We’d went to bed dreaming of another fun-filled day at the slopes.
We woke to this:
Believe it or not, Bromont is less than ten kilometres away
Thunder snow plus lightning meant that there was no sense in rushing out the door this morning so we lingered at the rental a while longer, hoping that would be time enough for the blizzard to clear and the lifts to open.
The good news – the blizzard soon cleared.
The bad news – only the smallest of the lifts, Mont Soleil, was open when we arrived. The winds were just gusting too heavily to safely operate the main Village lift. And without the Village lift, there was no way to get over to Versant des Cantons or Versant du Lac which would only start running once the main lift opened. 30 to 40 minutes, they said.
Mont Soleil isn’t a bad lift, but it’s dwarfed by the others at Bromont
We hadn’t yet tried Mont Soleil, so we gave it a shot – and it was pretty good. Busy with all of the kids there, and the ski teams up to their usual shenanigans. But it was also tough for everyone to share a small fraction of the mountain.
But – they had Santa on skis handing out treats, which the kids really enjoyed:
Photo Credit: Bromont Mountain facebook page
And their mascots were greeting guests too:
Photo Credit: Bromont Mountain
We started off with the green run – Victoriaville – which was flat enough for our daughter to practice her S turns. We also did a few runs of the terrain park, and then moved onto the blue squares – Daveluyville and Sorel.
We stopped briefly for hot chocolate – and to check the status of the Village lift – only to learn that the timeline had been pushed back to “late morning”. Ah, well – back to the Mont Soleil. The lineups never varied wildly – from 5 to 20 minutes from joining the line to gliding off the lift. Mostly because the lift stopped frequently, and in one case someone managed to fall off the chairlift!
Off for an early lunch – at which point it seemed likely it would take at least a few more hours for the rest of the hill to open.
Time enough to enjoy a delicious bowl of bacon mac and cheese
The staff were upbeat and positive about the hill’s eventualy re-opening, but when we explained we’d be around for a few more days they agreed that it could be a while.
Bromont usually runs a second, back-up quad lift next to the main lift – which has some télécabines (gondola cabins), making it particularly vulnerable to gusts. Unfortunately, the back-up lift is also suffering a power outage – hence the delay. The staff assured us that this was a rare occurrence, and that everything should be back up and running tomorrow.
So – with lunch behind us, and no further word on lift opening times – we elected to head back to the rental for another round of sauna and hot tub.
The wind was high enough that it blew the lid closed!
In the end, the mountain reopened shortly after 1 pm. We debated going back for a few more runs, but just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We were just too comfy. And with us skiing / boarding all three days, we figured we’d earned the right to take a ‘lighter’ day (which still involved skiing / boarding for two hours).
I took a brief nap, then we started up a new Dungeons and Dragons module – Dragon of Icespire Peak. The party chose to visit the rock gnomes of Gnomengarde in search of magic items with which to defeat the frost dragon terrorizing the region, only to find themselves attacked by two shape-shifting wine barrels (mimics) amidst a cellar filled with mushroom wine.
Now halfway through our holiday, we took a few minutes to consider how Bromont and Sô Lodges stack up against the other ski destinations we’ve visited recently:
- There’s actual grocery stores nearby that have reasonable quality produce at reasonable prices. You are not paying a small fortune for a mushy apple the same way as you might when shopping in the Tremblant “village”.
- Bromont has its own look and feel that’s distinct from the creeping sameness that suffuses so many other ski results, most of which are owned by the same few companies – *ahem* Alterra.
- Tickets are more reasonably priced, so you can justify skiing for only a fraction of the day if you so choose.
- Meals and drinks on the mountain are also reasonably priced and parking is free. This also helps address the feeling of being continually nickel-and-dimed.
- The Sô property is comfortable, with many thoughtful touches – blackout curtains, salad spinners, board games, a foosball table, a Christmas tree, even blank paper for the kids to colour on. It’s a definite step up from our Airbnb experience at Sir Sam’s, where we were asked to bring our own blankets (we politely declined).
Still another day and change to go, so we’ll see if anything changes between now and then – but we could definitely see ourselves coming back for another visit in the not-too-distant future.
Dinnertime! I made the Barefoot Contessa’s shrimp recipe along with some garlic butter pasta. Roasting the shrimp makes it much easier to cook for a larger number of people.
It was then time to once more retire in front of the electric fireplace, where we raised a glass and looked forward to a full day on the slopes tomorrow.
Hard to believe that will be our last full day here…