A lot has changed since the 1960s. Milkmen no longer deliver fresh dairy to our doorsteps. Airlines have all but removed any legroom from their planes. Being a celebrity once required a discernible talent. Bell-bottom jeans – to the celebration of some and the disappointment of others – are no longer a ubiquitous or socially applauded fashion statement. Change over the past 50 years has been both drastic and constant.
And yet sometimes, amongst all the unruliness of societal evolution, pockets exist that defy the pressure to change. These places retain the characteristics of what defined them in the first place. While the world around them rushes to keep up with the temperamental whims of an ever-changing culture, these places understand what makes them special and hold on to it in defiance of the pressure to change. The Pontiac region’s very own Mont Chilly is one such place.
Located North of Highway 148, on Chemin du Lac de la Truite in Mansfield-et-Pontefract, Mont Chilly is a ski-hill frozen in time. In an industry increasingly defined by pricy lift tickets, long lift lines, crowded chalets and $13 cafeteria hotdogs, Mont Chilly stands as an outlier. Harkening back to the early, uncomplicated days of ski resort culture, Mont Chilly provides a ski hill experience that is both genuine and increasingly difficult to find within the corporatization of the contemporary ski resort landscape.
A family business, Mont Chilly has been owned and operated by the Hernbergers since its inception in 1967. The brainchild of local legend Larry Hernberger, the hill was developed in response to the lack of ski hills close to the family’s home in Pembroke, Ontario. After immigrating to Pembroke from Russia, Larry Hernberger and his friends would drive east to ski at the hills in the burgeoning ski industry around Ottawa. He and his friends travelled to hills like Camp Fortune, Vorlage and Edelweiss and while driving would remark on how someone should open a ski hill closer to home.
“For those guys, it was sort of a pipe dream,” said Larry Hernberger’s son and current owner and operator of Mont Chilly, Rick Hernberger. “But my dad was a doer, and took it to heart.”
A bricklayer by trade, with an industrious spirit common of the era, Larry Hernberger started developing what would become Mont Chilly during the little freetime he had. After purchasing the land the ski hill now sits atop – then an old farm boasting steep and varied topography – Larry enlisted the help of his friends, parents, wife and children to manifest the idea into reality. Together, with Larry’s drive fueling the passion project, they cut runs through the trees, constructed a chalet and even built a t-bar lift by hand in a rented out Pembroke scrapyard garage. Still living in Pembroke at this point, Larry would pack the family in their 1951 Cadillac pickup truck and head up to the farm for the weekend to do the needed work.
“In those days, we would come home from school on a Friday,” recalls Rick. “The grocery shopping would be done and the truck was loaded with us and our grandparents to go to the farm.”
With years worth of weekends and a countless amount of hours spent sharing in this labour of love, Mont Chilly sold its first lift ticket in December of 1966/67. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history.
“My dad didn’t know how it would go,” said Rick reflectively. “He didn’t do some kind of survey to see if this would be something people would be interested in. But the people came out in droves.”
Initially, many of those who flocked to the hill were from the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, with communities like Deep River, Pembroke and Petawawa making up a disproportionate amount of the hill’s clientele. As time went on and word got out however, more skiing enthusiasts and first-timers from throughout the Pontiac and beyond made the trek along the scenic asphalt of Highway 148 to indulge in the Mont Chilly experience.
Rick’s daughter and right-hand woman, Lara Hernberger, thinks that aside from the affordable lift tickets (running at $35) and fun terrain, it is the unpretentiousness of Mont Chilly that draws people in.
“It’s such a different feeling than your average ski hill,” said Lara. “People feel part of something when they come here and that our family is opening the doors to our home for the day.”
Following its initial success, a changing ski industry landscape resulted in a drop in attendance at Mont Chilly.
After years of declining attendance due to other ski hills being opened in the area, the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it a fresh energy of enthusiasm and turn-out. Looking to get away from crowds and the increasingly steep ticket prices, skiers and snowboarders from throughout the Pontiac and much, much further began arriving at Mont Chilly’s parking lot. With the power of the internet and a loyal word of mouth campaign by skiers and snowboarders preaching the gospel of Mont Chilly, the hill experienced a boom in attendance.
“We’ve got people that are coming all the way from places like North Bay, Montreal and Peterborough,” said Rick. “And they often say ‘this is exactly the kind of hill I started skiing at in the 1970s and it’s been closed for 15 years’.”
“Mont Chilly to me means family,” said Lara. “My grandparents started it in 1967, and now my dad, my two brothers, myself, my partner, and our other family all work together to make it happen.”
Today Mont Chilly remains much the same as it did during its inaugural season all the way back in 1967 – albeit with more runs, the addition of electricity in 1986 and a telephone connection in 2006. The t-bar Larry painstakingly built all those years ago continues to operate, reliantly shuttling skiers and snowboarders with a familiar, unmistakable hum. The historic chalet still stands – it’s front-deck hosting socializing skiers and snowboarders as they take in the panoramic views of the surrounding Laurentian mountains. The runs themselves remain as fun as ever with large glade areas, a unique grooming style and copious amounts of side-hits making for an experience that is not often found east of the Rockies.
In continuing on with its traditions, and defying the pressure to change, Mont Chilly offers up an adventure that more and more skiers and snowboarders are seeking out.
by Connor Lalande
