Kicking Horse: North America’s Wildest Ski Terrain | After Hours Ep. #1

00:00 Cold open

Matt: Welcome to British Columbia, really a skier's paradise. It just gets better and better each year.

Toby: Kicking Horse tagline is the Champagne Powder Capital of Canada. I can honestly say, without my marketer hat on, that it's true. And it has the most chute skiing of any ski area in North America. As soon as you step outside those rope lines, it is the real deal.

Matt: It's the birthplace of Canadian mountaineering. A lot of people in the world may not know that. Just snows consistently through the season.

00:35 Meet Matt and Toby: why Kicking Horse

Viktor: Just to give you a little bit of background, I've been skiing in Canada maybe five or six trips so far in last 10 years, but this January was our first trip to Kicking Horse, which I always wanted to do. And even though the snow conditions were, you remember, it was like super tricky. It was after that rainfall in January.

People had a great time. So we wanted to do, like, a podcast on, just on Kicking Horse and cover a little bit of the backcountry skiing in Kicking Horse. And to introduce you guys, so Matt, you are?

Matt: Senior vice president for resorts at Canadian Rockies.

Toby: My role is I run the sales and marketing for Kicking Horse, as well as all the operations at the resort.

Viktor: Okay. I think this is good team to cover everything about the Kicking Horse. It's becoming quite popular. I've been hearing stories about Kicking Horse for years. And yeah, let's do it.

01:19 British Columbia and the Powder Highway: a map tour

Matt: Okay. Welcome to British Columbia, really a skier's paradise, Viktor, and this map will come together to show this is a very small slice of British Columbia, and a lot of people don't realize how vast British Columbia is.

So this coastline, you could jam in California, Washington, and Oregon, and you still would have more room in this whole span of British Columbia coastline. That's how huge the province of British Columbia is, and it's made up of 10 major mountain ranges. Coast Range, go over to the Columbias, go into Monashees, Selkirks, Purcells, and the Rocky Mountains, and this span of mountains in the middle here is really well known for skiing, but the true skier's paradise of this area in the world and world famous renown is the Powder Highway, which is really the region in this zone here.

Coming down to it, I'm zooming in between Revelstoke, Golden, and Nelson, and Fernie, and it's really this square kind of area in here. And along that highway, known as the Powder Highway, falls up to about 70 feet of snow in the jurisdiction. And an epicenter, which we're going to go down to, is really the Chamonix of North America, which is Golden, British Columbia, and it's the birthplace of Canadian mountaineering.

People in the world may not know that. A lot of people in Switzerland will probably know that. It also is the highest concentration of backcountry lodges. Over 20 lodges and heli-ski operators are based here. And it at one point had the most mountain guides of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides living in a community.

And this is Golden and Toby will talk a little bit more about specifically Golden and Kicking Horse, but surrounding it is also the highest concentration of national parks. So you have Yoho, Kootenay, Banff, Glacier National Park in British Columbia, all through this whole span of area and to the north.

You can see that on the east side, the high point of the Rocky Mountains, and nestled in between those Rocky Mountains and the Dogtooth Range or the Northern Purcells and Selkirks is the community of Golden. And I'm going to pass off to Toby to have a more discussion about Golden and why it's a special place and why it truly is the birthplace of mountaineering and now the epicenter of the skier's paradise, really the Chamonix of North America, which is Golden and Kicking Horse.

03:50 Golden: Swiss guides and the birthplace of Canadian mountaineering

Toby: Yeah, thanks, Matt. You've mentioned the Swiss heritage there. When the railway was being put across Canada and finally went in, that company, CP, brought guides over from Switzerland to take people into these mountains around Glacier National Park, which is the famous Rogers Pass area, Banff National Park around Lake Louise.

All of those peaks in that area and surrounding the town of Golden were all first summited by these Swiss guides leading guests from Europe and the UK and the US and Canada as well. And that was really the start of mountain recreation in our country, and that heritage still exists to this day. A lot of those guides ended up- Putting down roots in Golden.

There was actually a specific village built for them by CP Rail called Edelweiss Village, which overlooked the valley. Some of those families are still living here with their great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. And you look around this place and look at some of the maps, and there's peaks named after them, and even here at Kicking Horse, Feuz Bowl, which is pretty famous and where the Freeride World Tour takes place, and Rudi's Bowl as well.

