PeakRankings singled out Kicking Horse Mountain Resort as the only full mountain to earn a spot on their list of the most demanding ski destinations in the world, a distinction that anyone familiar with the British Columbia resort probably wouldn’t dispute.
The resort’s setup separates it from virtually every other mountain on the continent, with the main gondola out of the base ascending more than 3,700 vertical feet to the summit. The terrain is arranged in a way that leaves most skiers and riders committed to a full top-to-bottom descent, too, without much room to bail out. Across a lot of the mountain, that descent can include steep chutes, cliffs, and couloirs.
They describe the level of sustained technical terrain at Kicking Horse as extremely difficult to find anywhere else in the world at this scale. Additionally the resort’s network of hike-to terrain adds another layer of difficulty that distinguishes it further. Boot packs including T1, T2, and Ozone require between 10 and 45 minutes of uphill travel and open up runs that match the steepness of the lift-served terrain while offering significantly less tracked snow.
The combination of long runs and accessible sidecountry means that hiking every other lap is common practice among regulars. Kicking Horse is open and skiable from late January through March with reasonable consistency.
