Kicking Horse Ski Resort

Kicking Horse Ski Resort is a ski area located in the province of British Columbia in Canada. The resort is in the town of Golden, BC. We recently ranked all of British Columbia's ski resorts, so you can see where Kicking Horse stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Kicking Horse is not a part of any nationwide lift pass 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 with with Kicking Horse Ski Resort.

Kicking Horse Lodging:

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Terrain Overview

Kicking Horse has a total of 120 ski trails, which are serviced by 6 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 2,800 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,133 hectares, 4 square miles, or 11 square kilometers.

Kicking Horse's slopes see on average 235 inches (93 cm) of snowfall a year. That is almost 19 feet a year!

Total Runs
120

Lifts
6

Skiable Acres
2,800(11 km²)

Annual Snowfall
235"(93 cm)

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Elevation

Kicking Horse Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 8,033 feet, or 2,448 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 3,900 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 4,133 feet (1,260 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 8,033 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Summit Elevation
8,033'(2,448 m)

Vertical Drop
4,133'(1,260 m)

Base Elevation
3,900'(1,189 m)

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Difficulty Score^™
82.2out of 100

←  EasyHard  →

Kicking Horse is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, with a difficulty score of 82.2. This mountain ranks in the top 10% of most-difficult ski resorts in all of North America, mostly due to the fact that it has 53% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 4,133 feet.

Skiiable Area by Difficulty Level

Kicking Horse has 2,800 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Beginner
24%(658 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
24%(658 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
53%(1,484 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 Kicking Horse Ski Resort good for beginners?

This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Kicking Horse Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 53% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Location

Kicking Horse Ski Resort is located in the province of British Columbia, Canada. This ski area is nearby the town of Golden, BC.

Getting to Kicking Horse Ski Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Kicking Horse Ski Resort), its coordinates of 51.29787, -117.05090 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Golden, BC 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 Kicking Horse Ski Resort.

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 Kicking Horse.

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Kicking Horse Ski Resort, 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 Kicking Horse Ski Resort.

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Mountain Stats