With a seven-hour drive ahead of us on our departure day, we decided to ski until noon and then hit the road. After asking around for suggestions on where we could make some final turns, a local expert directed us to a small hill that I had never even heard of before we arrived: Morin Heights.
The name sounds more appropriate for a gated community in an English-speaking region than a francophone ski area; however, I knew that Morin Heights served as Rush's headquarters for recording seven albums (1980's Permanent Waves through 1992's Roll The Bones) at nearby Le Studio -- here's a great article with photos and a clip of them performing "Tom Sawyer" there. Many other major artists had recorded at Le Studio too including David Bowie, The Police, The Bee Gees, Keith Richards, April Wine, Cat Stevens, and Celine Dion. It was demolished in 2020.
A fair number of the trails twisted intriguingly down the hill’s 720 vertical feet:
We did multiple laps on a nice long glade along the far skier’s right, Fritz's Fling:
Mont Olympia across the valley
Morin Heights felt like a good place to bring small kids while keeping the adults happy, and a lot of other people we met on the lift that day thought so too.
As always, my wife made friends with the ski area's house dog:
The name sounds more appropriate for a gated community in an English-speaking region than a francophone ski area; however, I knew that Morin Heights served as Rush's headquarters for recording seven albums (1980's Permanent Waves through 1992's Roll The Bones) at nearby Le Studio -- here's a great article with photos and a clip of them performing "Tom Sawyer" there. Many other major artists had recorded at Le Studio too including David Bowie, The Police, The Bee Gees, Keith Richards, April Wine, Cat Stevens, and Celine Dion. It was demolished in 2020.
A fair number of the trails twisted intriguingly down the hill’s 720 vertical feet:
We did multiple laps on a nice long glade along the far skier’s right, Fritz's Fling:
Mont Olympia across the valley
Morin Heights felt like a good place to bring small kids while keeping the adults happy, and a lot of other people we met on the lift that day thought so too.
As always, my wife made friends with the ski area's house dog: