# Owl's Head (Quebec): 2/19



## Magog Fishy (Feb 22, 2011)

*Date(s) Skied: * 2/19

*Resort or Ski Area: * Owl's Head (4 miles from Vermont, 20 minutes from Jay)

*Conditions: * Packed powder, loose powder, powder on edges, frozen granular

*Trip Report: *

Good day skiing last Saturday. Yeah last Saturday! Figured I would finally do a Trip Report, since I haven’t seen many Owl’s Head reports on Alpine Zone. For those not familiar with Owl’s Head, it is 4 air miles over the Vermont border in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It is about 20 minutes from Jay. Owl’s Head drops down into Lake Memphremagog, which makes for an incredibly scenic skiing experience. Owl’s Head has 45 trails, 9 lifts, 1772’ vertical drop, and weekend tickets are $42 Canadian (Canadian $ is currently about par with US$).

All last week I had been eyeing skiing Owl’s Head on Saturday due to a number of factors: 1.) the forecast for a thaw and hard freeze, which probably meant Jay’s and Sutton’s trees would be offline, 2.) the forecasted wind, which probably meant the Tram/Freezer offline thus Jay’s Holiday crowds would all be squeezed onto the Bonnie/Jet, 3.) Owl’s Head is at a lower elevation than Jay thus presumably more wind protected even though it doesn't really have any mountains around it, and the 3”-5” of forecasted Friday night/Saturday snow for the region might actually stay on the trails at Owl’s Head (which if they were able to groom early enough, might make for a decent day of skiing), 4.) had never skied Owl’s Head before, and 5.) would be with a friend who is an intermediate. As I got up Saturday morning in Jay and saw the winds howling and word that the Tram/Freezer would not run, the decision was clear that it would be Owl’s Head.

The day starting out a bit on the wrong foot, as I got flagged at the border for being suspicious – I’m now 2 for my last 2, although this one was more my friend’s fault. For those who have never experienced it, when you are flagged as “suspicious” the border agent goes inside and does a passport run (I’m guessing on Interpol) that takes a good 5 minutes. 

I had driven through Owl’s Head in years prior, but had never gotten out of the car. The base lodge is kinda interesting in that it is hidden behind a short span of woods, which you have to walk through to get to the lodge – no drop off like you have at most New England resorts. Furthermore, the base lodge is located about 1/3 of the way up the mountain. The base lodge was a bit dated, but much larger than I had expected. 7 of 9 lifts were running (one of the lifts not running was a beginner chair, other was an old Summit double -- neither took any terrain offline), wind was manageable, and it appeared all trails aside from a few of the double blacks were opened. The lower part of the mountain is mainly beginner terrain, aside from skiers right.

Started out on Lilly’s Leap, which is a blue groomer from the Summit which had some nice turns although the trail (like most of Owl’s Head trails) was a tad on the wide side. The first thing I noticed was the conditions were pretty decent – a lot better than I had anticipated. Owl’s Head was able to groom the trails early the prior evening, which enabled the 3+” of overnight fresh powder to accumulate on top. We proceeded to ski Lakeview (labeled a black but skis a blue; has a nice view of the lake), Clouloir (OK head wall but a major run out at the bottom), Shady Lady (had racing netting on the side; had some decent powder on the edges and some soft bumps on the side but overall not very steep/challenging), Standard (the top is narrower than the bottom and has some character, but overall not very steep), and Kamikazee and Colorado – these are their signature expert trails (perhaps a 1000' of vertical), and both skied well/steeper than I had expected. I then started to dabble in the woods, figuring I would start in Bois de Loup and proceed to the larger Ponsoon/Sous-Bois glades even though I didn’t see anyone in the woods. The skiers left sign to Bois de Loup pointed me to a short pod of untracked, thick woods that could use some thinning. After experiencing the dust on crust I decided to forgo woods for the remainder of the day. 

We didn’t ski a full day as I wanted to save some energy for skiing on Sunday, wanted to have a late afternoon lunch at Owl’s Head Bakery in Mansonville (highly recommend it), plus had some things to do in Jay. Overall, it was a good day. It has been a long time since I have skied Ragged, Sunape, and Gunstock and I have never skied Black (NH) and Mt Abram – I suspect Owl’s Head skis similar to these areas. Later in the day as I pulled up to the US border crossing, the agent looked at me a bit funny when I said I skied Owl’s Head – he said why didn’t you ski Jay; fortunately the crossing only took 20 seconds as opposed to the morning ordeal. Later that evening and the following day as I got report that the Jet was also closed on Saturday plus the bulletproof conditions on Saturday at Jay, I had a big smile on my face knowing that I had made a wise decision. Overall, I felt that Owl’s Head is a place that you could ski once a year (ideally under the scenario I skied it under -- when Jay is taken offline) and have some fun as well as take in the incredibly scenic views. 

