North of Montreal, Mont-Tremblant, a mountain peak in the Laurentian forest, has become the four seasons playground of southern Quebec. It has been the number one ski resort in North Eastern America for eleven years, attracting tourists from all over the world.
The mountain was called Manitonga Soutana by the Algonquin Indian tribe, which means the mountain of the spirits; they believed that everytime someone bypassed the laws of nature, the spirits would make the mountain tremble. Thus the name Mont Tremblant used today.
The ski resort was created by Joseph Bondurant Ryan in 1938. In 1965, it started changing hands: his widow first sold the resort to a group of Montreal financiers, then, after being held by the Fédération des caisses d'entraide économique du Québec for 12 years, it was acquired by Intrawest, a Canadian limited partnership real estate development company, in 1991.
At the base of the mountain, Intrawest created a European style pedestrian village, called Tremblant, with fancy hotels and restaurants, boutiques and spas and plenty of summer activities for the whole family, such as golf, alpine luge, panoramic gondola, etc.
In 2006, Intrawest was bought by Fortress Investment Group LCC, a global alternative investment and asset management firm of New York.
All images copyright ©Yannis Dessureault 2008.
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