Cape Smokey
Cape Smokey is a ski area located in the province of Nova Scotia in Canada. The resort is in the town of Ingonish Beach, NS.
Season Passes
Cape Smokey is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes work with Cape Smokey. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Cape Smokey's website.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Cape Smokey around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Cape Smokey Terrain Overview
Cape Smokey has a total of 16 ski trails, which are serviced by 2 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Cape Smokey is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 85 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 34 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.3 square kilometers.
Cape Smokey's slopes see on average 120 inches (3.0 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 10 feet every year!
Total Runs
16
Lifts
2
Skiable Acres
85(0 km2)
Annual Snowfall
120"(305 cm)
Cape Smokey Elevation
Cape Smokey has a summit elevation of 1,050 feet, or 320 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 50 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 1,000 feet (305 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Cape Smokey has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.
Summit Elevation
1,050'(320 m)
Vertical Drop
1,000'(305 m)
Base Elevation
50'(15 m)
Cape Smokey Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
45.9out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Cape Smokey has 85 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Cape Smokey is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 17% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 83%.
Beginner
17%(14 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
50%(43 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
33%(28 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Cape Smokey good for beginners?
Cape Smokey can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 83% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Cape Smokey Location
Cape Smokey is located in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. This ski area is nearest the town of Ingonish Beach, NS.
Address:
Ingonish Beach, NS B0C Canada
View on Google Maps
Website:
capesmokey.ca
GPS Coordinates:
46.62800, -60.42200
Getting to Cape Smokey
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Cape Smokey), its coordinates of 46.62800, -60.42200 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Ingonish Beach, NS to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Cape Smokey.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax / Stanfield International Airport | YHZ | Halifax, NS | 308 km |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Cape Smokey.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney / J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport | YQY | Sydney, NS | 59 km |
| Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport | YGR | Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC | 136 km |
| Charlottetown Airport | YYG | Charlottetown, PE | 210 km |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Cape Smokey, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Cape Smokey.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Eoin | Ben Eoin, NS | 505 ft | 36% | 73 km |
Cape Smokey Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 1,050 ft |
| Base Elevation | 50 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 1,000 ft |
| Trails | 16 (17% Beginner, 50% Intermediate, 33% Expert) |
| Lifts | 2 |
| Skiable Acres | 85 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 120 inches |