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Kicking Horse Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / 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!

Season Passes

Kicking Horse 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 with with Kicking Horse Ski Resort. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Kicking Horse's website.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Kicking Horse around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Kicking Horse has a total of 120 ski trails, which are serviced by 5 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 3,486 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,411 hectares, 5.4 square miles, or 14.1 square kilometers.

Kicking Horse's slopes see on average 288 inches (8.8 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 24 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
120
Ski Lift
Lifts
5
Skier
Skiable Acres
3,486(14 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
288"(8,778 cm)

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Elevation

Kicking Horse Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 8,218 feet, or 2,505 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 4,314 feet (1,315 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 8,218 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.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
8,218'(2,505 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
4,314'(1,315 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
3,900'(1,189 m)

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
87.9out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Kicking Horse is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, with a difficulty score of 87.9. 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 60% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 4,314 feet.

 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

Kicking Horse has 3,486 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Seeing as Kicking Horse is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 80% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 20% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Green Circle
Beginner
20%(697 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.

Blue Square
Intermediate
20%(697 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%.

Black Diamond
Expert
60%(2,092 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 60% 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 nearest the town of Golden, BC.

Address:
Golden, BC V0A Canada
View on Google Maps

Website:
kickinghorseresort.com

GPS Coordinates:
51.29800, -117.05100

Getting to Kicking Horse Mountain 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 51.29800, -117.05100 (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.

NameCodeCityDistance
Calgary International AirportYYCCalgary, AB212 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 Kicking Horse.

NameCodeCityDistance
Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International AirportYXCCranbrook, BC208 km
Kelowna International AirportYLWKelowna, BC222 km
Castlegar/West Kootenay Regional AirportYCGCastlegar, BC226 km

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.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Lake LouiseLake Louise, AB8,652 ft64%64 km
RevelstokeRevelstoke, BC7,300 ft97%86 km
Banff Sunshine VillageBanff, AB8,957 ft79%92 km
Mount NorquayBanff, AB8,038 ft47%101 km
Panorama Mountain VillagePanorama, BC7,875 ft71%109 km
Summit Lake Ski AreaNakusp, BC3,018 ft11%133 km
Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Ski AreaFairmont Hot Springs, BC5,200 ft42%137 km
Nakiska SkiKananaskis, AB7,415 ft58%138 km
Fortress Mountain ResortKananaskis, AB8,400 ft56%139 km

Kicking Horse Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation8,218 ft
Base Elevation3,900 ft
Vertical Drop4,314 ft
Trails120
(20% Beginner,  20% Intermediate,  60% Expert)
Lifts5
Skiable Acres3,486
Avg. Annual Snowfall288 inches
Kicking Horse Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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