The cold snap this past week has affected ski hill and travel agencies -- in very different ways.

Up north, where windchills reached -40 this past week, ski hill operators saw a drop in business this past week.

Annique Aird at Mont-Tremblant, says despite the cold, though, there were a few hardy souls on the slopes.

But they did have to shut down a few runs, for safety reasons.

"It did create lots of wind on the mountain, so we had to close some lifts on a couple of days, but overall, the skiing was good," she says. "We managed to keep the mountain going."

And those who were out there during the worst of it, weren't out there for long.

"Whoever was there, they skied for only a short period, and then went in and had lots of hot chocolate."

But while many shied away from the ski hills, they also started thinking about escaping to someplace tropical.

Rosanna Cafaro with Montreal's Sulano Travel says she has sensed a little urgency this past week in the booking habits of her callers.

"Normally, people call, they want to leave March, they want to leave April," Cafaro says, "but this week people are wanting to leave this weekend, next weekend, early February."