• Home
• Destinations
• Calgary, Alberta
• Castle Mountain Cat Skiing

Castle Mountain Cat Skiing

 Enjoy the thrill of fresh, untouched powder with Castle Mountain's cat skiing—the only cat skiing in Alberta

The moment I took that right turn next to the big red stop sign approaching Castle Mountain, I knew things were a bit different.

There was no chaos, no one dragging their gear through a cramped lot of tightly parked cars. There was no inkling of pretension.

Trailers dot the outskirts of the Castle Mountain lot—it seems the locals try to stay as close as possible to the actual resort.

Small-town Vibe

Castle Mountain’s scene offers a traditional small-town vibe where liftees seem to know everyone on a first name basis. I quickly realized this place was filled with people who love to play in the snow.

Do you know that feeling of having to jump on a chairlift with a complete stranger? “This is going to be awkward,” I immediately thought.

I don’t know if it was good fortune, but I was not shy about jumping on a lift with someone I didn’t know. I almost always rode up with a local, who was quick to express his or her knowledge about where to go to have some fun.

Developing the Backcountry

Over the past year, a group of volunteers spent hundreds of hours developing the backcountry area of Mount Haig.

The labour of love has produced 16 named runs already, including Picture Perfect, Pocket Rock-it, Gun Slinger, The Gallows and Grassy Knoll.

But Castle Mountain’s biggest coup in this new cat skiing venture has to be the fact that this is the only cat skiing operation in all of Alberta.

Powder-rich Cat Skiing

For a mere $215 ($155 for season pass holders), powder hounds can ride up and glide down the mountain as many times as you can fit in between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. (Thursdays through Saturdays) in an exclusive powder-rich area away from the other sections of this impressive resort.

Having had the chance to helicopter ski at other resorts, I know the Castle cat skiing is an outstanding value. Granted, the runs aren’t quite as long as if you were dropped off on top of a 10,000-foot-high mountain, but—thankfully—Castle Mountain’s cat skiing doesn’t cost $1,000 a day.
 
There is something unparalleled to riding in untouched powder. The sensation of floating on air and hearing the calmness of snow traversing past your body is something so incredibly addictive, you’ll see droves of people hike for hours just to take one run in the backcountry. I’m willing to bet my entire allowance that you will not be able to contain your joy after your first powder run!

This experience is now being offered up to a whole new group of people that may have never had the chance to experience pristine lines. 

What to Expect

Once aboard the Huckleberry chair up toward Mt. Haig, it’s a seven-minute ride to the top. At its busiest, Castle hosts approximately 2000 people, which gives guests terrain ratios of well over an acre per skier.

But if you are cat skiing (and if you aren’t, what are you waiting for?), these impressive acre-per-skier ratios climb even higher—Castle Mountain sells just 24 cat skiing tickets per day.

Once you arrive at the top of the chair, you will meet up at the ski patrol cabin and jump in for a plushy cat ride for another fifteen minutes to the awaiting haven.

Arriving at this exclusive part of the mountain leaves you with a variety of choice for lines to descend. Guides will point you in the general direction from the cat drop zone, offering up terrain that is a smooth introduction to what keeps powder hounds constantly coming back for more.

This is the opportunity to find that floating rhythm that will leave you feeling buzzed. I guarantee you are going to have fun, regardless of your skill level.

Let’s face it. When your instructions for the day are, “Find some fresh tracks and have fun," how can you go wrong? I sure didn’t.

The Final Say

I finished my day completely satisfied and elated. I took my time while cat skiing at Castle (an average skier can do one run in about 15 to 30 minutes), but I figure you should be able to get in between four and six runs if you are keen.

If you can squeeze in six runs, you’ll sleep well that evening.

Trust me.

Check out cat skiing from the first person point-of-view, as David takes us down the new cat skiing runs at Castle Mountain from his helmet camera. Though it was a foggy day, David captured some great shots of what skiing above the tree line is really like.