Gray Rocks | |
---|---|
Location | Mont-Tremblant, Quebec |
Coordinates | 46°9′30″N74°35′20″W / 46.15833°N 74.58889°W |
Vertical | 189 m (620 ft) |
Trails | 22 |
Lift system | (closed) 4 chairlifts (1 quad (removed), 3 double) |
Lift capacity | 5300 skiers/hr |
Terrain parks | 1 |
Snowfall | 420 cm (170 in) per year |
Snowmaking | 95% |
Night skiing | no |
Gray Rocks was a year-round privately owned resort in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, first developed as a ski destination on Sugarloaf Hill (French : Le Pain de Sucre). The ski hill had 22 downhill trails: four easy, ten intermediate, eight expert (of which two were "double diamond"). Also available was a snowboarding park and instruction from the Snow Eagle Ski School.
First opened in 1906, the hotel closed during the Great Recession of 2009; 70 percent of the main building was destroyed by a suspicious fire on the evening of 25 November 2014. [1]
Gray Rocks was established in 1905 by George Wheeler, originally of New Hampshire. His granddaughter, Lucille Wheeler, won the bronze medal for alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics.[ citation needed ]
In 1948, Réal Charette, a former World War II winter warfare instructor, became the first Canadian to be appointed a director of a ski school in Canada, [2] the Snow Eagle Ski School at Gray Rocks.
In warmer seasons, activities included golf with two courses, as well as boating on adjoining Lac Ouimet, swimming (in pool or lake), tennis, horseback riding, bicycling, and hiking. The resort facilities included a 105-room hotel, 56 condominium units, French cuisine restaurant, and spa.[ citation needed ]
At the end of March 2009, Gray Rocks was closed as both a hotel and ski resort. Of the two golf courses, La Belle closed in 2020 after 100 years in operation; the second, La Bête, was taken over by Clublink. [3] Several owners of the condos previously associated with Gray Rocks created a vacation home rental operation, Lac Ouimet Rentals, that now operates under the name Village des Soleils. [4]
Les Portes du Soleil is a major skisports destination in the Alps, encompassing thirteen resorts between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland. With more than 650 km of marked pistes and about 200 lifts in total, spread over 14 valleys and about 1,036 square kilometres (400 sq mi), Portes du Soleil ranks among the two largest ski areas in the world. Almost all of the pistes are connected by lifts – a few marginal towns can be reached only by the free bus services in the area. The highest elevation accessible on skis is 2260 m and the lowest is 930 m. As with many other Alpine ski resorts, the lower slopes of the Portes du Soleil have snow-making facilities to extend the ski season by keeping the lower slopes open during the warmer months.
Lucile Wheeler is a former alpine ski racer from Canada. She was a double world champion in 1958, the first North American to win a world title in the downhill event.
Mont Tremblant Ski Resort is a year-round resort in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, located about 130 km (80 mi) northwest of Montreal. It is best known as a ski destination, but also features Lake Tremblant suitable for swimming and two golf courses in the summer months. The name of the mountain, Mont Tremblant, was derived from the Algonquin indigenous people, who called it the "trembling mountain." The summit is at an elevation of 875 m (2,871 ft), which makes it one of the tallest peaks in the Laurentians. One km north of the principal down hill area is the Edge, an area of glade skiing and 2.8 km (1.7 mi) north of that is the true summit, Pic Johanssen, which has a trail over the top and is Black Diamond for skiers and boarders. The resort is owned by Alterra Mountain Company.
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