As far as Sunday, great day at Jay. Woods (Bonaventure, Everglade, BP/Andrea’s, Show-off, Buck Woods) skied much better than expected since there was snow showers all day Saturday and into the night, groomers were hard but manageable, ungroomed (at least Kitz) were closed. Tram had delayed opening plus along with the Freezer had one mid-day wind-hold – Freezer ranged from a 7 to a 9 on the unbearable scale (10 being frostbite territory).


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## riverc0il (Feb 22, 2011)

Man, did I make a bad call this past weekend. Was considering Owl's Head for either Sat or Sun last weekend. Wasn't feeling it Sat morning with the cold and the wind and ended up at a very frozen hard pack Middlebury on Sunday. Was originally thinking Owl's Head due to Holiday black outs, lack of crowds, and further north for less thaw/freeze effect with some new snow forecasted. Looks like the plan was right but the audible was incorrect... that conditions north of the boarder were actually substantially better rather than on par. Nicely done! I just need to go for it next time I get that Francophone itch!


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## Magog Fishy (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks Steve. I can certainly understand that it was tough to get motivated on Saturday morning given the conditions were probably the worst they have been in the last 5 weeks – was speaking on Sunday with a Jay ski patroller, and he said on Sat afternoon it was one rescue after another.  You win some, you lose some. Owl’s Head on Sat was one of my better calls – was committed to being in N. VT, so tried to make the best of a challenging weather/condition situation. Have never made it to Middlebury – after seeing your and other reports, I have put it on the list.


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## TheBEast (Feb 23, 2011)

Nice, never heard of the place.  Will have to check it out!!  Thanks for posting.


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## wintersyndrome (Feb 23, 2011)

Awesome is that Lake Memphremagog?  Didnt realize that Owl's head had nice steeps like that.  Great pics.


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## thetrailboss (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks for this trip report and the stoke.  That looks like fun.  Owl's Head has been on my radar for a long time.  Love the old school HSQ with the split/uphill support.  I take it that the double does not run?  That looks like fun terrain.


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## emmaurice2 (Feb 23, 2011)

Nice report and thanks for the pictures.  I've been curious about Owl's Head.  It certainly does look like it has great views and lots of possibility for fun.


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## reefer (Feb 23, 2011)

Thanks for the report and pictures. On my to-do list.


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## Magog Fishy (Feb 23, 2011)

wintersyndrome said:


> Awesome is that Lake Memphremagog?



Yes that is Lake Memphremagog -- the entire Lake is about 26 miles long.



thetrailboss said:


> Love the old school HSQ with the split/uphill support.  I take it that the double does not run?



I was wondering the same thing about the double -- whether it runs. They don't need the uphill capacity, since the high-speed quad to the Summit covers pretty much the same terrain plus I never waited in line more than a minute or two.  I will say -- and I had read this online beforehand -- that some of the lifts are quite uncomfortable (they need some padding on the chairs).


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## BigJay (Feb 23, 2011)

riverc0il said:


> I just need to go for it next time I get that Francophone itch!



There is more english spoken in Owl's Head then Jay Peak... Most of the locals (who own houses around the resort) are anglophone...


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## thetrailboss (Feb 23, 2011)

BigJay said:


> There is more english spoken in Owl's Head then Jay Peak... Most of the locals (who own houses around the resort) are anglophone...


 
That is surprising.


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## BigJay (Feb 23, 2011)

thetrailboss said:


> That is surprising.



The eastern township has a rich heritage just like new england... When they drew the line for the border between US and Canada, lots of french immigrant got to be US citizens... and same thing on the other side... There is lots of people along the border that still speak french (some married US residents also...) and most people can't pronounce their name right.

Check out the names in the phone book in Newport... You'll find all sorts of names... some are more famous like "Poulin"... but not for the right reasons...

Along the border (in VT at least), you run a 50-50 chance of running into someone who speaks french on both sides of the border!
When your town looks like this: http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Derby+...mté+d'Orleans,+Vermont,+États-Unis&gl=ca&z=14 it's easier to understand )


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## snowmonster (Feb 23, 2011)

^ I take it that there are more Canadiens fans up there than Bruins fans.=)

Nice pictures, Magog Fishy. You've inspired me to visit the les Cantons de l'Est.


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## Magog Fishy (Feb 23, 2011)

BigJay said:


> There is more english spoken in Owl's Head then Jay Peak... Most of the locals (who own houses around the resort) are anglophone...



That is interesting to know about the area around Owl’s Head mainly being Anglophones. I knew Lac Brome/Knowlton and North Hatley areas were mainly Anglophones, but didn’t know much about the Owl’s Head area. 

Yeah I always get a kick when I drive down West Jay Road/East Richford Slide Road, knowing that I’ve entered and exited Canada – for a few seconds – without having to go through customs. It is too bad for the people who live in Derby Line/Stanstead that Customs recently put up the border gates on the side streets.


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