New Englanders often overlook Quebec’s Eastern Townships, which are a lot closer than you might think

With a 2,789-foot summit, Mont Orford offers the most vertical of the four Eastern Townships gems. (Ski Mont Orford)

We encourage skiing midweeks or taking a Friday or Monday off to create a long weekend whenever possible, but sometimes it isn’t in the cards.

That doesn’t mean you need to limit your destination to the same spots where everyone else in New England seems to be heading. Just on the other side of the border from Vermont, the Eastern Townships of Quebec have four options that often are overlooked by Americans. Distance-wise, it takes roughly only one more hour in the car for a Bostonian heading to Stowe or an hour longer for someone from Hartford heading to Loon.

While the towns have English-sounding names from when they were settled by British loyalists, forced out of the United States following the Revolutionary War, the area is now primarily Francophone. Signage at the mountains typically includes both French and English, and most public-facing employees are bilingual; the ease in which they can go between the two is impressive.

“New England, with French flair,” is how Tourisme d’Est media relations coordinator Shanny Hallé described the region. (In my previous experiences in Quebec, attempting French first gets a positive response, even if Frenglish and English quickly get mixed in. One of these days, l’érable (maple) will slide off my tongue easily.)

Bromont, Mont Orford, Mont Sutton and Owl’s Head offer something for everyone. They are between 30 and 45 minutes away from each other, providing options depending on the conditions. The mountains can be skied interchangeably with the prepaid, non-transferable L’Est Go card that can save more than 30 percent off the window rate. Between two and eight days are loaded onto the card and can be purchased at any point throughout the season. A card with as few as four days will get you the maximum discount. Even a day with two days loaded is going to mean a 24 percent savings from the walkup rate.

With a favorable exchange rate of $1 equal to $1.32 Canadian dollars, lift tickets can cost less than $65 USD/day (taxes included) without blackout dates.

Located on the western shore of Lac Memphremagog, Owl’s Head considers itself the best-kept secret in the East. The scenery is stunning with the lake right under you and the trails of Jay Peak only 13 miles away, as the crow flies. There are 50 trails with six lifts over 123 skiable acres. The summit elevation is 2,480 feet — slightly taller than Gunstock or Jiminy Peak — but Owl’s Head skis much bigger with nearly 1,800 vertical feet (more than Mount Snow).

Owl’s Head (owlshead.com) is a cruiser’s paradise, and the trail difficulty is spread pretty evenly with a slight lean toward the intermediates, but there is no beginner terrain off the summit. The top-to-bottom, black diamond trail Kamikazee follows the summit detachable quad lift line, while double diamond Colorado and blue square Lilly’s Leap head off toward the lake.

There was an ownership change in 2018, and the new group spent nearly $26 million Canadian dollars within the first 18 months, including $9 million in snowmaking improvements and more than $5 million on a new quad. This offseason, two snowparks were redesigned to improve the experience for freestylers.

Some will say that Mont Sutton has the best tree skiing in all of Canada. It is the place to be for those who like to go off-piste or don’t want to find corduroy on every trail, every morning. It boasts 45 percent of its 60 trails as being glades, including some for beginners. With 204 junctions, no run ever has to be the same.

The summit is 2,808 feet and the area has 1,500 vertical feet with 10 lifts, including three quads. This summer, Mont Sutton finished a multi-year project to upgrade its snowmaking system that included larger pipes feeding a new pumping station to increase its ability to deliver snow when Mother Nature is being stingy with the natural stuff.

Mont Sutton (montsutton.com) is the closest of the four to the border and easily can be paired with Jay Peak, about 35 minutes away (10 miles as the crow flies), via the Richford/Abercorn border crossing for a tree-skiing lover’s paradise.

For Sutton and Owl’s Head, leave I-91 at Exit 25 in Orleans, Vermont, to smaller border crossings, while those heading up to Mont Orford or Bromont should stay on I-91 to the main border crossing at Derby Line/Stanstead for A-55 toward Magog and then A-10 west.

Over the summer, Mont Orford invested nearly $2 million Canadian dollars to increase its snowmaking capacity by 25 percent. It has 62 trails and glades spread across three mountains and nearly 2,000 vertical feet. One section that did not get snowmaking upgrades was Mont Alfred-Desrochers, which features a handful of beginner and intermediate trails on natural snow. While the skiing on that section is old-school, the lift is not; a quad replaced a double in time for the 2021-22 season.

Orford’s website (montorford.com) gives tips to first-time visitors on how to best enjoy the mountain, whether you are looking for the best glades or which trails are best for skiing with children. The beginner trail, 4 KM — a nod to its length — has fantastic views as it winds its way down from the 2,789-foot summit. Once that is mastered, the intermediate Grande Coulee heads down the other shoulder. In between are some of the best steeps in the region.

If you can bang out early on Friday, you can be on the slopes that night when the lights come on at Bromont, which boasts North America’s largest night skiing operation. The most resort-like ski area of the four has lights on 104 of its 141 trails, including some of its glades.

“On weekends, our animation team is on site and always offers several activities for children, but we also have a whole program of events for teenagers and adults, from concerts at the foot of the slopes to ‘Nuits Blanches,’ evenings when you can ski until 1 a.m.,” Bromont marketing and communications manager Evelyne Déry said.

Bromont’s highest point is 1,804 feet and the resort has a 1,150-foot vertical drop (similar to Berkshire East or Cranmore) with nine lifts, but it sprawls across seven versants (sides) of three mountains, and its 450 skiable acres are the most in the region. Bromont is currently in the middle of a long-term $122 million Canadian dollar upgrade, and a new quad servicing the Versant des Epinettes made its debut earlier this season for its third summit lift with a ride time of five minutes. The main summit lift is a hybrid of an eight-person gondola and six-person chairlift, like the Chondola at Sunday River.

Bromont also added to its snowmaking infrastructure during the offseason with 17 new fan guns to boost its snowmaking system.

“We now have 89 new-generation fan guns that enable us to make snow at marginal temperatures, in addition to our 1,500 poles spread out all over the mountain,” Déry said. “This means we can ski in Bromont even when there’s no snow elsewhere in the region.”

Much like in New England, small towns dominate the landscape. Magog is the biggest of them and is a good basecamp for a weekend, particularly with Mont Orford located only six miles away.

Embrace the local après scene; 32 microbreweries under the “Brasseurs des Cantons” (cantonsdelest.com) banner offer about 500 different beers. For those looking for a glass of wine, there are about 30 vineyards in the province’s premier wine-making region. Ungava Spirits (ungavaco.com), a distillery about 25 minutes from Sutton and Bromont in Cowansville, offers tastings and classes Friday through Sunday.

For those needing a bit more to unwind after a long day on the slopes, or as an alternative for when the weather does not cooperate, there are 20 nordic spas providing ample opportunity to relax.

It all makes the Eastern Townships well worth consideration for adding a touch of Quebecois to that next weekend trip.