Right before Christmas, we packed our car full to bursting, squeezed in among all the bags, and headed out for a family ski trip to Mount Orford, in the Eastern Townships, and some exploring in the town of Magog. We haven't been skiing as a family in a long time, and we've never been cross country skiing all together, so it was fun to be able to do both at once. We stayed in my dad's friend's cottage, which he very kindly lent us for the weekend, which is right on Lake Memphremagog. Lake Memphremagog is a glacial lake right on the border between Vermont and Quebec. On our first night, we took a walk to the lake just before dark and watched the sun set over the water.
views of Lake Memphremagog
walking to the lake
We had two days of skiing. On the first, we went cross country skiing. We rented skis, got a quick spoken tutorial, and took off on a 6km circle around a lake. It was snowing very lightly, and all the trees were coated with clean white snow. My dad carried a small backpack with our lunch - saucisson sec, cheese, and crackers - and we stopped at a hostel half way through the trek for a snack break. It was lots of fun.
The cross country ski lodge
cross country ski trails
On the second day, my dad stayed at the cottage to do some work and the rest of us drove twenty minutes to Mount Orford, which is actually a pretty big mountain. We had plenty of runs to ski even though the mountain was only 12% open, and, though it was windy, a little icy, and very cold, it was great.
views from the top of Mount Oford
very icy on some parts of the slopes
When we weren't skiing, we spent our time exploring Magog.