We awoke this morning to a very nice day for skiing.  It was partly cloudy and about minus 2 degrees Celsius.  Below are some photos from our room window.

After a nice breakfast in the lounge, we got dressed up in our ski gear and head out to the slopes.  We’re staying at the only hotel with ski-in/ski-out access, and it is very convenient.  We put our boots on in our room, take the elevator down to the terrace level to pick up our skis, walk out the back door and ski down to the lifts.

I should apologize in advance for the quality of most of the photos and videos to follow.  While I did bring my good camera with me on this trip, I didn’t not carry it while skiing.  So, most of the photos posted on this trip will be taken with my Blackberry.

Because this is only Nadine’s third time skiing, we started by skiing a number of runs in the beginner area to get some practise.  Below is a short video clip of Nadine skiing!

After Nadine was feeling confident in her abilities, we took the gondola to the top of the mountain to try a run.  Here we are about to head down the mountain.

Part way down, I stopped to capture this photo looking out over Lac Tremblant.

When we skied this run last year, it took about 2 hours to get off the mountain.  This year, on only her third time skiing, Nadine managed to make it down in about 45 minutes, and even faster on subsequent runs.  After getting down, we went back up for another run before getting some lunch.

After lunch, we headed back up out for another couple of runs down the mountain.  It was a very nice day of skiing, and Nadine is getting much better at it.  At the end of the day, just before the lifts were closing, I went up the mountain once on my own just to get in a quick trip on an advanced run before returning to the hotel.

Back in the hotel, we got cleaned up, headed over to the lounge for dinner, and then went for a swim in the heated outdoor pools for an hour or so.  It started to rain a bit while we were swimming, but it was still very nice to soak our muscles in the hot water after a day of skiing.

We enjoyed our time in Mont-Tremblant last year so much that we decided to return this year.  After the recent ice storms and bitterly cold weather, we were happy to see temperatures return to a more comfortable level.  The forecast for the coming week calls for temperatures near the freezing mark, which is warm for Mont-Tremblant, and comfortable for skiing.

Air Canada doesn’t fly into Mont-Tremblant, so we were forced to once again fly with Porter Airlines.  They’re not bad, but we do find it an inconvenience to fly out of YTZ instead of YYZ, and Porter only offers economy class, but it still beats driving all the way.

We arrived at the island airport in the late afternoon for our 7:05 PM flight.  We were delayed about 45 departing, but we were happy to get out at all, after the massive number of flight cancellations the day before.

We eventually arrived at Mont-Tremblant international airport (YTM) to meet our shuttle transfer.

We arrived at the Fairmont Mont-Tremblant shortly before 10 PM and were happy to see the hotel was still lit up with Christmas decorations.

We were escorted to the Gold floor to check in, and were happy to see we were given the same room as last year.  It’s a nice room that has views out to the ski hill, the village and over the lake.  Our concierge said it is one of their nicest rooms, and they try to give their Platinum member guests the best rooms.

Before unpacking, we had some drinks and light refreshments in the lounge.  The bell staff unpacked our skis and checked them in with the valet and we got organized for the coming week.  Our plan for tomorrow is to hit the slopes.