Marmot Basin, Alberta

Marmot Basin is near the resort town of Jasper 4 hours west of Edmonton.  Like the Banff resorts to the south, this one is also located in a national park:  Jasper.

Stats

Real Vertical ?	2,500′, Rank: 46
Size	1,720 Acres, Rank: 50
Annual Snowfall ?	173″ claimed / 160″ actual, Rank: 96
Lift Pods ?	7, Rank: 36
Distinct Trails ?	83, Rank: 45
Review Date	March, 2024
Number of visits	1
Our Rating	★★★
Resort website	https://www.skimarmot.com

Marmot Basin Review

This resort is definitely hard to reach for us, requiring a flight to Calgary and a 4-hour drive through Banff and Jasper National parks.  The first part of the drive is easy freeway, but just past Lake Louise it gets interesting on the aptly named Icefields Parkway.  This wouldn’t be something I’d want to try in a snow storm, but on our trip it was sunny and warm so it was no problem.

In fact, Jasper was experiencing record warmth when we arrived and it was more like summer.  Luckily Marmot Basin has the highest base elevation of all of the major Canadian ski resorts, but we still had Spring conditions featuring ice in the morning and soft corn in the afternoon.  Being so far north and on the dry side of the Canadian Rockies, Marmot can be extremely cold.   If we had been there 10 days earlier we would have been skiing in below zero temperatures.  Having watched the weather for a couple of years we know that it’s notoriously cold but can warm up really quickly when the season turns over to spring.

Morning groomers

Marmot is high up in the alpine zone and has some great views.  We hopped right on the Canadian Rockies Express which rises 1,832′ vertical.  That was all we would get out of the 2,500′ vertical they have because the new Knob Quad was not operating when we were there.  We never found out if that was a maintenance issue or just a normal mid-week shutdown but if you go don’t be surprised if you can’t ski the upper mountain.

Because of the conditions, we could only ski groomers in the morning, but they do some great grooming at Marmot.  Most of the novice and intermediate runs were groomed, and even a handful of advanced black runs.  We had fun bombing down all of these, but wished we could have skied a little more vertical all the way from the top of Knob.

Food, Lodges, and the town of Jasper

The base and mid-mountain lodges seem just about right for a resort of this size.  We ate relatively inexpensive cafeteria food at the base lodge but it was nothing special.  We did really enjoy the town of Jasper which is small but has everything we needed including some good breakfast, lunch, and dinner options.  Definitely check out the Bear’s Paw bakery for some incredible in-house baked items like the scones.

The Paradise chair

After lunch, we skied every black diamond run off the Paradise chair since the snow softened up.  This was our favorite chair on the mountain.  The east-facing runs are awesome rolling, wide advanced runs.  For extra adventure, try Tres Hombres or Holy Guacamole.  These have to be the steepest single black diamond runs we’ve ever skied other than at Alta which doesn’t use a double-black designation on any of its trails.  These would be rated double-black anywhere else.  This zone has some of the only truly north-facing terrain at Marmot and the snow was still barely holding on to winter conditions instead of corn.

We never skied any of the actual double-blacks because they are seriously scary with rocky bands and sketchy entrances.  There is no lack of challenge at Marmot!

Great lift network

For a moderately sized small market resort, Marmot has invested heavily into their lift fleet with 3 high-speed quads and 2 newer fixed-grip quads.  Besides the Canadian Rockies Express and Paradise chair we already mentioned, there is the Eagle Express which serves more enjoyable terrain similar to Paradise.  This chair is tucked away and gets less traffic than the other 2 — probably because it has a limited vertical of only 1,050′.  It’s definitely going to help take some load off the other chairs on busy days.

There are also the 2 fixed-grip quads Knob and Eagle Ridge.

Novice and Intermediate terrain

Marmot has a lot of green runs, and most of the lifts have at least one way for novices to get down.  The School House chair is dedicated to novices but is a little on the steep side for true beginners just starting out.

Intermediates might feel a little left out at Marmot looking at the trail map.  There really isn’t enough intermediate terrain and a lot of what is marked intermediate is just a section of a trail that may start out or finish green or black.  However, a few of the black rated runs could probably be rated intermediate when groomed, including our favorite Porteus Way.

The good

• Spectacular scenery
• Uncrowded
• Lots of novice and advanced terrain
• Plenty of challenge for experts
• Great modern lift network with lots of spare capacity for crowds that are likely very infrequent

The bad

• Needs more snow
• Not sure what’s going on with the Knob chair
• Could use more intermediate terrain

The bottom line

This was a fun day for us, but we did change our plans after one day of skiing and decided to skip the 2nd day to tour parts of Jasper national park instead.  The spring skiing wasn’t compelling enough to spend another day without at least having access to the upper mountain.  We wouldn’t necessarily make a special trip to ski there, but there is a lot to do in the Jasper area and that makes Marmot a great option for a day if you find yourself in the area for a winter visit.  Although on the small side for a western resort, it’s got something for everyone and should put a smile on your face.