Mount Royal has 3 summits; Mount Royal Summit (233m), Westmount Summit (201m) and the Outremont Summit (211m). Last Monday I made my first visit to the Outremont Summit which is located in the Saint Jean-Baptiste woods on the other side of the Mount Royal cemetery and accessed via boulevard du Mont-Royal.

I found an opening though in the fence that encircles the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery that saved me taking  the long route via the Université de Montréal.

There are a couple of spots offereing great views to the North of the city and beyond. I first stopped at the large clearing near the Université de Montréal.

Outremont Summit
ISO 100 – 12mm – f7.1 – 1/1250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Outremont Summit
ISO 100 – 15mm – f8 – 1/500 sec

Outremont Summit
ISO 100 – 102mm – f7.1 – 1/400 sec

Today, Mount Royal is popular with cross country skiers with the 18km of trails across the mountain. In the mid 1900’s however, alpine skiers also flocked to the mountain. One popular spot was on the Outremont slope and today there is still a sign of the past activity with the remains of a ski tow at the summit.

Old ski tow on Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 10mm – f8 – 1/300 sec

The trees had some nice icicles hanging from the branches and with the sun getting low the colours were pretty nice as a backdrop.

Icicles
ISO 100 – 70mm – f8 – 1/1250 sec

Icicles
ISO 100 – 145mm – f4.8 – 1/8000 sec

Just a pitty there were some trees blocking a clear view of the Université de Montréal’s Roger Gaudry Pavilion.

Roger Gaudry Pavilion and icicles
ISO 100 – 165mm – f8 – 1/500 sec

One quick way down the hill is by bike – even in the snow…

Quick way down by mountain bike
ISO 100 – 90mm – f7.1 – 1/800 sec

I took the more leisurely route down via the trail through the Saint Jean Baptiste woods. I took a few more pics on my way back home via avenue du Parc…but they will have to wait until another post 😉

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

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