SUMMER2016
MOUNTAINLIFEBLUEMOUNTAINS
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après amenities andmyriad other activities for
people not hooked on the slopes. But there’s
an extraordinary duality to this playground in
the Laurentians, I discovered duringmy first
extended summertime stay. Stoke your adrenal
glands or take it slow—either way, it’s a soul-
satisfying experience.
In the spring, when the average snowfall of
more than four metres begins tomelt quickly on
the massif’s south-facingmain face, much of the
runoff trickles down through the rocky terrain.
That creates the impression that the whole
place is trembling, which gave the mountain its
name. It also fills the area’s lakes and rivers—
the main attraction, for me at least, during the
warmmonths.
Twelve-kilometre-long Lac Tremblant is a short
walk from the resort’s pedestrian village. My
daughter and I explore the shoreline on stand-
up paddleboards rented from the Beach and
Tennis Club, where the fleet includes kayaks,
canoes, pedal boats and basically anything that
floats. Staff will alsomotor you out to a pair of
inflatable “icebergs” bobbing in the blue water,
so you can climb up and jump in. Back in the
ped village, amid the floral scent of Japanese
lilac, we play a round of mini golf, swim in the
outdoor pool at the Marriott, and eat around
the corner at Pizzateria—prosciutto, leek fondue
and pear onmine. Thus ends the slow part of
our visit.
The next day, we take a chairlift a third of the
way up the mountain and race down through
hairpin turns on the go-kart-like luge track.
Then we do it again. Daisy works up a sweat
on a bungee-trampoline contraption called
Eurobungy, where you fly up, get pulled back
down, bounce up, and repeat. And then we ride
the gondola to the start of the zip line course.
“The trick,” guide Emily Sayer says on the way
up, as my ears pop from the altitude, “is to
trust the equipment.”
