A mountain at Golden in British Columbia with one of the biggest verticals in North America and a layout that puts almost all of it above the treeline once you leave the gondola.

Four bowls of open alpine terrain sit above a wooded lower mountain, and something like eighty five per cent of the runs are graded advanced or expert. It is a mountain for people who can ski, and it has a reputation to match.

Five lifts serve the whole area, so the gondola queues at peak times, but the terrain is enormous and spreads people out.

Golden in the valley is a working railway town. Calgary is around three hours away through the Rockies.