Cross-country Skiing

Miles of groomed trails, above on
La Belle golf course

Just as the radiant Marsha garnered all the attention at the expense of her sister Jan (see explanation), so does downhill skiing eclipse the wonderland of cross-country skiing in the Tremblant region.  Just today, my wife and I were out for a couple hours of cross-country and it was magnificent.

This is our second winter here and we're *still* discovering new lengths of cross-country trail.  The epicentre of cross-country is the Domaine St. Bernard, a city-owned facility of 1,500 acres dedicated to the outdoors, and includes a vast network of trails at various levels.  This is also where you can purchase your trail pass, get a trail map, and rent skis, boots and poles if you need them.  If you're just in the area for a little while, you can likely focus all your time in the Domaine and still never ski the same trail twice.  Everything is beautifully groomed here, and you can enjoy strategically-placed warming huts.  If you do visit the Domaine, be sure to pick up a free packet of seed at the main office as the local black-capped chickadees are bold enough to land on your hand and take a snack!

No walkers, snowshoers or terriers allowed

Beyond the Domaine, there are many more miles of ski trails.  The A6 trail leads south from the Domaine, around Lac Ouimet, and towards the golf courses of La Belle and Le Maitre.  This is closer to where we live, and with our Citizens' Cards, we get free access to the ski trails and generally hop on here.  [Note: this is an encouragement to buy a place here in Tremblant...just think of how much you'd save on cross-country skiing!]  All the trails are well marked, and because they're on golf courses, the wide open spaces afford beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

A third source of mileage we'd point you to is the Petit Train du Nord.  This trail runs from points south of Mirabel, 230 km north to Mont Laurier which is a full 100 km north of Tremblant.  This was the route of the historic train through the northlands, now defunct and the tracks are removed, but the remaining trail is wide, flat and picturesque.  It makes for great cross-country skiing and (to my knowledge) has only recently been opened to winter traffic.  In the Tremblant area, the Petit Train trial cuts through the south portion, through Val Davide, then St. Faustin Lac Carre, to St. Jovite Station (just north of the village of St. Jovite), across a couple golf courses (Le Maitre and La Belle) across the Diable river, into Old Tremblant where is hugs Lac Mercier, and then to points beyond. We like doing the trails around Old Tremblant because you can park on street and do "apres-ski" at Au Coin.  Yes, there is apres-ski with cross-country!

All of this said, here are our favourite places to embark:

• the Domaine St. Bernard
• St. Jovite Station - at the corner of Rue Labelle and Rue Emond.  Free parking!
• Old Tremblant - near Au Coin pub, free parking on the street

So much to say.  For more details, visit the Mont Tremblant Ski du Fond website.

Jan 2018 Update
We visited Tremblant for the last week of December and the first week of January, and with temperatures no warmer than -20C for most of our time here, we focused our time on cross-country skiing and snowshoeing (and sitting by the fire).  The Domaine St. Bernard has vastly improved as a centre for ski and snowshoe activities, with much better trail signage, a new welcome centre, many more staff onsite to guide you, and most importantly, free birdseed for the chickadees (updated above).  Even on weekdays, the centre was busy (but never crowded) which showed us how the Domaine is growing as a real hub of activity for winter sports.