05:05 The lodges: from ski touring huts to Icefall and Purcell

Viktor: Yeah. Swiss ski families had a lot of influence over North America. I know in New York there is, like, a famous Swiss ski club and, like, all the Vermont ski areas. All the runs are named by some kind of, like, a German, Swiss last names. Yeah, it's fun. But, you know what? Maybe you can explain one thing to me, the lodges.

You mentioned there is, like, a biggest network of lodges, and when did that start? When were the lodges built? We did two ski trips from Golden, where you fly on Saturday morning with a helicopter to a lodge, and then you do backcountry skiing for a week, and that was, like, one of, you know, one of the best trips that we had.

But yeah, I never know what was the main initial purpose for those lodges and when people started building them, and how many are they? Maybe you can give us a little bit of background on that.

Matt: I think one piece of this starts really, like Toby said, when the Swiss guides came and worked in Banff, and the original concept was ski touring huts, which really became Skoki and Assiniboine.

Viktor: Which was built for that purpose, for ski touring.

Matt: Yeah, purpose-built ski touring. But what we saw happen from that is it spawned a whole bunch of not only of the European guiding community, but also of Canadians. So Canadians started learning from the Swiss, and that was the early days of building the Canadian guiding system, which became the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.

But some of the Swiss offspring and some of those original Canadian mountain guides really looked to Golden in the early days of starting ski touring lodges here. In fact, the first luxury ski touring lodge, Purcell Lodge, was built in the '80s in Golden. If I could show you on the map here real quickly.

If you look at Golden and you go up to Forbes, is right here, which is one of the highest peaks of Banff National Park, in that you fly out of the pickup spot here, and that's the staging area, and then you go into Icefall, and Icefall sits- Back in this area right here. And this actually happens to be one of the coolest ice climbing.

This is Icefall Brook right here. It comes down here, Icefall Brook, you see it. There's Icefall Lodge up there, but he also has a lodge down here in the bottom. You can see the relief on the lines here, how tight this is. See these waterfalls all cascade off this glacier here, the Mons and Lyell Glacier complex.

Some of the most spectacular ice climbs are right here, Cerberus Falls, and he's got a lodge right in here. And Larry is pioneering a purpose-built lodge for ice climbing, which is quite unique. And I'll let Toby take over from here now.

07:39 Champagne powder: why the snow is so consistent

Viktor: Maybe let's talk about that champagne powder. Maybe you can give us a little bit of background why this area gets that such a good snow quality.

Toby: There's a couple factors, the northern latitudes that we have, and then the proximity to the continental air mass, let's say, that's generally cooler in the winter season in Canada here, but still on the edge of the Columbia Mountains where we were receiving more of that Pacific coast moisture. So that combination where, you know, the confluence of those two kind of major weather systems or climate systems leads to this area really having the best quality snow, that champagne powder quality snow throughout really the whole season until you get into the springtime that we're in now.

Versus if you move further west, there's less of that cold air influence, and so those Pacific storms can come in a little warmer and a little wetter. And the further west you move, the more that becomes the case. And then conversely, the further you move east, the more that cold air takes over and dries things out.

There's not as much of the moisture making it through past that kind of western edge of the Rocky Mountains. So as you move further east, there's less and less snow, and it's cold and dry, but you're not getting as big of snowfalls or as deep of powder piled up as you will find along the Rocky Mountain trench here, where the Purcells and the sort of wet Rocky Mountains meet.

So that's, I think, what contributes most to that name, that brand, and it's true. Before I moved to the area, I was always skeptical of any of those taglines you read. Kicking Horse, our tagline is the Champagne Powder Capital of Canada. And now that I'm working here and living here, I can honestly say without my marketer hat on that it's true.

That snow quality is there just about all the time. I'm originally from Vancouver, so the west coast of Canada or BC, and I grew up skiing in Whistler, Blackcomb Mountain specifically. So I was always tuned into big, tall mountains with the long runs and steep lines. But like I said before, that coastal snowpack is it's different.

It's heavier. You get a ton of snow, but it's not always that champagne powder quality. And yeah, about 10 years ago, my family and I decided to move here, not knowing really that much about Golden other than I'd had a couple friends that were living here and had been for a while. So I figured it must be good if they thought it was good.

