Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

So this week I cam back from another visit to my favorite mountain (Granted I haven't been to a million) and it was a lot better than last time that we were there. 

So a little bit of background, like the logo says, it's in Golden which is about 2.5 hours away from Calgary depending on how quick you drive.  It's actually a really nice drive out there, roads aren't sketchy, and there's nice stuff to look at.  Only thing is once you get into BC, the drive tends to be a bit slower because you usually get stuck behind a car.  As well if there's an avalanche through this area, you are SOL for getting in or out, but hey you're there for heading out to the hill right?  There's ample parking and a small day lodge, it's not usually a particularly busy hill but looks like more and more people are heading out there because like me, they realize it's friggen A.

The hill itself is definitely not a beginners hill as there are more black runs then green and blue combined, and then there's a handful of double blacks thrown in there for good measure.  Here's a trail map, they've actually opened up a new bowl there year too.

It's actually their tenth year this year, so they're celebrating the anniversary.  Not sure if they're doing anything special but you can always head over to the website here.  They've got this really long run called It's a ten, not particularly difficult, but nice as a warm up run, although you do need to get a bit of speed to survive it.  It boasts one of the highest vertical drops in NA, which makes for a hell of a fun run.  As long as there's lots of snow there it's fine to do whatever you want, I mean falling doesn't particularly hurt.  It's a little bit different than other mountains in that instead of taking a gondola up to the hill, you take a gondola up to the top of the mountain and you can come back down, or go halfway and go even higher up. 

It's actually quite a bit cheaper than the bigger mountains and even cheaper if you go get tickets at Costco.  Other cool thing is because it's a smaller ish mountain you're actually going to get pretty cool customer service, like for example I got free wax this weekend.  Just cause.  The other thing with Golden being a smaller town is that you have bed and breakfasts, which makes staying there cheaper.  I like staying at the Country Comfort Bed and Breakfast. It's run by a really nice couple and it's nice there, and close to the mountain.

So next time you're picking a mountain to make a trip to go to, make a trip out to Kicking Horse, you won't be disappointed.

~Cheers