The Golden Eagle Express is over 11,000 feet long with more than 3,500 feet of vertical rise!View up the line from the cabin parking rail at the base.Even though it’s super long, this lift only has 55 cabins and 23 towers.Return terminal at the base of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.Riding up from the base.Towers 7-8.Poma Omega Double-stack drive terminal at the summit.CWA Omega III gondola cabin with Poma Omega T-Grip.Certain cabins are wrapped with advertisements.View down the line.Most of the towers on this lift are quite tall.Another view down the line.Looking up on a bluebird day.The top has a short maintenance rail and small indoor bay.Breakover towers just before the summit.Tri-leg bottom return stationThe last pitch before the top.Drive terminal seen from Stairway to Heaven.Top turnaround.Terminal underskin.Another view up the line.
20 thoughts on “Golden Eagle Express – Kicking Horse, BC”
skier72November 12, 2019 / 12:30 pm
As impressive as this gondola is, it would have been better if it had a mid station. Especially in the spring, when the snow thaws, it creates a slushy snow on the bottom half of the mountain. If the gondola had a mid station, it would make it easy for getting back up to the top of the mountain without skiing the lower half of the mountain.
Yes, a high-speed Catamount and a Bowl Over Express from the top of the Catamount. Skiing the lower part was awful last December. A Bowl Over Express would make make it very easy to lap Bowl Over.
Lift maintenance issues happen very occasionally at all mountains. No lift is 100% breakdown proof. Something to keep in mind before writing off an entire resort because of one lift breakdown.
I feel like it is somewhat the responsibility of the resort to ensure redundancy, so there is something to be said for that, but I’m fully with you about writing off entire resorts because of something routine and out of control.
This lift had to be evacted a few years ago due to an electrical issue. Some of the gondolas that were especially high off the ground had to be rescued via heli. https://youtu.be/Rcv5WfpMxSI?si=7wG3QD7Da9e50VUU
First time on this lift last week, really nice ride, you get so much vert, I was wondering why all the KH lifts have lower capacity than design tho. Was stuck on this thing for 15 minutes due to a power outage, but the power came back on a bit later.
March 10, 2025 News Roundup for the Golden Eagle Express, Kicking Horse BC
Today, the Golden Eagle Express gondola experienced a problem. One of the 8 person Gondola cabins snapped off and fell to the ground. The cabin was just exiting the load station, so it wasn’t too far off the ground, just a few feet.
Rescuers are called in and are evacuating the cabins. The one on the ground has still not been evacuated.
Looking at the picture of the failed component, it appears to me metal fatigue. The Winter Park Gondola was manufactured by Leitner-Poma as well. WP has a different design on the cabin brackets, much more robust. The failed component of that lift mishap also appeared to be metal fatigue.
I hope all lifts will be inspected using the best practices and technology to prevent any more mishaps.
Yes, but the WP gondola was a tower failure, not a hanger and while both were related to metal fatigue, they are different components on different gondolas from different decades as well.
Yes, I should have specified that they are two different types of incidents. The Kicking horse Gondola has been in operation for Twenty Five years. That is a lot of service, especially is operates at night and non-ski season.
Golden Eagle gondola May update: To respect security measures, all new hanger arms for all cabins will be manufactured by Leitner-Poma this spring and should arrive in Golden mid-July. Until then, all Summer ops will be done through the Catamount Quad.
Final Golden eagle update: All hangers have been installed, and the security authorities have finished conducting tests on the gondola and approved it for reopening. It will start operations tomorrow (sept 7).
Lift Blog 
As impressive as this gondola is, it would have been better if it had a mid station. Especially in the spring, when the snow thaws, it creates a slushy snow on the bottom half of the mountain. If the gondola had a mid station, it would make it easy for getting back up to the top of the mountain without skiing the lower half of the mountain.
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Or have a gondola, and two high speed quads, one covering the bottom half and the other the top part.
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Yes, a high-speed Catamount and a Bowl Over Express from the top of the Catamount. Skiing the lower part was awful last December. A Bowl Over Express would make make it very easy to lap Bowl Over.
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Yes, agree, the issue is compounded on spring days when the lower part is slushy.
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Originally, it was supposed to have a mid-station, but it proved to be too expensive.
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I was stuck on this Gondola for over an hour Feb2/20 it started and stopped all day. Was a real drag…don’t think I’ll go back.
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Lift maintenance issues happen very occasionally at all mountains. No lift is 100% breakdown proof. Something to keep in mind before writing off an entire resort because of one lift breakdown.
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I feel like it is somewhat the responsibility of the resort to ensure redundancy, so there is something to be said for that, but I’m fully with you about writing off entire resorts because of something routine and out of control.
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This lift had to be evacted a few years ago due to an electrical issue. Some of the gondolas that were especially high off the ground had to be rescued via heli. https://youtu.be/Rcv5WfpMxSI?si=7wG3QD7Da9e50VUU
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I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to evacuate a lift this long!
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First time on this lift last week, really nice ride, you get so much vert, I was wondering why all the KH lifts have lower capacity than design tho. Was stuck on this thing for 15 minutes due to a power outage, but the power came back on a bit later.
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March 10, 2025 News Roundup for the Golden Eagle Express, Kicking Horse BC
Today, the Golden Eagle Express gondola experienced a problem. One of the 8 person Gondola cabins snapped off and fell to the ground. The cabin was just exiting the load station, so it wasn’t too far off the ground, just a few feet.
Rescuers are called in and are evacuating the cabins. The one on the ground has still not been evacuated.
Thanks!
kickinghorseresort.com
Follow Snow Report for more info as it comes
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I believe they did a rope evac instead of running it.
Luckily, the cabin was only one meter from the ground according to the resort.
This incident is reminiscent of the one on Lake Louise’s Friendly Giant quad when a chair hanger failed at the bottom station.
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Looking at the picture of the failed component, it appears to me metal fatigue. The Winter Park Gondola was manufactured by Leitner-Poma as well. WP has a different design on the cabin brackets, much more robust. The failed component of that lift mishap also appeared to be metal fatigue.
I hope all lifts will be inspected using the best practices and technology to prevent any more mishaps.
LikeLike
Yes, but the WP gondola was a tower failure, not a hanger and while both were related to metal fatigue, they are different components on different gondolas from different decades as well.
LikeLike
Yes, I should have specified that they are two different types of incidents. The Kicking horse Gondola has been in operation for Twenty Five years. That is a lot of service, especially is operates at night and non-ski season.
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I think this gondola has a VIP cabin.
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I think there are 3, but anyone can go in them, no different that regular cabins except the logo.
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Golden Eagle gondola May update: To respect security measures, all new hanger arms for all cabins will be manufactured by Leitner-Poma this spring and should arrive in Golden mid-July. Until then, all Summer ops will be done through the Catamount Quad.
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Final Golden eagle update: All hangers have been installed, and the security authorities have finished conducting tests on the gondola and approved it for reopening. It will start operations tomorrow (sept 7).
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