And honestly, since we've been here, it just gets better and better each year. There's so much to explore, and the skiing, the quality of the skiing, and the mountain experiences you can have here is unparalleled. And there's not really the crowds to compete with as well as you might find in some other valleys or some other mountain towns around this area.

Viktor: Did you ever ski in Japan? How would you compare that to-

Toby: I've not been to Japan yet, but I would say that it's legendary for the snow, the deep, dry snow that they do get, and then that cultural experience as well seems obviously pretty unique and very special. I would say the skiing in BC deserves equal if not more hype because of what you said, the combination of incredible mountain terrain, big mountain terrain, with quality, reliable snow.

Yeah, it's not as deep as Japan. But man, is it consistent. We're not waiting for two or three large two meter storms like you might wait for in Europe or down in the US. Here it just snows consistently through the season and you may go a few weeks of dry conditions, but generally speaking, you're going to find some powder if you come to this area and visit specifically the Powder Highway and find that quality snow that people are looking for on these trips.

Viktor: That's my experience. We did a couple of trips in Canada and you look at the snowfall and the last snowfall was like two weeks ago and you think it's going to be a disaster, and then you find a great snow. We had great skiing, like without any snowfall for two weeks.

Matt: I think that's the dream of most people, skiing powder days after the snowfall.

And I think that dream's disappeared in the US, quite possibly because of the amount of people and crowds that they're seeing at the ski areas. I think we talk a lot to a lot of people that travel the world, and a lot of people talk about Japan, and they talk about the Powder Highway. And I think when you talk to people that have gone to the Powder Highway and returned, we're seeing more consistent return back to the Powder Highway.

Because if they may have missed it, there's a short window specifically usually in Japan, but in the Powder Highway, not everybody has the luxury of being last minute, so they have to book because of their family schedule or work schedule in advance. And those people that do book in advance usually have a better experience because of that consistent snowfall coming to the Powder Highway.

Viktor: Yeah, it's I think it's the highest probability of having a good snow-

Matt: Yeah ...

Viktor: compared to anything else. Yeah.

Matt: When you're in Colorado, you sit at 9,000 feet and the mountain tops are 10 or 11. But in British Columbia, you're sitting around 3,000 feet and the mountain tops could be 10, so you see this big giant relief.

It's that feeling of a real adventure skiing experience and a core culture of real mountain adventure seekers and enthusiasts that are equally skilled. Golden is filled with really incredible skiers and snowboarders. They're highly talented, they're super passionate, and they live, they really do live to ski.

13:30 Kicking Horse: terrain, bowls and the biggest vertical

Viktor: How many resorts are officially on Powder Highway?

Matt: Is it 12, I think?

Viktor: Yeah. Yeah, it was a surprise. I don't know why I thought it's like, you know, whatever, three or four.

Matt: I have to count it up, but it is the highest concentration of ski area, heli-skiing, backcountry lodges, and cat skiing in the world.

Viktor: But Kicking Horse is the biggest on the Powder Highway.

Matt: Well, Kicking Horse has one of the biggest tenures of skiable acreage and has one of the biggest verticals in North America.

Toby: Here, I'll show you. So this is a view of the terrain at Kicking Horse. And just back to your point, Viktor, of skiing good snow for days, obviously you can do that if you're going into the backcountry, or even on the Powder Highway you can choose the different resorts, 'cause Fernie may be getting snow and we aren't, or vice versa.

That is often the case, so there's always somewhere to go. But if you're in Golden for, you know, a shorter time and it snows and then stops, you have all these different ridges, like all these ridges you can see here. This is our restaurant, the Eagle's Eye Restaurant, which is the highest restaurant in Canada. Everything opens in stages after a big storm, so we'll only have maybe two bowls and one ridge open for one day, and then the next day they open the next area, and the next day after that more and more.

So up to five days following a big snowfall you can still be getting fresh tracks, and again, not competing against crowds of people to go out and to get them. And that's again what the nature of this terrain here really makes Kicking Horse unique even in our area, just to have the five alpine bowls with five or six different peaks that you can walk up and ski off the top of with endless line options.

Viktor: The ski patrol, that's how they do it. They will open like in one bowl, maybe next day, next second, okay. Yeah. I saw a movie about Kicking Horse ski patrol, and what's the term that you're using? The backcountry skiing which is controlled.

