Mont Écho
An Eastern Townships resort with 1,500 feet of vertical that lasted just fifteen winters, from 1963 to 1978; its chairlifts were sold to Mont Sutton and the trails have gone back to forest.
- Region
- Quebec
- Country
- Canada
- Status
- abandoned
- Year opened
- 1963
- Year closed
- 1978
- Reason for closure
- Poor snow in a low, flat base area prone to rain, with no snowmaking and complete reliance on natural cover, against competition from nine other hills nearby. It went bankrupt in 1968 and was rescued by the Cerro Alta Corporation, which invested in grooming, lift improvements and a ski school, but by 1977-78 it was down to weekends only and did not survive.
History
Mont Écho was incorporated in 1963 by a group of Ontario businessmen and built near Sutton in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, with between 15 and 25 runs, three lifts and a genuine 1,500 ft of vertical - on paper one of the more serious hills in the province. It never worked. The base area was low and flat, it caught rain rather than snow, there was no snowmaking at all, and there were nine competing hills within reach. Bankruptcy came as early as 1968; the Cerro Alta Corporation took it on and put money into grooming, the lifts and a ski instruction programme, but the fundamentals did not change and by the 1977-78 season it was opening at weekends only. It closed in 1978 after fifteen winters. The two Mueller double chairs were pulled out in 1979 and sold to Mont Sutton nearby, where the skiing carried on. The three-storey prefabricated base lodge became a hunting facility and burned down in 2005. The trails have grown in and can no longer be traced on the ground. Run names are not recorded in accessible sources.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | GMD Mueller | One of two GMD Mueller double chairs; both were removed in 1979 and sold to Mont Sutton |
| Unnamed lift | Chairlift - Double | GMD Mueller | The second GMD Mueller double chair |
| Unnamed lift | Platter | Poma | A Poma lift, the third of the three installations |
Sources and further reading
More in Canada
Location
45.1079, -72.4898