Mont Orford and Owl's Head, Quebec - Mon 2/19 - Thurs 2/22

[ChileMass]

Dates - Feb 19 thru 22

Ski Areas: Mont Orford and Owl's Head - Quebec

Conditions: Monday - windy and bitterly cold (0*F at base, -8*F at summit, 30 mph wind gusts), but 100% sunshine and great snow
Tuesday - flat light and sleet. Getting scraped in many spots.
Wed - 100% sunshine, light winds and temps in mid-20s F. Wonderful soft, groomed conditions (Owl's Head)
Thurs - More sun than clouds, pretty good coverage despite minimal grooming

Overall Rating - On a 5-star scale, Orford gets 2.5 stars and Owl's Head gets 4


Made our annual pilgrimage to Quebec this Presidents vacation week to ski Mont Orford and some of the surrounding areas if possible, and made one day to Owl's Head, a fabulous overlooked gem on Wednesday. Our crew numbered 28 this year - 16 kids and 12 adults, mostly at the beginner/intermediate range, so we always look for a hill with a lot of green/blues and good grooming, family-friendly, etc, etc. There are a few of us in the advanced/expert range, so a little of that is also included.

Orford has worked well for the past several years, but was a pretty big disappointment this year. We are told the skiing business operation is up for sale with the Quebec parks department, and the combination of a poor snow winter to date seems to have them cutting back on all services. From Sunday until late Thursday I did not see a single grooming machine on the hill, despite Orford's well-earned reputation for tremendous grooming, provided day and night. Few ski schools seemed to be operating, there were few staff working the lodges and rental/retail shops, and one of the main chairlifts has been broken down since the start of the season, with apparently no intention of fixing it any time soon. Therefore, one of the 3 mountains (with most of the beginner terrain) was off limits all week. My kids and a couple of the Moms were bummed. The rest of Orford was OK Monday, but got progressively more scraped off as the week went by without any grooming. The silver lining as always was the lack of crowds and the inexpensive prices (avg of US$30 per ticket per day), but it got kinda boring skiing the same 6-8 trails for 3 days with some unaccessible (or just no fun) due to extreme ice and the entire Mont Alfred Desroschers area closed down. I still really like Mont Orford overall, but I hope the sale goes thru quickly and the new owner or operator puts some money back into it. They really just looked like they were mailing in this season and trying to spend as little money as possible.

But - on the other hand - our day at Owl's Head was outstanding. Even though it's only 10 miles over the border, I'm pretty sure that Owl's Head is almost unknown in the US. It is considered by many to be much more of a skiers' hill inside Quebec, and has a long history of racing and out of bounds activity. It's the same vertical as Orford (over 1700'), and has an even better view of Lac Memphremagog. The trails are shorter than Orford's but overall it skis bigger than it looks. Trails like Upward and Chouette were perfect for the kids and intermediates, and the advanced skiers liked tearing them up before heading off for more challenging terrain such as Kamikaze (big bumps and STEEP) and Standard (a shorter version of Nosedive at Stowe). Due to the general lack of crowds anytime at Owl's Head, the snow was still perfect from the big blizzard a few days earlier. And this day it was considered crowded because of the every Tues/Wed special of C$15 for a day lift ticket. The locals were bitching about how crowded it was and the longest we waited for any lift all day was maybe 4 minutes. It was great. Modern lifts were a big plus for the kids and the lodge is big and spacious. The bar smells like a bad fraternity house (replace the stinky beer-soaked carpets now, please) and the kid behind the bar was alone and overwhelmed. After waiting for about 20 minutes, when we ordered a pitcher of beer the bartender asked us if we could find an empty one and bring it to him and he'd be sure to wash it out and give us a fresh pitcher. We opted for a few bottles of Labatt's 50 instead. Great day at a new hill - the slopeside condos were so impressive we are going to look into renting there next year instead of up in Magog.

BTW - my new Elan 555s were phenomenal. Quick and tracked extremely well at higher speeds. Just what I need to cruise blues and bang out some short radius turns on steeper stuff.

[hammer]

Thanks for the report...

My son's Boy Scout troop has done a trip to Mont Orford in years past but the trip didn't happen this year...good thing. Hopefully things will turn around for them next season.

[Greg]

Nice report. Sounds like a great trip. That's a big group for sure!

[thetrailboss]

Glad to hear about your trip, Chile. Was Orford the place that was almost closed because of a labor strike? Sad to hear that things are so bad....you know what I'm going to say next....



....should have gone to Burke Great conditions.

[skijay]

I am up here and about to post my report. Mont Alfred Desroschers is still closed.