Toby: Yeah, I mean, it's North American resort skiing, but it's not really.

It's big mountain backcountry access, although there's ski traffic in it obviously.

Viktor: But even backcountries you have avalanche control and you're going to open the bowl only when it's safe to go, so you kind of control the backcountry terrain in terms of avalanche danger.

Toby: Yeah, exactly. But just to be clear too, the, what you see in this photo at least is not the backcountry.

Viktor: This is just the resort.

Toby: That's our resort terrain, or what we call our controlled recreation area. And everything within that boundary that we define, we do manage and maintain the snow safety within those boundary lines, and it starts at the beginning of the season before we open.

We send up our avalanche crews right when the first snowfalls start to pile up and they can move around on skis. We send up boot packing volunteers to help break down the early season layers in the snowpack so that we can ensure a safer, more reliable snowpack throughout the season. And then, yeah, like after storm cycles, the team goes out and checks and mitigates any avalanche hazard to make sure that it's safe or within our safe operating limits before we drop the rope and give it to the public.

That team will work as quickly and safely as they can to get that terrain open for people. Yeah.

Viktor: But some of these bowls are not accessible by a lift. You have to hike on the ridge and...

Toby: That's right.

Viktor: Okay, it's a resort, but it's off-piste terrain which is avalanche-controlled.

Toby: Yeah. Here you can see our resort map that shows the lift system.

So it's a pretty minimal lift system, but mighty. We have a Golden Eagle Express Gondola that goes straight up from the base to the Eagle's Eye Restaurant. And from there you can access two bowls and a couple different peaks going- To the south side that require some short boot packs, I'd say 15 to 20 minutes of your skis on your backpack or over your shoulder and walking up to get to the tops of these peaks.

And then you can see just these shaded areas are really endless lines. And you have Bowl Over and then Super Bowl, and then going to the north side you have Crystal Bowl, which is the most inviting spot on the mountain where we have our very few green and blue runs available for folks if that's what they're looking for. And then the Stairway to Heaven chair that takes you to the highest lift access point on the resort, from where you can then continue hiking to White Wall or to Ozone, where the Freeride World Tour took place, and even beyond to Rudi's Bowl and Middle Ridge.

So there's really days of lines and peaks that you can explore. And skiing at Kicking Horse is a big mountain adventure skiing experience that, you know, you will not really find... You'll find little bits of it at other resorts in North America, but not to the extent as we have here.

Matt: And it has the most chute skiing of any ski area in North America, so to put it in perspective.

18:45 Resort vs backcountry: the open boundary policy and guides

Viktor: But one thing that I picked up from, like, watching that video about Kicking Horse Ski Patrol is most of this stuff would be considered in Alps out of bounds skiing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're on your own. While you are controlling those areas and you are kind of, like, you know, opening when it's safe-

Toby: Yeah

Viktor: Even though you know you have to hike a little bit to get to that.

Toby: That's right. Visitors or skiers or riders don't have to carry avalanche safety gear with them when they're skiing within kind of the resort boundaries. So this red line that sort of wraps around the ski area. If it's open, it's safe and controlled, and you don't need avalanche safety gear.

But as soon as you step outside those rope lines, and there's signage, as you can see here with examples of our signage that we have around the mountain, as soon as you step outside of that, you are in the real backcountry. Not what some North Americans term the slack country. It is the real deal, uncontrolled, wild, natural terrain where avalanches frequently occur.

It's all very complex, and people really need to know where they're going, how to use their safety equipment, how to rescue each other, and how to get help. So our policy here is we have an open boundary policy, so people can go outside the ski area boundary without any penalty or anything like that.

But we try really hard to advocate and educate everyone that there is real hazard back there. You can die if you don't know what you're doing. And everyone is strongly recommended to hire a certified guide, like a ACMG guide, and then explore the backcountry and learn how to travel safely around the adjacent terrain next to the ski resort here.

And there's a number of options for people available to go and do that. Matt said earlier, there's the Golden community, I think still has one of the highest concentrations of ACMG guides and certified guides actually from really around the world that live and work here, play and work.

Viktor: So that was my question.

What's the percentage of people actually come here to do backcountry skiing compared to like overall visitors, skiers, and then how easy is to find a guide to go backcountry skiing?

