  I don’t love a hot tub, but I do love it after a day of skiing. Our hotel this year has a sauna and an outdoor fire pit, it’s all very festive.

We buy our lunch.  We spend all winter bringing our lunch to the ski hill (with a few exceptions) but on these trips we eat at the lodge cafeteria or a restaurant in the Village. Beers at lunch are also not out of the question. 

We (mostly) stick together.  We go on this trip to ski as a family so we don’t do much splitting up.  That means I need to keep up, and the kids sometimes need to do a green/blue as a break.  They can do black glades, but I can ski in an adjacent trail and meet up with them. We are fortunate our kids are good skiers so they can go into the glades on their own and we trust them.

We keep as organized as possible.  With four people’s ski stuff and regular clothes, it can be a little chaotic.  We need to dry out the stuff from the night before, but also be efficient with our morning time so things need to be ready to leave early. Our room isn’t entirely tidy, but it is an organized chaos.

We go out for dinners and eat in. After a full day of skiing, not everyone wants to be dragged to a restaurant for dinner.  It’s sometimes better to put on a movie, make something in our room, or order something, and take it easy. But a night out in a ski town is also fun, so we do a mix of both.

Every day when we are on these ski trips, I start out my day wondering if I will make it, meaning the conditions are tough, or my legs are sore, or it’s too cold, but every time I make it through the full day with whatever my family is skiing that day. 

If you have any questions or want more tips about what we do, let me know!