Sutton Dairy Products was typically very busy for four to five months during the summer, but in the winter, was forced to lay off employees. This situation led the owners to begin thinking about a business that would keep their personnel busy during the winter months. At that time, people were wilderness skiing at Sutton, more specifically on the North face of Mohawk Lake, the mountain next to the actual resort. During the winter of 1946, the young Boulangers began their love affair with the sport of downhill skiing.

After several years of wilderness skiing, they decided to try out places that had ski-tows. One Sunday early in the winter season, eight people crammed into two cars to drive to a popular ski resort in Stowe, Vermont. They were Réal, Robert, Josette, Sylvianne, Clara, Dr. Paul Rioux, Benoît and Lucille. Only the last three had skis! The others were transported to the top of the mountain on the single chairlift. Once on the peak, the group met at the octogonal restaurant to warm up sipping hot chocolate, and admire the spectacular view. Lucille was reluctant to wrestle with the fog on the mountain and wanted to take the chair down with…her skis! Hearing this, Réal borrowed her boots which, as you can imagine, were not a great fit. Along with Paul and Benoît, he began his descent, but not before getting a few tips on how to make turns! That one run sparked a passion that would continue to grow in Réal from that day forward.

Following this watershed event, the entire family and several friends continued to ski for fun, but Réal became fascinated with analysing the sport, trying to figure out why skiers preferred one run over another.

On April 15, 1960, a Mr. Zigmann, owner of Sun Valley in the Laurentians and importer of the reliable Muëller chairlifts, inspected the mountain with Réal and discovered fresh powder on the runs. Excited by the sight of all that snow, he said to Réal, “If you buy the chairlifts from me, I’ll trade the equivalent of my commission for shares in Mont Sutton Inc.”

The Boulangers also had to think about building a road to the mountain. Work on the road began in June 1960 and on the lodge a few months later. Sutton’s President Benoît Boulanger described the first chairlifts on the mountain: “After clearing the Sutton-1k run, the surveyors marked out where the chairlift manufacturer wanted to put the cement bases. It was then up to Réal to supervise the work. One team was busy making the forms while second one used a Bombardier Muskeg to transport the cement bags, gravel and water to each site. When all the ingredients were in place, the cement was prepared using a small mixer. Everything was emptied directly into the forms. Around the same time, the parts for the chairlifts arrived at the Montreal harbour from Switzerland. Of course, the lifts still had to be assembled. Mr. Zigmann distributed the plans and oversaw the work while travelling between Sun Valley and Sutton, in addition to providing a Swiss technician who stayed on and helped us for part of that winter.”

To everyone’s delight, four inches of snow fell on the evening of December 16. The opening took place the following day under a blanket of snow. Glen Brown and Heward Graftey, respectively the provincial MP and federal MP at the time, were present, as well as several ski celebrities including the Canadian Ann Heggtvelt, a gold medal winner in Slalom at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley.

Commenting on the success of Sutton’s first ski season, a magazine wrote: “On some Sundays, you could count some 2,000 skiers on the hills …One of the reasons for Sutton’s popularity was that it received a total snowfall of 143 inches, allowing skiers to enjoy their sport right up until April 23, well after the sun had laid bare all the hills in the Laurentians.”

In 1983, following Réal’s death, Robert took over the resort’s reins and continued his brother’s work. In 1985, Canada’s first detachable Doppelmayr quadruple chairlift was installed, replacing the 25-year-old #ll Chairlift. In January 1985, a double chairlift, #1 West, was added to the West of #1 Chairlift. In 1986, two new double chairlifts were purchased to replace the Poma and T-bar. In 1987, a second quadruple chairlift, #Vll, was added. Then in 1988, #lV Chairlift was replaced by a third quad, increasing the resort’s lift capacity to 11,800 people per hour. At the same time, Benoît replaced Robert, making him the third Boulanger brother to become President and General Manager of Mont Sutton Inc. He promoted his nephew Denis, Réal’s son, who was then Director of Marketing, to General Manager. Denis remained in the position until the fall 1997.

In 1990-1991, Jean Lessard decided to retire and sell his boutique and ski school. Guy Duquette, an exceptional young skier and member of the Canadian Exhibition Team at Interski since 1987, offered to continue in Jean’s place. Guy founded the Sutton Ski School, today known as the Ski and Snowboard School, recognized throughout Quebec for the quality of its instruction. In fact, Guy Duquette is ranked among the top ten technical ski instructors in Canada. As for the boutique, the popular ski store chain Sport Experts opened a boutique in the Main Lodge managed by Guy Courtemanche.

For the 1996-97 season, an old-fashioned section was created featuring the Fantasy and was ranked in 1998 as the best new ski area in eastern Canada by the magazine Ski Canada.

For 30 years, Sutton had demonstrated its unwavering commitment to enhance the mountain’s skiing experience by constantly adding new lifts and runs.

Of course, some winters were tougher than others, like that of 1968. That winter there was no snow. In a generous show of support for his friend Réal, Jean-Claude Tremblay, the owner of the Quebec City ski resort Le Relais, invited Sutton’s season’s pass holders to ski for free at Le Relais. Together, Jean-Claude and Réal went on to found the APSSQ (in English, the Association of Quebec Ski Resort Owners), today called the ASSQ. Réal had become an expert in ski resort development and was frequently hired by Sno-engineering Inc. to design runs for several Quebec ski resorts. It was also Réal who created the “Ski East” program. In 1961, Sutton, Jay Peak, North Hatley and Orford joined forces to offer weekday tickets valid at any of the four resorts. This promotion proved very successful in attracting skiers from the north-eastern United States. Today, Sutton, Owl’s Head and Orford work together to offer a greater variety of runs to this US market.

Every generation of the Boulanger clan has contributed to the success of the family-run resort. Whether in the family kitchen or on the dairy farm, family members and employees have worked as a team to meet the challenges and make Sutton the success it is today. Now, the fourth generation of Boulangers is getting involved in the family business. This past summer, the children of Luc Boulanger, Director of Operations, spent their vacations giving the resort’s chairs a fresh coat of paint! Sutton, MY mountain resort! is the tale of a remarkable family that was, and continues to be, a driving force in the development of an entire region of Quebec.