Last updated January 4, 2010
Montreal is a great winter city. With winter stretching from mid-November to mid-March and steady snowfalls most winters, it's a well established epicentre of skiing activity.
The city is also situated within a short distance of the Laurentians and is itself built around one of the Monteregian hills. It has to be admitted that no Quebec mountain comes close to rivalling the Rockies or the Alps but some of its slopes are perfectly scaled for skiing and snowboarding activities.
Downhill skiing (Ski alpin)
Last winter the Gazette published a map and comparative table of all the alpine skiing installations within a reasonable drive of Montreal, including ones in Maine, Vermont and New York State as well as Quebec hills up into the Charlevoix. It's still a useful resource.
These are the highest ski hills close to Montreal:
Mont Tremblant 645 m
Mont Orford 589 m
Owl's Head 540 m
Sutton 460 m
Bromont 385 m
Shefford 325 m
Snowboarding (Surf des neiges)
Snowboarding on the Bonjour Quebec site. Most hills offering downhill skiing also offer snowboarding.
Cross-country skiing (Ski de fond)
Without leaving the island of Montreal it's quite possible to go cross-country skiing in a number of locations (ski trail listed in kilometers):
Morgan Arboretum (11.2 km)
Nuns' Island's Domaine Saint-Paul (7.4 km)
Angrignon Park (9.5 km) (at Angrignon metro)
Mount Royal (20 km)
Maisonneuve Park (near Pie-IX or Viau metro) (11.1 km)
Botanical gardens (near Pie-IX metro) (4.8 km)
Pointe-aux-Prairies (23.5 km)
Île-de-la-Visitation (7.8 km)
Bois-de-Liesse (18.3 km)
Cap Saint-Jacques (31.8 km)
Most of the parks are free although you have to pay if you want to park a car. There's a small fee to get into the Morgan Arboretum.
There's also cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in Parc Jean-Drapeau (Jean-Drapeau metro), the Bois de l'Île-Bizard and the Îles de Boucherville which are close to town although technically off the island.
The subject of cross-country skiing in the rest of Quebec is too huge to cover on a page like this. Information can be found on Ski de fond Québec site.
Snowshoeing (Raquette)
Snowshoeing has a long and respected history in Quebec.
These parks in Montreal have snowshoeing areas. Where no trail length is listed, presumably you can use the entire park.
Morgan Arboretum (4.3 km)
Nuns' Island's Domaine Saint-Paul
Angrignon Park (9.5 km) (at Angrignon metro)
Mount Royal
Maisonneuve Park (near Pie-IX or Viau metro)
Pointe-aux-Prairies (1.2 km)
Cap Saint-Jacques (5.5 km)
If cross-country skiing in the rest of Quebec is too huge a topic, snowshoeing, which doesn't even require established trails, is even less restricted in its practice, and is often done on a very casual and unstructured basis.
Snowshoeing on the cross-country ski site.Skating rinks
Skating can be done inside or outside. Indoor rinks tend to be better maintained and have more facilities. Outdoor rinks, however, put you out in the open air and are more in the spirit of the season.
Many parks have rinks for general use:
Vieux-Port
Lafontaine Park
Jarry Park
Mount Royal Park
1000 La Gauchetière West has a year-round indoor skating rink which rents out skates and has various admission deals – see their website.
Tobogganing
There's tobogganing in Mount Royal Park (the slope facing Park Avenue is shown above) as well as inner-tubing on the slope overlooking Beaver Lake.