Everyone knows why you shouldn't try to ski in the eastern half of North America: the cold. Outdoor activity takes place in the natural equivalent of an industrial freezer. Expose any skin to the air and it hurts. The transatlantic flight is temptingly short - just over half as long as the trip to the bigger Rocky Mountain resorts in the west - but winter temperatures that hit -20C on a good day are enough to make anyone wish they'd stayed on the plane for another five hours.
Except, perhaps, in Québec. The French-speaking nation that makes up most of eastern Canada is a place that likes to assert its extremes, not shrink from them. Kit up properly, in goggles, gloves, undergloves, balaclava, hat and six or seven layers of decent thermal clothing and you can safely forget the chill and turn your mind to the strange delights of skiing in somewhere like nowhere else.
The locals enjoy themselves in the snow in every way imaginable - floodlit night skiing is an after-work habit - but most visitors prepared to take the easy flight across the Atlantic head for one of two areas. For good value in a spotless resort that leaves Europe way behind for comfort and service, head for Mont Tremblant in the frosty Laurentian mountains, a couple of hours from Montreal. But to experience Québecois culture at its most confident, take the motorway in the other direction, along the St Lawrence river towards Québec city.
Set on a hill on the banks of Canada's greatest river, the city has a walled 17th-century core and a score of fine restaurants and jazz clubs, all topped by an extraordinary hotel, the Chateaux Frontenac. Built at the turn of the century, it looks like Hogwarts School caught in a blizzard. All turrets and terraces, it offers history and, crucially in this ice-clad place, warmth at the summit of a city beguiling enough to persuade even the keenest skier to give the slopes a miss for a day or two.
Turn up in Québec during the February winter carnival and you'll give up your nights, as well. Locals ignore the freeze to parade the streets in furs and fleeces among dog-sled races, 24-hour ice-carving competitions, an ice castle, ice disco and a hunt for Bonhomme, the chubby snowman who roams the streets as the spirit of the festival.
This could keep a non-skier occupied for a week but for downhill sports you have to drive out of town towards one of three ski centres, all of which share a lift pass that also includes transport from the city and, at one, Le Massif, a free lunch. The trip out of town takes 20-40 minutes and the roads are kept open by a system of snowploughs, which makes hiring a car a sensible option.
Of the resorts, Le Massif, extended last year, is the smallest and least-crowded. The skiing is flattering but short - although a 30m mound of rock cunningly creates enough of a vertical drop to host World Cup races. The runs weave their way down through maple trees towards the St Lawrence river at the bottom of the slopes. The views alone make the trip from Britain worthwhile.
One day at Le Massif is enough, even though snow cannons ensure the cold air does not mean icy runs. For the rest of the week, two larger ski areas, Mont St Anne and Stoneham, compete for attention.
Mont St Anne is the bigger and better. Its purposeful modern centre, clustered around a gondola, has the sort of friendly feel that makes family skiing a pleasure but might leave anyone in search of hardcore excitement wishing they had booked the longer flight to the Rockies. By Alpine standards, the slopes are short, running in all directions through trees, with the St Lawrence shining white in the distance. Along the pistes, trails such as La Vital Roy dart off into the woods, a natural slalom course that leaves even intermediates whooping with delight. These gladed runs - and the fact that all runs in Québec begin below the treeline - are among the joys of skiing in the province.
The closest ski area to Québec City is also the smallest. Stoneham's 24 runs roll around three hills at the end of a gentle valley that looks like Buckinghamshire dropped into the freezer. Teenagers dart on boards down a giant icy half-pipe while their parents tour around runs, some of which are just challenging enough to have been graced by racer Alberto Tomba.
A let down is the lack of mountain restaurants - a failing shared by every Québecois resort. The locals ski down the slopes to drink good Canadian beer and wine as well as Clamato juice and vodka - a sort of shellfish-flavoured bloody mary - but the absence of piste-side gluwein is a disappointment, especially when the sun fades and the mercury starts to drop.
But when it does, there is plenty else to do. Mont St Anne's Zig Zag bar is open to 3am with live music, log fires, a local pleasure-seeking culture and first class dining. Everything is written in French but service levels at North American standards make standing at the bar something more than an Alpine experience.
As citizens of the Francophone world, the Québecois eat well at prices that leave the British looking for the catch. The evening menu could come from Paris were it not for the elk tartare and roast beaver tails on offer, but breakfast consists of something better than coffee and croissants: pancakes, fresh omelettes and bacon are available everywhere, all served with creamy maple syrup from the trees that grow along the ski slopes. Mont Tremblant resort has a plastic perfectness that will leave some skiers searching for faults. It is compact and car-free and the skiing is larger and more beautiful than anything near Québec City, especially over the hill on the Edge and Versant Soleil, but the cold air and blasts from the 790 snow cannons that keep the runs ice-free is somehow not the only reason the resort lacks warmth.
Outdoor hot-tubs at the bottom of the runs boil you in the snow while your hair freezes. Outside Tremblant the full beauty of the Laurentians - low, rolling and seemingly endless - stands out.
Half a day learning to race a snowmobile is a thrilling way to see the country. At trackside shacks maple syrup is collected and passers-by are fed with hot soup and ham. As spring approaches, locals gather to celebrate "sugaring off" - the maple harvest.
The roar and fumes of the 50mph snowmobiles are not for everyone. It would take a hard heart not to warm to the gentler delights of dog-sledding, however. Tangling the harnesses and tumbling off in the snow is inevitable but what might at first seem to be a contrived entertainment for tourists is engagingly genuine. Our guide, André Pilon, has travelled with his thick-furred, eager huskies all over Canada, and the pelts hanging from his cabin wall, which look like they had been placed to amuse tourists, turned out to be leftovers from last year's trapping trip to the Arctic. "Wait, I have a squirrel skin here," he said, rummaging among the beaver skins before showing us his catch. An honest moment in a land where skiing is only one part of the reason for making the trip.
Way to go
Getting there: Inghams (020-8780 4433) has a range of room-only accommodation in Mount Tremblant and around Québec City from the luxury five-star hotel Fairmont Mont Tremblant (seven nights from £447pp) to La Chouette apartments (seven nights from £395pp); prices include British Airways flights and transfers. Ski pack prices: 6 days whole-area lift pass £176; 6 days superior ski/ snowboard and boot hire £130; 3 days of 1hr ski lessons a day £76.
Further information: Country code: 001.
Flight time Heathrow-Montreal: 7hrs.
Time difference: -4hrs.
£1 = 2.43 Canadian dollars.
