Kicking Horse has a cool name and a cool logo in its merchandise. It also has the fourth highest vertical drop of any North American resort, and four large snow-catching bowls to play in. The skiing is advanced, and when there’s a lot of snow (which is most of the time) entry to the bowls can only be gained by “dropping-in” over the lip. This is more frightening that it sounds, as most of the time the drop is short and the landing is in copious amounts of powder, but it still makes you feel like a little superhero. For more thrills, Kicking Horse is littered with steep and narrow chutes to get the heart racing.
image courtesy of www.kickinghorsemountainresort.com
Kicking Horse isn’t a massive resort (although it is undergoing substantial development) but for most skiers here the excellent access to the backcountry forms a big pull to this resort. The snow here is reliably deep, light, and powdery, with 7m falling at the summit each year. The planned development aims to “soften” the resort (wikipedia’s words) and to make it a more rounded offering. This should result in a wider range of pistes, more lifts, more terrain opening up, and better facilities, but it might mean that Kicking Horse loses some of its appeal to the brand conscious. Either way, it’s unlikely to lose its place as one of the worlds best ski resorts any time soon.