Written By: Ben Cosgrove

In February 1945, LIFE magazine declared Mont-Tremblant, a resort in the Laurentian Mountains 90 miles north of Montreal, the “ski-fashion center of the world.” The reasons for Mont Tremblant’s surpassing winter-style meccas like St. Moritz and Sun Valley, according to LIFE, were two: “Many of the guests are rich, well-dressed friends of the owner, Joseph B. Ryan, grandson of financier Thomas Fortune Ryan, [and] one of the instructors is a beautiful former model, Blanche Rybizka.”

In the midst of one of the snowiest, most unsettled winters in decades, LIFE.com remembers that long-ago issue of LIFE — and the lovely Blanche Rybizka’s singular fashion sense — with a series of Alfred Eisenstaedt photos of Canadian winter scenery and winter finery.

Mont-Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

For skiing at 40 degrees below zero Blanche [Rybizka] wears a deerhide jacket, a raccoon-edged hood, fur-lined mittens and two pairs of underwear under her trim pants.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mont Tremblant, Canada, 1945.

Mont-Tremblant 1945

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE Magazine cover, February 19, 1945

LIFE Magazine cover, February 19, 1945

LIFE Magazine

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