Spent a few days in the Townships at Bromont and Mont Orford. Both were impressive for the variety of terrain despite modest vertical drops. Bromont was the weekend, and handled the crowds very well, due to the many lifts and multiple faces (basically all around the little Mont Brome).
Bromont gets high marks for grooming (especially DURING the day), snow cover, and the summit lodge. I recommend parking at the P5 lot (Versant du Lac) on the east side. Main side is jammed. The carpet lifts at both are a waste, IMO...stopped SO many times b/c people are incapable of loading them. Orford also had fantastic snow cover, plus more dramatic scenery. Lodge is a little weak, but it was not cold when I was there so no worries. Great variety of terrain at both areas. Would return for sure. But, after all the views, I want to ski Owl's Head and Sutton, too!
Bromont
View from summit. Jay Peak is the left-center double-peak, Mansfield center. Mont Sutton is left of Jay; zoom to see trails.
View of summit from Midi lift on backside. The mountain is made up of several sub-peaks.
View back to summit and a sub-peak from near top of Midi
View on main side, north to Mont Shefford- closed ski area on other side. Note use of every possible space for housing, plus lifts and trails. Midstation is for summer alpine slide. Shefford has homes WAY up on it as well.
Mid-day grooming in progress. 3 cats, 2 ATV's ahead of them to clear the way. They basically went all around the mountain for a 3-hour period, middle of the day, when very crowded. I wish we had the same lawyers they do. Made for really nice skiing.
The New York trail (many trails have city names) on the Versant du Lac.
At Mont Orford:
View south. Owl's Head on left, Jay in distance, right. I think this was the top of Slalom, a trail off the east lift, which has really nice short trails and lots of steep woods (not open).
Top portion of Grand Coulee, a wonderful trail that loops around from the top and through a large notch back to main area. Lots of traffic but very wide and nice snow.
A little farther down on GC, before it cuts back to the main area.
Top glen-like area off the right-hand (and slow) lift. Used to be an old Sampson chair, now a modern lift. Nice cruising for families on that side.
Favorite run: 4 Km trail. All natural, as it is the access road to the cell towers at the summit. Lovely and scenic cruise.
Top part
Ice floes farther down alongside the trail.
View from the top of Mont Giroux (eastern subpeak, access by carpet quad that stopped 5-6x each ride). Hiked up to this point to view the FIS slalom course in use
View from same spot of the main mountain and the right-side chair area
Another nice discovery on the trip.
