Bromont, QC, Report: The Perfect Ski Resort If You Like to Sleep In

Bromont Front Side Day — Bromont is one of the largest ski areas in Quebec and just over an hour outside Montreal. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Report from Friday, February 28, 2025

To get the best experience skiing, we are often taxed with the burden of having grueling early mornings on what are meant to typically be relaxing weekends. For some of us, getting up at 7 a.m. for the first tracks at 8:30 a.m. seems like no big deal, but for most of us that is not the case. Yet at most ski resorts, if you want the best conditions it simply is what it is, and there is nothing you can do about it—but Bromont is different.

Quick Facts & History

Date Opened: 1964
Multi-Destination Pass: Mountain Collective (new this year), L’Est Go
Number of Trails: 127
Skiable Acres: 450
Vertical Drop: 1,175′
Base Elevation: 630′
Summit Elevation: 1,805′
Average Annual Snowfall: 138″
Number of Lifts: 11
Night Skiing: Yes (93 trails, biggest night skiing operation on Earth!)
Other Activities:
- Snowshoeing
- Ski touring
- Mountain Biking (biggest in Eastern Canada, summer only)
- Water Park (summer only)

While Bromont, like most ski resorts, opens at 9 a.m. on weekdays and 8:30 a.m. on weekends, that isn’t the only time during the day that you are able to get first tracks. A unique aspect of Bromont, partially due to being the largest night skiing resort in the world (you heard that right), is that it has an impressive grooming fleet that re-grooms a wide selection of trails three times a day.

This means that you can get first tracks in the morning, over lunchtime, and in the evening before night skiing starts.

Bromont Regrooming Base — Three groomers charging up Brome at 5 pm. | Credit: Liam Abbott

After driving up from New York City Thursday night and only arriving in the Eastern Townships of Quebec at 2 a.m., I was in no situation to be getting up for first tracks. But I didn’t have to fear since I instead planned to arrive at Bromont around lunchtime, meaning I could enjoy the first round of regrooming on the mountain. My plan went exactly as expected, and when I rode up for my first run of the day I could see snowcats already at work on the front side of Bromont.

How does Bromont pull off grooming slopes three times a day while keeping trails open for guests? They run an efficient operation that sees snow ATVs close one trail at a time, directing guests off the trails while three snowcats whisk up and down the slopes to groom it. As soon as the snowcats are done on one trail, the ropes are dropped and they move on to the next. This is a common practice at many night skiing resorts but the efficiency and speed at Bromont is unmatched compared to any other operations I have seen.

Bromont Regrooming — A snowcat working on Detroit before night skiing operations kick in. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Once you ski Bromont a couple of times, you are able to pick up on the order and speed of the operations, and if you are strategic enough, you can follow the snowcats as they groom one trail at a time and get first tracks for an hour or two midday. This is my favorite thing to do at Bromont. With first tracks happening only on one trail at a time, you can actually enjoy them for a longer period of time compared to the morning when everywhere gets skied out quickly.

Bromont Mont Soleil — A view of the beginner Mont Soleil slope off of the base area. Bromont has made a significant effort in recent years to revamp the beginner skiing experience with a new beginner and group base lodge. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Bromont, like most ski resorts on the East Coast and Quebec, have been having a tremendous ski season, with the resort currently seeing all of its terrain open. Being a little lower elevation and closer to Montreal compared to its Eastern Township ski resort neighbors, one thing that Bromont can sometimes struggle with is the quality of its snow. More frequent freeze-thaw cycles can leave trails feeling icy and scrapped down to the bare bone.

Bromont is aware of this and has imposed a unique snowmaking strategy to counteract these conditions. Instead of making all of its snow at the start of the ski season, Bromont makes the majority of its snow then but continues to make snow throughout the year to add additional fresh layers to its snowpack. While the man-made snow doesn’t compare to fresh powder, it significantly helps to mitigate icy conditions, especially on beginner terrain.

While Bromont does offer expert terrain in the form of a handful of double-black diamond glades and steep, full vertical fall line black diamonds, the resort really shines with its beginner terrain. Long, winding greens can be found throughout the mountain, allowing skiers of any ability level to ski off the top of the mountain to a variety of mountain faces. This ability for all experience levels to navigate the complete mountain is something that is difficult could to find, and was well appreciated by my girlfriend who is just learning how to ski. Whether you ski down Toronto to the ‘Lake’ slope, the 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) long Brome down the frontside, Calgary off the ‘Townships’ slope or San Diego off the backside, beginners can feel empowered to explore the entire mountain.

Bromont Brome — Bromont ‘Brome’ is a 2.4km beginner trail that winds its way from the top of the mountain all the way down the front side to the base. | Credit: Liam Abbott

I was able to end my ski day at Bromont the same way it started – carving fresh turns into newly groomed trails right before the sun set. I was off the hill by 5:30 p.m. and was thankful that I was able to enjoy a full day on the slopes after a long drive the night before and a late start to the day of skiing.

While I didn’t night ski on this occasion, it is crazy to think that Bromont, Quebec, which has the largest night skiing footprint of any ski resort in the world, is so incredibly affordable, especially for Americans. Utilizing the L’Est Card, a four-day, non-consecutive no blackout date ski pass for Bromont and the other three major ski areas in the Eastern Townships (Mont Orford, Mont Sutton, and Owl’s Head) is only $54 USD/day. For a ski resort of this size and magnitude, it is simply unheard of in this day and age.