Great food and skiing at our annual Tremblant picnic

Like all good Beaver Tails events our second trip to Mont Tremblant this year included both skiing and food. That’s just the way we like it!

First the skiing. Many of us were in the area only four weeks ago for the Tremblant Ski Weekend, however snow conditions in the Parc national were miserable and no one ventured there, preferring to stay closer to our cozy home in the village. So a return trip up north was called for, and this time the conditions were, well, a bit better. Actually, not bad at all, as long as you stayed away from the trails listed as “suicidal”. At the Centre de decouverte we were warned to stay away from the Lac-Poisson and L’Ours trails: descents way too icy and way too fast. Malard was deemed slightly less crazy, but still not recommended. So off to Bois-Franc most of us went: a very peaceful 12k loop with moderate climbs and descents, all quite manageable. A few folks added additional loops, including Le Poete and the first bit of Lac-Poisson (before the long “suicidal” descent at the end), and two crazy dudes threw caution to the wind and tackled Malard – declaring it, over lunch in the cabin later, not such a big deal. And thus, a good morning of skiing was had by all, in fact some had a blast.

Then it was off to lunch. We met in the parking lot after our morning ski, some of us loading up with provisions for the 3.5k ski into the La Renardiere cabin for our annual Tremblant picnic, a great Beaver Tails tradition. The sun was out, weather had warmed up and softened the snow. It was a glorious day. Thanks to our wonderful hosts and organizers we ate well and had a great time. Our fearless, albeit retiring, leader was not present for the day, off to a wedding somewhere (not his own), so a lowly commoner was yanked randomly from the crowd to offer collective thanks to those two great hosts of ours: big thanks to Gwen and Richard for the day.

All 27 of us made it home safely at the end of the day. This year, thankfully, not in the middle of a snow storm.