Matt: I mean, it is really the epicenter of mountaineering and backcountry skiing in Canada, and it's really a place that is the jumping off point for so many adventures.

Some of the world's best, certainly in North America, ice climbing, obviously incredible hut ski touring trips, incredible traverses, routes. A lot of them all began in Golden. I would say there's hundreds of mountain guides who live in and around the community, and thousands and thousands of people because the hard part to really quantify that for you, Viktor, is that many people do a multi-experience trip.

It's really very popular-

Viktor: Right ...

Matt: to come and do so many days of skiing at the resort, and then they fly into a backcountry lodge and go ski touring, or they go do a classic ski tour route, and then they come out of that adventure, they do a day of skiing again, and then they head home. When you're at the gas station in downtown Golden, you're seeing people from around the world with...

dressed up in climbing, skiing, mountaineering gear, and taking off on some form of incredible adventure. That's what makes it a crossroads of adventure really in North America.

22:11 Beyond the resort: heli-skiing, cat skiing, snowmobiles and hut tours

Viktor: That's a great digression to our next topic. What else people do here? There is heli skiing. British Columbia is famous for that cat skiing.

People come to Kicking Horse. What they typically do, and how easy is to book another experience?

Matt: I think what, you know, you've done a really good job with 57hours providing a platform for mountain guides to get their adventures on there and get recognition for all that people can do here for sure.

And you can see the surrounding peaks just from the town, Main Street, downtown Golden there, and Toby can talk a little bit about that because I think it highlights that you are right in the heart of the biggest mountains in Canada. You're adjacent to any adventure you can think of and that can be done in winter, and they're doing it here.

Toby: Yeah. This is like the town center here of Golden with Kicking Horse and the Dogtooth Range behind it, and then if you were to spin around and look the other way, you'd be- Have the Rocky Mountains at your back. If you look north, you can see towards the mountains that Icefall Lodge is located in Chatter Creek cat skiing, which is pretty famous.

Great Canadian heli-skiing a little further to the north. So yeah, as far as what is available for that winter adventure out of Golden, like Matt said, it's endless for big mountain access. That's the one reputation of Golden, is that it's maybe considered the black diamond or double black diamond of mountain adventure.

But obviously you have resort skiing, and then you have really easy backcountry access from the resort, let's say. But as well as these hut trips into ski touring lodges, heli-skiing in abundance. There's day trip heli-skiing with CMH Purcell right out of town. You literally fly just above or near the hotels in town into the mountains behind the ski resort.

They have over 400,000 acres in their tenure to access. And further down the valley you have the original heli-ski lodges of CMH Bugaboo and CMH Bobby Burns, really where heli-skiing globally began. And then there's the cat skiing, as I mentioned, at Chatter Creek, as well as for non-skiers or skiers looking to do something a little different, you have snowmobiling.

Incredible developed snowmobile infrastructure around town with either guided tours or snowmobile rentals available where people can get out and experience that as well, which is in itself a whole other form of backcountry access, mechanized access, where people either just go snowmobiling for fun, or snow biking for fun, or they use it to access for more ski terrain and getting into unique areas quickly instead of walking all the way.

Matt: Just to add on there, the ice climbing experience. Checking out what Icefall Lodge has been doing with their hut that's purposely set up for ice climbing is even another option. And then many also stage out of Golden to do Rogers Pass, as well as trips into Yoho and Banff National Park. The old classic Alpine Club of Canada route, hut routes, the Wapta Traverse, the Yoho or Bow-Yoho Traverse, which from Bow Lake over to Yoho National Park, which you've got a couple or three huts that you can do that tour in.

So these are... It's endless really. It's the taste of Europe in North America where you have these hut, classic hut tours, ice climbing, backcountry skiing, winter mountaineering, winter mountaineering objectives combined with skiing. The multi-sport winter adventures really base and happen in Kicking Horse Golden region.

Viktor: Do they have lodges in even in the Banff National Park? Like ski lodges even in the inside the national park?

Matt: Yeah, it's the Wapta Traverse, which is Bow Hut, Peyto Hut. There's a series of huts that make up the Wapta. And then, coming out into Yoho Park, you can see the Stanley Mitchell Hut. So those are all coming out of the national park.

