A few months ago, one of my best friends from college, Kevin, asked our group if anyone wanted to join him and a group of his co-workers for the long weekend up in Canada to ski at Mont Tremblant.  I've been skiing since I was 4 and this mountain has been on my wish list for a while, so my boyfriend Pat and I decided to tag along. 

I'll be honest with you... while the weekend was incredible, it was COLD.  So cold that I barely took out my phone to take photos.  One morning we left to ski and it was -20 degrees. 

We flew into Montreal on Friday and met my friend Kevin at the airport and picked up our rental car.  We had a few hours to kill before we needed to head to Mont Tremblant, so we decided to walk around Old Montreal for a little while.  There, we walked down Rue Saint Paul and found Montreal Poutine, where we got 3 different varieties of Canada's signature dish.  I also tried Canada's signature cocktail, the Bloody Caesar, which in my opinion can stay in Canada.  

After eating our weight in cheese curds, we found an awesome bar called Pub BreWsky, had some beers and their incredible Bacon Jerky, and then hit the road. When we arrived in Montreal, we settled into our awesome AirBnb, which had a hot tub and sauna, and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.  

We picked up our rentals at a place off the mountain, Dan LaChance, which ended up being must cheaper to rent from than if we had at the resort.  With our gear all set, we skiied over the next two days, taking frequent breaks to warm up.  We found a bar at the base village called Fat Mardi's, which was a New Orleans style sports bar where we watched several football games and drank plenty of beer. 

Pat is a relatively new skiier, so we did mostly leisurely green trails, with the occasional blue square peppered in.  At Mont Tremblant, you can ski both the North and South side of the mountain, but we stayed mostly on the South side as the sun set more quickly on the North side.  

The few times we did ski the North side,  it was lovely because there were far less people over there.  No matter where we skiied, the view was absolutely incredible!

On Sunday night after two days of skiing in the bitter cold, we decided to reward ourselves with a little trip to Spa Scandanive, which was about a 10 minute drive from the mountain. 

Photos via Scandanive Spa's website. 

At the spa, we chose the Scandinavian bath experience, which involves a 3 step relaxation process.  First, you spend some time in the hot installations, aka beautiful outdoor hot tubs, eucalyptus steam rooms or dry saunas.  Then you take a dip in the cold installations, aka ice cold pools OR the frozen river. Needless to say, I skipped those ones and let the boys do that on their own.  Finally, you spend time in the relaxation installations, which include solariums, fire pits, hammocks and more.  This whole experience was exactly what we needed after a long weekend of skiiing and we left the spa feeling totally zen.  I could not recommend this spot more. 

On Monday, we drove back to the airport and headed home, relaxed and exhausted. We had an absolute blast on this trip, and decided that we want to make it an annual thing, but with an extra day added in so we can have another day to do some more off-mountain activities like ice skating or snowmobiling.  

See you again soon, Mont Tremblant!

xo, 
Abby