Kicking Horse/Golden B.C. = 4,133-Vertical-Feet of Gorgeous

Miles Clark | | Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions Report
A circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a Parry arc, a upper tangent arc, and a 22° halo. image: snowbrains

Today was my first day ever skiing Kicking Horse ski resort in Golden, B.C.

I was blown away.

Kicking Horse is the home to 6th longest vertical drop in North America at 4,133-vertical-feet.

Top-to-bottom gondola laps will give you the burn you’ve been looking for.

Looking northeast today. image: snowbrains

Kicking Horse is steep, continuous, long.

It doesn’t hurt that this place just happens to be absolutely stunning.

The views today were sublime. 

Alana climbing up Terminator today. image: snowbrains

The Canadian Rockies are jagged reminders of the mountains you drew on construction paper with broken crayons when you were 7 years old.

At the bottom of the mountain today, ice sun halos dominated the sky and gave exhibit to one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.

Today was saw a circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a Parry arc, a upper tangent arc, and a 22° halo.

Halo (from Greekἅλως, halōs) is the name for a family of optical phenomena produced by light interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs and spots in the sky. Many of these are near the Sun or Moon, but others occur elsewhere or even in the opposite part of the sky. Among the best known halo types are the circular halo (properly called the 22° halo), light pillars and sun dogs, but there are many more; some of them fairly common, others (extremely) rare. – Wikipedia

Rainbows everywhere today. image: snowbrains

The skiing was damn fun today.  Crunchy, chalky, old snow with a few centimeters of new snow on top that fell yesterday.  It was ‘good for you’ skiing.  You had to be on it, but if you were, the runs were long, scratchy, and fun.

The runs here are loooonnnngggg….

My favorite run of the day was one of those chutes on the west side of CPR ridge off the Gondola.  Chalky and smoothish.

Maggie above the clouds. image: snowbrains

Overall, I absolutely loved Kicking Horse.  The place is big, bad, steep, and long.  Chutes galore.  Plenty of great terrain and it appears that there will be some gnarly pillow lines once things fill in a bit more.  The lift accessed backcountry here appears to be endless and intimidating.

I liked Golden so much I’m thinking about moving up here this season…  The place is quaint, quite, cool, and cute with a lumberjack edge to keep it real.

With this being a la nina winter season, it would make a lot of sense to do a season in interior B.C.

Know of any rooms for rent in Golden?

🙂

SNOW NUMBERS:

image: kicking horse, today

FORECAST:

Kicking Horse forecast for top of mtn. image: snow-forecast.com, today

PHOTO TOUR:

The sun doesn’t get very high here this time of year… image: snowbrains
Sparkles… image: snowbrains
Terrain just out of bounds to the west. image: snowbrains
Soft spots out there. image: snowbrains
Amazing skies today. image: snowbrains
SANTA!!! & Alana. image: snowbrains
Gondola life. image: snowbrains
Alana and the spectacle today. image: snowbrains
Snowy trees today. image: snowbrains
Large terrain to the west. image: snowbrains
Stairway to Heaven chair. image: snowbrains
I forget where this was, but it’s cool. image: snowbrains
’nuff said. image: snowbrains
Looking west today. image: snowbrains
Looking south. image: snowbrains
Simply bizarre out there today. image: snowbrains
Stairway to Heaven chair. image: snowbrains
Snow on trees. image: snowbrains
Alana dropping into Dare off Terminator today. image: snowbrains
Ice sun halo.
Alana heading down to the gondola. image: snowbrains
Stunning ice sun halos. image: snowbrains
Two locals ripping off CPR ridge. image: snowbrains
CPR ridge hold some great lines. image: snowbrains
Gorgeous morning. image: snowbrains
Pillow forming…. image: snowbrains
Western views today. image: snowbrains
Lodge up top at Kicking Horse today. image: snowbrains
A circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a Parry arc, a upper tangent arc, and a 22° halo. image: snowbrains
snowy down there. image: snowbrains
Big terrain to the west. image: snowbrains
Local ripping CPR ridge today. image: snowbrains
Southern vistas. image: snowbrains
A circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a Parry arc, a upper tangent arc, and a 22° halo. image: snowbrains
Posted by Miles Clark |

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3 thoughts on “Kicking Horse/Golden B.C. = 4,133-Vertical-Feet of Gorgeous”

  3. Nice Pictures! I had my first day at Kicking Horse just last Friday – what a coincidence! I can attest to everything the story mentioned. I might add that the snow preservation here is hard to beat. Lots of chalky goodness when I expected dust on crust. More snow coming today and I’ll be enjoying it tomorrow! Shoot me a reply/message if anyone wants to take a few laps together.

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