Mount Kato
Mount Kato is a ski area located in the state of Minnesota in USA. The resort is in the town of Mankato, MN.
We recently ranked all of Minnesota's ski resorts, so you can see where Mount Kato stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Mount Kato is a part of the INDY Ski Pass system. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the group.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Mount Kato around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Mount Kato Terrain Overview
Mount Kato has a total of 19 ski trails, which are serviced by 10 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Mount Kato is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 55 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 22 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.2 square kilometers.
Mount Kato's slopes see on average 54 inches (1.4 meters) of snowfall a year.
Total Runs
19
Lifts
10
Skiable Acres
55(0 km2)
Annual Snowfall
54"(137 cm)
Mount Kato Elevation
Mount Kato has a summit elevation of 540 feet, or 165 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 300 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 240 feet (73 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Mount Kato has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.
Summit Elevation
540'(165 m)
Vertical Drop
240'(73 m)
Base Elevation
300'(91 m)
Mount Kato Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
38.6out 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
Mount Kato has 55 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Mount Kato is a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 21% of its trails as easy. However, it also has a fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 79%.
Beginner
21%(12 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
42%(23 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
37%(20 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 Mount Kato good for beginners?
Mount Kato 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 79% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.
Mount Kato Location
Mount Kato is located in the state of Minnesota, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Mankato, MN.
Address:
Mankato, MN 56001 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
mountkato.com
GPS Coordinates:
44.15000, -94.04000
Getting to Mount Kato
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Mount Kato), its coordinates of 44.15000, -94.04000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Mankato, MN 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 Mount Kato.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport | MSP | Minneapolis, MN | 65 mi |
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 Mount Kato.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester International Airport | RST | Rochester, MN | 78 mi |
| Saint Cloud Regional Airport | STC | Saint Cloud, MN | 96 mi |
| Fort Dodge Regional Airport | FOD | Fort Dodge, IA | 111 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Mount Kato, 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 Mount Kato.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buck Hill | Burnsville, MN | 1,225 ft | 27% | 54 mi |
| Hyland | Minneapolis, MN | 1,075 ft | 26% | 57 mi |
| Welch Village | Welch, MN | 1,060 ft | 30% | 70 mi |
| Afton Alps | Hastings, MN | 1,530 ft | 31% | 78 mi |
| Powder Ridge Ski Area | Kimball, MN | 790 ft | 24% | 83 mi |
Mount Kato Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 540 ft |
| Base Elevation | 300 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 240 ft |
| Trails | 19 (21% Beginner, 42% Intermediate, 37% Expert) |
| Lifts | 10 |
| Skiable Acres | 55 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 54 inches |