We were so glad that we finally made it to Marmot Basin and Jasper! We’d heard a lot about the beauty of the place and thought we’d definitely better check it out.

Our thoughts on some of the pros and cons of Marmot Basin Jasper are outlined on the overview page, but the scenery was an obvious pro and the drive from Lake Louise up to Jasper was just completely wow, wow, and wow!! And the Maligne Canyon ice walk with Sundog Tours was also a highlight in the scenery stakes.

With respect to the weather, we scored some great diversity. On our first day, it was a ridiculous -38 degrees Celsius on the way up the road to Marmot and thankfully a little bit warmer up at the ski resort. Not surprisingly, there was barely anyone at the resort, the perfectly fresh ‘roys were amazing, and the snow quality was phenomenal! A couple of days later, it was a powder day (and much warmer) and it seemed that half of Jasper headed up the hill to get the freshies. The snow quality was beautiful but the lift lines at the Knob Chair were far from beautiful (possibly made a little worse because Eagle East was closed), and without any corralling to the lift, the lift line etiquette was very atypical for Canada.

Also see our Canada ski resorts ratings to see how we rated Marmot Basin versus other Canada ski resorts.
See our video here

Marmot basing is a great resort for those who hate waiting in lifts lines, can deal with a little bit less terrain than a big BC or Alberta ski resort and loves the beauty of the mountains in Jasper. Marmot basin has many runs for intermediate and beginners as well as for experts. Marmot basin is often over looked, however I find that the mountain has excellent terrain that can challenge even an expert rider. At the top of marmot basin there are many options oyu can take a cruiser blue run, choose from a wide range of black and double black diamond trail or hike up to the peak of the mountain which takes around 40 minutes. The hike to the peaks provides access to deep untouched powder, some huge cliffs and some steep and technical terrain and some unbelievable views that cannot be beaten. I found that the hike was one of my favorite runs runs there because of the deeo snow and the amazing cliffs to drop. IF you are looking for another great hike that provides you with some extremely steep challenging terrain you can do the cornice hike. This hike is accessed from the eagle ridge chair. Another run accessed by the same hike is called thunder bowl, thunder bowl is a bowl that was nicknamed after the lone male caribou that lives on marmot mountain and he is often seen around thunder bowl.( I saw him from the top of the canadian rockies express chair on the out of bounds terrain on the other side of the mountain. Thunder bowl is a fairly steep run where you can sometimes find good snow and turns. Another amazing part of the mountain that is accessed by the eagle ridge chair is the eagle eats area which can offer great untracked snow, some amazing expert terrain and the odd cliff drop. If you are looking for some challenging expert terrain in the trees you can can go to eagle east or the trees on your left as you go up the paradise chair you may see riders charging through the trees and dropping cliffs in this area I found lots of snow and technical terrain including cliff drops and pillows if you can find them. If found the terrain at marmot basin to be very good for expert and advanced riders as well for beginners and intermediates. The hill provides a lodge ad bar at the bottom of the hill as well as a mid mountain lodge which can get very busy so if you plan to eat lunch there have an early lunch or a late lunch.The amazing views, incredible skiing and the good times are all worth the 15 mintue drive from the town of Jasper. I find that the only thing that could make this mountain better would be to provide on mountain accommodations, however because it is in a national park the resort is not allowed ot build more buildings or expand their terrain like many of the big resorts in BC. If you are driving to marmot basin from Banff I would recomend driving through the national parks Banff and Jasper if the road conditions are good, because the views are indescribably good.
See our video here