Owl's Head, QC, Report: What Happens When a Lift Breaks at a (Partially) Upside Down Ski Resort?

Owl's Head Lower Standard — A view from the top of Lower Standard with frozen Lake Memphremagog in the background. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Report from Saturday, March 1, 2025

For East Coast skiers, ski resorts across the region offer a wide variety of scenic experiences. Some ski areas, such as Blue Hills, MA, offer panoramic views of large metropolitan cities. Others such as Wildcat, NH, give the backdrop of the iconic Mt. Washington. You also have Big Snow, NJ, the only indoor ski area in North America that feels like skiing in a hockey arena. All of these are unique in their own separate ways, but in my mind (and I am biased), none are quite like Owl’s Head.

Quick Facts & History

Date Opened: 1964
Multi-Destination Pass: L’Est Go
Number of Trails: 51
Skiable Acres: 125
Vertical Drop: 1,771′
Base Elevation: 709′
Summit Elevation: 2,480′
Average Annual Snowfall: 122″
Terrain Breakdown:
- Beginner: 28%
- Intermediate: 34%
- Advanced: 16%
- Expert: 22%
Number of Lifts: 6
Night Skiing: no
Ownership: local group of investors
Other Activities:
- snowshoeing
- ski touring

Owl's Head Summit — The view off the Summit Chair of Lake Memphremagog looking north. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Located only an hour and a half outside of Montreal in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Owl’s Head could easily be a day trip for Montreal skiers yet remains primarily as a ski area for locals who call the Eastern Townships their home, or at least second home. It’s situated a mere 15 minutes north of the US-Canada border on Lake Memphremagog, making it just out of the gaze of most Americans looking for a ski trip. The mountain rises directly from the deepest part of the lake, giving skiers a sense of carving right into this unique body of water. Incredible vistas on a clear day can allow you to see other ski resorts in the region such as Mont Orford, Mont Sutton, Jay Peak, Burke Mountain, Cannon Mountain, and as far away as Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

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

None of these facts were new to me at a mountain I have become more acquainted with in recent years, but there was one scenario I had never played out in my head until I experienced it firsthand at Owl’s Head this weekend.

Owl's Head Panorama Chair — Riding the Panorama Chair with views of the peak of Owl’s Head. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Here’s a problem I bet you’ve never thought of: at a ski resort where the main lodge is not at the bottom of the resort, what happens if the lowest-elevation chairlift on the mountain breaks down? How do people return to the base area or another chairlift? While this scenario is only possible at a handful of ski resorts across North America, it is an important scenario for upside-down ski areas to have a plan in place for.

Owl’s Head, which sees its Main Lodge situated on the lower mid-mountain, fits the criteria for this tricky situation to unfold, and when I was lapping the Panorama Chair mid-Saturday, the lift ground to a halt and we were told that we could not ride up.

Owl's Head Panorama Chair Broken — The lack of my ability to speak or even understand French in this case scenario did not help. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Immediately, there were three options available to skiers and riders stuck at the bottom of the mountain.

Walk to the Lake Chair several hundred feet up.
Call a friend or family/member to pick you up.
Wait for another way to be figured out.

With my girlfriend who is a beginner skier by my side, hiking in ski boots was out of the question, and there were no friends in the area to give a call to. Yet to my surprise, a swift but seemingly random effort to shuttle people back up the mountain appeared out of nowhere.

With road access at the bottom of the lift, Owl’s Head ski school employees were quick to corral people into a line, and out of nowhere, random cars started appearing to give people rides back up the mountain. With locals, employees, or a combination of the two, people slowly filed into minivans, pickup trucks, and Teslas to get a ride back up the mountain.

Owl's Head Minivan — Up the mountain to the Main Lodge, we go. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Within 30 minutes of the lift shutting down, our skis were in a pick-up truck bed and we were in the third row of a mini-van and back up to the base lodge to continue our ski day. While this was by no means an ideal scenario, the quick all-hands response speaks to the larger culture that Owl’s Head has created since its founding over 60 years ago. It is a place where you can let your kids go and ski around without having to worry about them because everyone has your back. It’s a place where the main lodge is a gathering place and you can bring your own lunch and simply hang out. It is a ski resort like so many others across the continent that most have never heard of, yet is at the cornerstone of what skiing is meant to be.

Owl's Head Main Lodge — Since 2018 when Owl’s Head was sold from the founder of the ski area to a group of local private investors, the ski area has taken significant strides in improving and upgrading its facilities and infrastructure, including completely renovating the base lodge and small hotel located above it. | Credit: Liam Abbott

While I am not directly a part of that community that skis there every weekend, as a visitor I feel it, and it reminds me of why I loved growing up skiing at a regular ski area as a child.

Owl’s Head, as is the story for all East Coast ski areas, is having a year to be remembered. The snow has been endless and the resort has almost all of its terrain open. The thing about Owl’s Head is that this mountain is small. The vertical is big, but it can easily be skied in a day. For the mountain to really shine, it needs its steep double black glades to be filled in well, which is something that has been seen on a less frequent basis in recent years.

Owl's Head Ponsoon — The Ponsoon glades are the most extensive at the resort, offering a wide swath of trees to explore. | Credit: Liam Abbott

Until today, I had never had the opportunity to ski Owl’s Head’s glades in such good conditions. There was a solid base in a majority of areas and no one else in the trees. Whether it was Ponsoon, Kandahar, Magog, or L’urubu, I wish I had more time to lap these trees.