The edge of the national park which you would fly out of Golden for would be Amiskwi and Mistaya, Campbell, Icefall, all on that side, which would be the eastern side, which would be the Rocky Mountain side. Interestingly enough, what you guys talked about on the snow side, one of the reasons also why people really prefer the Golden for backcountry skiing is that consistent snowfall provides a bit more of a consolidated snowpack.

For the whole winter it's a better, typically a more safer snowpack for ski touring and climbing all winter. Whereas if you go eastern into the Rockies or further into the Rockies, you get some of those long periods of time where you have sunshine and not as much snow. So that's why the Golden zone is really a nice spot where people can feel really good about the...

'Cause these lodges that are on the edges of the Rockies on the Golden side, so the western side of the Rockies, they get the benefit of the Golden snowpack, and so that's why those lodges were located there. As well as they sometimes get some, and would you say that's a fair comment, they might even get a little bit better, a little more sunshine for weather for enjoyment of the mountain time, but you have a little bit more consistent snowpack for sure than going fully over to the east.

27:23 The resort map: lifts, ridges and the adjacent backcountry

Viktor: No, that's great. Maybe we can go back to the resort, and then I think we need to talk a little bit about the lodging.

Toby: Yeah, here's a good one just showing it from the other direction. So this would be the view off the top of the T1 or Terminator Peak, which is one of the areas that you can walk up to.

And looking north towards obviously the restaurant at the top of the lift here, and this area down here is CPR Ridge. And then this is Crystal Bowl and the stairway chair, and then here you can see the ozone face again, so and this middle ridge area into Rudi's Bowl on the other side. So that's the extent of the ski area, and then beyond that, this is the Rudi's Ridge area, which is the immediate adjacent backcountry, where most people, if they're coming to Golden and learning, maybe going on their first ski touring trip ever, this would be where their guide would take them, or they would be recommended to hire someone to go and to teach them the basics of ski touring, how to put on and take off skins and practice using their safety gear.

It's really nice gentle slopes in here that are safe, an easy introduction to that activity. But you can go all the way beyond really to All these peaks that you can see further north is all accessed straight from the ski resort, and then you ski down back around to the lift, and you can go do it again even within the same day.

This is from the top of the White Wall, so a short walk. And people may have seen it. There's this iconic staircase when you get to the top of the Stairway to Heaven chair, and it takes you up to the top of the White Wall. This photo shows the expanse of the ski area, and again, ski tourers and backcountry skiers can go beyond that to access some other big, long, steep lines and cycle back to the ski area.

So this shot, I think, gives a really great overview of...

Matt: Shows the good spines on all the chutes off the ridges going that direction too, so people can get an idea of what they're looking at.

Toby: And then this one is great too, just to show the Dogtooth Range or the section of the Dogtooth Range that Kicking Horse is located in.

Can see the ski area, T2, T1, CPR Ridge, the White Wall, and Ozone, Rudi's Bowl here. So all of that is the ski area, and then again, you have access to all of this for backcountry skiing. Just right there. And then literally all these peaks in behind is where CMH Purcell flies heli skiers every day all winter long.

Matt: And also back in there is Purcell Lodge.

Toby: There's a hut system as well south of Golden called the Columbia Valley Hut Society. They look after three different huts back there from McMurdo to the Dave White Hut.

Matt: But also I was going to say that we are looking at the peaks in the distance there, Viktor, you would know when you drive over to Revelstoke, so towards Rogers Pass and Glacier National Park.

Viktor: No, the drive from Golden to Revelstoke is, like, the best.

Matt: Yeah, for a North American drive it's pretty cool, isn't it, Viktor? You know, for mountains in North America. Amazing.

30:33 Lodging: ski-in ski-out stays and how to book

Viktor: Let's just talk about lodging maybe. When we were there we stayed in a really nice lodge, but it's fairly small. I think it can accommodate maybe 20 people max, but it was like, you know, super nice, you know, like a nice fireplace.

The host was amazing. We loved it.

Matt: Copper Horse I think is where you guys stayed, right?

Viktor: Yes. And I've seen the hotel. I haven't been accepted for breakfast in the cafeteria, which was nice. But yeah, I would guess, you know, people, you know, how big is the hotel and what other options people have to stay?

Toby: What we're looking at here is the main hotel accommodation at the resort, which is actually condominium style accommodation. Anything from a regular hotel room to two or three-bedroom condominiums or apartment suites with full kitchens. Obviously ski in and ski out as you can see, and there's approximately 200 beds in these two buildings, and then there's a third building just up slope from this photo that's right on the side of the run as well.

