Coming out of 3 days at Mustang Snowcat I probably needed a mellow day, but nice weather and snow inspired me to ski 24,600 vertical of Kicking Horse’s demanding terrain. There was little new snow, but it had snowed a foot in the past week. With KH’s lifts and topography the powder may get tracked out but it takes a very long time to pound it down to a firm surface, so in most places the snow was soft and forgiving. Only below 5,500 feet did the snow start transitioning to hardpack, and by that point you can be skiing groomers. On the upper terrain even the south facing snow remained packed powder. This has been true in all but one of my 7 January/February visits. From Golden here’s the early morning view of the mountain, with mist hanging in the valley below.
Weather was high overcast with sunny breaks. The clouds must have been fairly thin, because flat light was not much of an issue today as it can be on many of the upper steeps. Temps in the mid-20’s were warmer than usual but not enough to melt/freeze the snow. View of Blue Heaven from the top of my first gondola.
As usual I dropped into a steep bowl for the first run and skied to the Stairway to Heaven lift, then took a cruiser lap on that chair. View of the chair and south gladed side of Redemption Ridge.
View of Eagle Eye restaurant and north side CPR Ridge from top of Blue Heaven.
After the groomer and gladed runs on the Stairway chair I hiked the ~5 minute stairs + bootpack to the top of White Wall. Looking over the edge:
This is serious no-fall terrain, and since the visibility was better than it looks in that picture I found a reasonable entry and carefully skied down the sustained 40 degree run, probably Last Chance on the trail map. View from below:
I skied just to the right of the large rocks at left. 3 skiers are in the far right of the picture.
More skiers are coming into Feuz Bowl here:
These entries do not require hiking the stairs/bootpack.
The exit from Feuz Bowl has been groomed for a few years now. Riding the next gondola I was informed that there is a road cut around to the saddle between the Terminator 1 and 2 peaks. This took about 5 minutes with a couple of short walks to reach Super Bowl, which I had not skied before. View down Super Bowl:
South facing slope of Terminator 1 dropping into Super Bowl:
North facing slope of Terminator 2 dropping into Super Bowl:
Hiking either of those peaks is ~400 vertical, looks similar to hiking Utah’s Baldy Peak from the Snowbird side.
The Terminator exit trail is left ungroomed and was thus in mogul formation stage.
But with relatively low skier traffic they were widely spaced and the snow was soft and enjoyable.
The next gondola I skied on the south side of CPR Ridge
The exit trail Liberty was similar to the Terminator exit.
I then skied a north side CPR chute to the Stairway chair.
I skied a Stairway groomer, then went out Redemption Ridge to this chute into Feuz Bowl:
I took one last gondola, traversed under it farther than before to reach a south facing line that had seen less skier traffic.
Kicking Horse established a solid base on its steep terrain in December, but the locals said the snow got scratchy in a relatively dry January. There was a big storm around February 10, and with a few refreshers the skiing has been very good since then. This is a good time to check out Kicking Horse’s abundant steeps, probably matched only by Whistler in western Canada.
Weather was high overcast with sunny breaks. The clouds must have been fairly thin, because flat light was not much of an issue today as it can be on many of the upper steeps. Temps in the mid-20’s were warmer than usual but not enough to melt/freeze the snow. View of Blue Heaven from the top of my first gondola.
As usual I dropped into a steep bowl for the first run and skied to the Stairway to Heaven lift, then took a cruiser lap on that chair. View of the chair and south gladed side of Redemption Ridge.
View of Eagle Eye restaurant and north side CPR Ridge from top of Blue Heaven.
After the groomer and gladed runs on the Stairway chair I hiked the ~5 minute stairs + bootpack to the top of White Wall. Looking over the edge:
This is serious no-fall terrain, and since the visibility was better than it looks in that picture I found a reasonable entry and carefully skied down the sustained 40 degree run, probably Last Chance on the trail map. View from below:
I skied just to the right of the large rocks at left. 3 skiers are in the far right of the picture.
More skiers are coming into Feuz Bowl here:
These entries do not require hiking the stairs/bootpack.
The exit from Feuz Bowl has been groomed for a few years now. Riding the next gondola I was informed that there is a road cut around to the saddle between the Terminator 1 and 2 peaks. This took about 5 minutes with a couple of short walks to reach Super Bowl, which I had not skied before. View down Super Bowl:
South facing slope of Terminator 1 dropping into Super Bowl:
North facing slope of Terminator 2 dropping into Super Bowl:
Hiking either of those peaks is ~400 vertical, looks similar to hiking Utah’s Baldy Peak from the Snowbird side.
The Terminator exit trail is left ungroomed and was thus in mogul formation stage.
But with relatively low skier traffic they were widely spaced and the snow was soft and enjoyable.
The next gondola I skied on the south side of CPR Ridge
The exit trail Liberty was similar to the Terminator exit.
I then skied a north side CPR chute to the Stairway chair.
I skied a Stairway groomer, then went out Redemption Ridge to this chute into Feuz Bowl:
I took one last gondola, traversed under it farther than before to reach a south facing line that had seen less skier traffic.
Kicking Horse established a solid base on its steep terrain in December, but the locals said the snow got scratchy in a relatively dry January. There was a big storm around February 10, and with a few refreshers the skiing has been very good since then. This is a good time to check out Kicking Horse’s abundant steeps, probably matched only by Whistler in western Canada.
