Everything You Need to Know About Kicking Horse

By Kate McRobie Last updated March 23, 2026

Kicking Horse is a BC resort that attracts rave reviews for its ‘Champagne’ powder and leg burning vertical – boasting the fourth longest vertical in North America with 1260m. Kicking Horse also has a strong reputation as a destination for hardcore skiers and boarders, with 45% of runs being considered black runs and 15% dubbed double black diamonds (and they really aren’t kidding!). Four lifts enable access to 1,133 hectares of inbound terrain, and four main bowls dissected by a number of ridges fan down into one open face, providing a total of 120 runs all up.

Ski & Snowboard Runs for Days!

Nowhere else can you ride a single gondola right to the summit, providing stunning views of the Rocky Mountains and surrounding national parks, as well as easy access to alpine ridges and bowls. These same ridges and bowls keep the snow stashed deeper and longer, which is why they’re the self proclaimed ‘Champagne Powder Capital of Canada™’. From steep and gnarly chutes, to fast and fun glades, and smooth and gentle groomers, there’s something here for everyone.

View of Eagle Eyes Restaurant, Kicking Horse

Access

A stunning scenic drive brings you to a world-class skiing destination, so well-hidden and unknown that most travellers drive right past it… leaving the lucky to enjoy the many pleasures of this undiscovered paradise: Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, the best kept secret in the Rockies!

Finding Kicking Horse isn’t hard if you know where to look. The resort is just 1.5 hours west of Banff (145 km) and 2.5 hours west of Calgary (270 km) on the Trans-Canada highway. Planning on visiting during the summer months? Its also RV-friendly – park overnight for free!

Restaurant & Après

Take a gondola to the top of the mountain and discover Canada’s most talked about culinary experience and the crown jewel of resort dining. No visit to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is complete without a quintessential mountaintop dining experience at Eagle’s Eye Restaurant. Naturally, it’s very popular, so reservations are highly recommended. Each winter Eagle’s Eye plays host to several special dining events – so stay tuned.

The Whitetooth Grill in the Day Lodge, named in honour of the original local ski hill, is the place to get homemade comfort food anytime of the day. It is open every morning serving a full cooked breakfast. You can also drop in for a gourmet burger, signature pizzas or simply enjoy a cold beer in between laps during the day.

If yurt dining is more your thing, check out Heaven’s Door Yurt, which offers up funky mountain soul food with international influences. Located at the base of Stairway to Heaven chairlift. In the village check out Copperhouse Steakhouse, Peaks Grill, Winston Bar and Bistro and Peaks Grill.

Non Skiing Activities

Winter is a magical time to be in the mountains and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort has everything you need to keep your family’s adventure entertaining and exciting. Discover the amazing range of activities from heli-skiing and snowshoeing to cross country skiing or sliding in the tube park with the family.

If you like the sound of Kicking Horse and want to visit it yourself then click here to see our latest packages or here to make an enquiry for a quote.

Kate McRobie

Marketing and Brand Manager

Kate McRobie is a digital marketing specialist with over ten years' experience across New Zealand, Amsterdam and Japan in the sports and snow industries, including campaigns for Netflix, Under Armour, Giant Bicycles and Vans. She spent two back-to-back seasons based in Niseko, Japan, heading up marketing for HTM across some of the region's largest hotels, ski schools, rental operations and restaurants.

nicky sullivan

Lizzie was so helpful, gave us some options and advice to help us pinpoint where we wanted to go. And once we had booked provided some really helpful travel advice and answering questions we had. Easy to deal with, everything was smooth and we had a great time.

Shelly Drewitz

Calum was awesome at helping us every step of the way with our trip. We got a great deal on the accommodation and ski lift, and we will definitely come back to Mountainwatch next time based on his excellent service.

Mark K Grant

I booked my Japan ski holiday through Mountainwatch. Very professional and when we arrived in Japan all was laid out for us. The accommodation was even nicer than expected. KIrsty was very good to work with and made things very easy!!!! will book again next season.

Jess

Great experience booking through this company, our contact Anna was brilliant, and organised a fantastic ski trip for us. The travel was all clearly laid out, the accommodation was lovely, the ski field was fantastic, great range of local dining options and bars.

Brett A

Mountain Watch are great, well organised and excellent advice on locations and accommodation. Highly recommended!

darren martin

Thanks Kirsty for helping arrange our family trip to Myoko for Xmas 2025, we had an amazing time

Jan Kelly

Thanks Kirsty, once again your arrangements for us in Japan worked very well. We’ll have no hesitation about touching base with you before we make another booking….. not sure if we’ll be organised by June, but we’ll see. Have a great season yourself and keep up the good work at MountainWatch. Regards Jan and Tom

Samantha Farr

Our trip to Hakuba and Tokyo was so smooth and easy thanks to the help of Justine. Hotel was great and in a perfect location and it was very smooth having all our extras like lessons and rentals booked and sorted before we arrived. Would 100% book through Mountainwatch Travel again!

John Durham

This is the second year that Kristy has organized travel arrangements for a skiing holiday to Furano in Japan, for us. It is the second time that those arrangements have been fulfilled seamlessly. No hassles, as planned and on time. Perfect, and will use Mountainwatchj Travel again. John Durham

Simone B

We booked through Anna O’Malley for our stay in Nozawa onsen Village in Japan. Seamless service, prompt, and pricing reasonable. The Shimataya View Hotel, was a lovely stay. Room size was large, great views, and Amazing service from Staff. Momoi and Eloisa couldn’t help enough- from dinner reservations to organising luggage to Tokyo. Property is older, though clean, well maintained. 10 min walk to slopes, 5 min walk to village centre. I recommend Mountain Watch, and this property. Photos are the view from our room.

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Everything You Need to Know About Kicking Horse

Ski & Snowboard Runs for Days!

Access

Restaurant & Après

Non Skiing Activities

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