But you also have a variety of other accommodation styles at the resort, so large vacation homes that can house groups of 16 to 20 people, or smaller townhouses or duplex accommodation for, let's say, a smaller family group or a smaller group of individuals. What's cool though is really everything, all the accommodation that you would stay in at the ski resort is ski in and ski out.

We have groomed trails that take you to each of the neighborhoods and each of the streets so that it's the end of the day or when you're heading in for lunch, ski basically right to your door.

Viktor: In terms of booking accommodation, okay, the hotel I would guess, you know, has a website you can book. What about everything else, all those lodges and, or private houses?

Can people book that through your website or there's like some third party booking system?

Toby: It's a combination of everything. We do have a central reservation service that we offer, and we work with a number of the different accommodation partners to provide vacation packages for folks. That would include their housing, lift tickets, and then if they want to hire big mountain guides to take them around the resort or ski lessons for family members, that can be done Or people can book direct through those accommodators themselves or find listings on Airbnb and other, yeah, online travel agencies.

Viktor: Somebody was showing us, like, some nice houses behind that lodge and I look on the website, I try to find, like, you know, where to find, like, a house to rent for a family or two families.

But okay. So you can actually find some of that through your website. Now, that's nice.

Toby: That's right.

33:19 Freeride World Tour: how Kicking Horse got it

Viktor: And then I think that's about it. I think we skipped one question. Freeride World Tour, maybe you can tell us, how did you come up with an idea? How hard was it to bring Freeride World Tour to Kicking Horse?

Did they have anything in North America before Kicking Horse?

Toby: Yeah. Prior to Kicking Horse, they had been going to Alaska. I think they were maybe two or three editions in Haines, Alaska. There was a while back where the Freeride World Tour, there was two versions of the Freeride World Tour, and Revelstoke was a stop for, I believe, two years on that tour.

But then the Freeride World Tour just centralized and became one, and the only North American stop was the Haines, Alaska stop. And then in 2017, that was the last Haines, Alaska tour stop, and the opportunity was presented to us. Matt, you can talk more to this, 'cause you were more directly involved. But they brought the opportunity to Kicking Horse, and we made it happen from there.

Matt: I think they had the opportunity, it was out there. They were doing their research on what place would be the most viable, and it says a lot about the community of Golden, about the people, not... the ski culture, the collaboration, the working together, the really believing in what the Freeride World Tour was all about, really challenging, an individual challenging the mountain, doing the best they possibly can with their skill and speed, and I think that really fit really well, and the whole community really came together.

We could not do this event, it takes so many people, the magnitude of volunteers, the magnitude of both financial, the needs to facilitate the transportation, the movement of people, all of the stuff, ski patrol, the mountain side, operational side stuff. So it was a real collective effort to get them to Golden.

And thanks also to Tourism Golden, and to the province of British Columbia, and Destination BC. Everybody believed in a real vision here to really showcase that adventure spirit and the incredible mountain skiing that is offered, the big mountain style skiing that's offered in British Columbia, and specifically on the Powder Highway, and specifically at Kicking Horse.

And I think it really was at a time when the digital world was just starting to explode too, where better and better forms of video, live feed were just really being tested. And so the event really grew up with that, the age of the digital live event, and really became a brand around the world. The Kicking Horse Freeride World Tour was the benchmark, and you summed it up, Viktor.

It was because the athletes are hucking crazy, crazy stuff off these cliffs, and they didn't want to land in hard packed tack. They want something tacky and soft to absorb that. So I think for the athletes, they all really prefer Kicking Horse.

36:10 Wrap-up

Viktor: No, it's definitely more exciting to watch. Freeride World Tour is nice, but I watch it when it's in North America or Alaska because then it's really, you know what it's supposed to be, like great skiing in good snow, and it looks amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Great. Thank you so much for doing this and having time to talk about this. We are coming back next winter. I'm like, again, bringing a group of people. Woo. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people said that they want to go again, or some people that couldn't join want to do it again. So I think it's going to be maybe even a bigger group.

I think this was like a nice in-depth review of the resort. Yeah. Hopefully it's going to, you know, drive even more interest for Kicking Horse.