For anyone who has never been to Quebec in the summer, let me paint you a picture — across the entire province, you will find cycling ingrained into the culture everywhere you look. From the province being home to the only North American stops on the UCI WorldTour, to the dozens of mountain bike destinations scattered across the province, it becomes clear when visiting the passion these people have for the sport. The Quebecois are some of the most active and outdoor-oriented people I have ever been around, and come summertime, cycling of all forms is at the center of that.
But the love of cycling as a sport and the outdoors in general doesn’t come from having the biggest, badest, or best of anything. It simply comes from widespread and accessible facilities to get people involved in the outdoors, and there is no better example of this in action than Mont Sutton.
Mont Sutton Bike Facts & History
- Date Opened: 2017
- Multi-Destination Pass: Indy Pass (Indy Pass holders do not get any summer bike benefits)
- Trail Distance: 47 km (29 miles)
- Number of Trails: 42
- Trail Types: XC technical, Enduro, Double Tracks, and Freeride & Jumplines
- Vertical Drop: 377 m (1,236′)
- Base Elevation: 400 m (1,312′)
- Summit Elevation (for biking): ~777m (~2,550′)
- Terrain Breakdown:
- Beginner: 30%
- Intermediate: 50%
- Advanced: 20%
- Number of Lifts: 1 (for biking)
- Ownership: Independent Local Ownership
- Other Activities:
- Scenic Lift Rides
- Disc Golf
- Mountain-Top Camping
- Zipline
- Hiking
Located just 15 minutes north of the US-Canada border, Mont-Sutton is an old-school hidden gem ski area that many outside of Quebec simply glance over because of a border between two countries. And while I have skied here many times throughout the years, I had never had the opportunity to check it out in the summer. I was specifically intrigued to visit because Mont Sutton doesn’t offer your average lift-served ski resort biking. It operates more on a hybrid lift-served system that I haven’t really seen anywhere before. Let me explain.
When you go to most lift-served bike parks at ski resorts across North America, they are largely downhill-oriented with the concept of lapping the chairlift and only biking down. It is often viewed as the most extreme form of mainstream biking, which by definition doesn’t make it have a wide appeal. This, alongside high insurance prices, has made many ski resort bike parks shut down over the past decade (think Okemo, VT, Blue Mountain, ON, etc.).
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Mont Sutton is different because its lift-served bike park wants to deemphasize the chairlift as a central part of the experience. While it is there to help people get up the mountain and ride less uphill, it is not there to lap. This methodology is reflected in its bike ticket pricing, where there is literally no option to pay for unlimited chairlift rides (except on special event nights), and instead you can pay for a maximum of 4 rides up the chairlift in a day. They do this because most of the trails lean more towards mountain biking and enduro style versus downhill. Riders can enjoy much more time on the trails compared to typical downhill trails at other resorts.
With this less common view of lift-served biking at ski resorts in the summer, Mont Sutton inadvertently opens its doors to a much broader audience, in a province that is already much more open to the sport. At the same time, you increase the affordability and accessibility of the sport dramatically. Instead of having one option for unlimited chairlift access at downhill resorts, you could just buy one lift ride up at Sutton and mix in a little bit of uphill riding as well. It offers a more diverse mix of terrain, which also means you don’t need a bike specifically designed for downhill to enjoy its trails. If you already have a mountain bike, there is plenty to ride. And with that, you see how things go full circle and how Mont Sutton is a part of a much larger cultural phenomenon in Quebec that makes it the cycling/bike capital of North America. If ski resorts want to become less seasonally dependent and more four-season mountain destinations, taking a page out of Sutton’s (and Quebec’s) bike scene could be a great place to start.
While Quebec may not boast the biggest, nicest, or most impressive bike parks across its ski resorts, it is its multitude of options that gives it its strength. And for someone like me, who identifies as a beginner-intermediate downhill/mountain biker, it creates an environment I am much more curious to explore, compared to full-blown downhill biking, which I love, but broke my collarbone doing the very first time I tried.
Photos
For more information on Mont Sutton, visit their website here.
