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kicking horse BC

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Just got back from a trip to Canada
3 days at KH
4 days heliskiing at Mica Creek (!)
1 day at Lake Louise

I've seen very different opinions about Kicking Horse so thought I'd add my thoughts:

Good features:

1. fabulous advanced/expert lift-served terrain
A typical run would involve skiing either a chute or some steep trees followed by a cruise through a bowl to a steepish bump run ending in a fast carve down a groomer - 1400m from top to bottom. Return takes 12 minutes in a gondola. The upper slopes reminded me of Squaw and Kirkwood (Tahoe) but bigger (and better?!) than either.

2. very quiet
The lift system is so limited and the terrain so big in comparison that the slopes could only be quiet even if there are queues at the lifts. We skied over a weekend and never had to wait more than 3 minutes at a lift.

3. easy access to lots of enticing back country skiing
Not that we explored it

4. accommodation/eating out is pretty cheap

Cons:
1. You are basically forced to ski top to bottom every run. If you don't like bumps then this would be boring as you would find yourself on a winding cat-track for the middle third. If the snow was thin lower down then it would be painful picking your way down the lower groomers. We had great cover so no issues.

2. Terrible for families/intermediates. There is some easy skiing but it's limited and would be dull for any length of time.

3. No snow making - problem given its need for good cover lower down

4. Golden (the town near the ski area) is no Zermatt. In fact it is grim and dull.

Conclusion:
I'd say KH is well worth a visit for fairly strong/keen skiers (i.e. people who enjoy skiing black diamonds most of the time) who don't need to make concessions to weaker skiers. Certainly a good warm up for one of the heli/cat skiing operators in the area. It's not much over an hour's drive from Lake Louise so I'd certainly recommend a day trip or two if you were based in LL. For a longer stay, I'd want to know that the snow-cover was decent first.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Thanks jedster,

How was Lake louise?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
That's really useful. We were planning to spend a few days there next year (partly so we can go hiking with wolves at a nearby wolf sanctuary) but also to ski. I am an intermediate skier and although I can do blacks I tend not to, do you think there would be enough to keep us happy for a couple of days.
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I spent a day at kicking horse the skiing is fantastic and lots of chutes and couloirs of the terminater and CPR ridge when I was there the powder was nearly 24" in part. I agree with jedster, on the comments abouts beginners and top to bottom skiing. With poor snow cover this would be bad there are a couple of other lifts that don't go completely from the bottom if you are on the right side of the mountain you can catch these. I skied with the director of the ski school as a guide for the day and the plans they have are huge. There have been licenses granted to develop both sides of the current ski area in to the next valleys. Give the resort 3 or 4 years and the ski area will come close to Whistler in area this is probably a rather large boast on by them but they do have big plans and the finance to carry them out.

I had a fantastic day there although the 2 guides we had and ex racer and the director of the ski school certainly made us work hard.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Never mind KH, how was Mica? Very Happy
You picked a pretty good mix for a 7 day vacation.... Shocked

KH run a bus service from Banff, for those without a car, tho' when I was there at Xmas there was not enough snow....
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Quote:

That's really useful. We were planning to spend a few days there next year (partly so we can go hiking with wolves at a nearby wolf sanctuary) but also to ski. I am an intermediate skier and although I can do blacks I tend not to, do you think there would be enough to keep us happy for a couple of days


Annie,
Yes I think you'd find it OK for a couple of days although it would be a bit of an effort if the snow cover was poor lower down.

J
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:

Never mind KH, how was Mica?


What can I say?
Amazing location
Amazing terrain
Really nice atmosphere - small, relaxed lodge
A-star heli so groups of 4 plus a guide

The wind got up on our second day and made the alpine a little crusty in places (head guide said the worst they have seen it) and yet we had fresh tracks for >95% of the length of each run (35 runs in four days). The only place we skied tracked snow was on traverses to avoid a stream bed or get in to a little glade.

one particular run that we skied for the first time ever by anyone:

1300m long
dropped off on a peak
skied a long open bowl at 25 degrees making big fast turns
turned through a fairly gentle glade of small trees (slalom!)
dropped into a gulley which gave an uninterrupted view down 800m to the frozen river below
gulley steepened to 45+ degrees (kicking sluff/slough (sp?) below us
gulley opened up and eased, lightly wooded all the way to the river
picked up on the river bank

Should be pointed out that while the open alpine bowls are fun and very scenic, you really go for the tree skiing and a lot of this is fairly demanding (steep often, tight sometimes). I'm no superstar but I normally find skiing on-piste and off-piste very comfortable, this was quite challenging. You could go there as a strong intermediate but you would probably need to stick to the alpine bowls (which is fine as long as the weather is OK).

I've not got any other heli experience beyond one day at Whistler but there seems to be quite a buzz about Mica in the ski press (and lots of credits in photos). I think you can make a good case for saying it is as good as skiing gets.
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