Remember the day we skied at Bromont ...

We think Australia Day 2014 might be remembered as "one of those days". We headed off early to Bromont, a small ski village 1 hour south of Montreal, towards the US border. It was cold, but we thought we were appropriately dressed and we'd be fine.

    

All in our new jackets!

Well ... after just one run, we found that we were wrong. We weren't dressed appropriately. We were freezing. Olivia & Soph were in tears because they were so cold. But .... the run was so good; so long; so empty .... but even with all the ski conditions in your favour, if you are cold, that wins! It was -18 degrees. We had to do one more run to get back to the cafe, where we sat to re-evaluate!

The girls wanted to go home & were definitely refusing to go it again( it's all of about 9:30 am at this stage & we've just paid for all the day ski tickets). Tony & I were sensing that this ski field was pretty good, so we wanted to explore. So hot chocolates all round & time to defrost before trying to motivate the kids again.

Hot chocolates to warm us up! Everyone looks happy here ... this was not the case 10 mins prior to the photo!

It's worth adding in at this stage that the conditions at the two Canadian ski fields we've seen (Mont Blanc last weekend) are much, much better than what we find in Australia. There are large rooms with tables & chairs, where you can put boots on. Everyone leaves their gear/back packs lying around, so you can put snow boots back on as soon as you finish skiing. There are lockers, like large pigeon holes, to leave helmets/gloves/scarves etc at lunch time - all free. There are microwaves so you can bring your own food & reheat it at lunch time. It makes the day much cheaper. The cafés sell hot large cups of hot soup, for about $3 - perfect for lunch. We've been impressed!

So after the hot chocolates, the children were a little more revived & agreed to do two runs then come back inside. We thought if we just tried to (bribe them) get out there for short bursts, they would enjoy it. That theory worked & we stayed around the closest slopes for a while.

With so many breaks during the day, we decided to sample the local delicacy, poutine. It is hot chips with gravy and cheese. Its fair to say this dish is targetted at children ... but none of ours were particularly taken by it!
Tony and Sophie with the poutine.

On our second break, I took the children inside while Tony went on his own for a little while. We must have looked cold, as this lovely gentleman came up to us & offered us some "hotties". These nifty little things look like an over-sized tea bag.  You shake them & they warm up. Don't ask me about now that works but they are magic! You then slip them inside your gloves while you ski. These are the little extra things you need when you ski at -18! The children loved them & he ended up giving us enough for us all to have one. So morale was lifted once again & we managed to stay put for three runs.

We ended up skiing until about 2pm, which was fine; especially as at one stage, I thought we'd be leaving at 10:30!

Bromont is a great ski field & we are very keen to go back when it's not so cold. The slopes are so long & the snow was beautiful. There is a gray variety with 7 different sides of the mountain. But, for Australia Day 2014, it will always be remembered as the coldest day we've ever skied!

 

 The amazing slopes. So few people on them! In the first photo, you can see Sophie in the distance and Lach in the blue jacket. Look at the view of the township far below!