Marmot Basin Skiing Terrain

The skiing and snowboarding at the Jasper Ski Resort (Marmot Basin) is a jack of all trades (and probably a master of none). The Marmot Jasper Ski Resort is good across the board and an all-rounder ski resort with decent terrain for all ability levels, without having exceptional terrain for any one skill domain.

The strengths of the Marmot Ski Resort probably lie in its beginner terrain as well as the advanced ungroomed terrain, particularly for those just starting to master black runs.

Lifts

The lift infrastructure at the Marmot Basin Jasper Ski Resort is decent considering the terrain on offer.

The Canadian Rockies Express Quad Chair is delightfully long and a great way to get a lot of vertical in very speedily! The only downside for intermediate and above riders is that all runs get funnelled into beginner slopes to reload the speedy chair.

The only frustratingly slow chair is the Knob Chair. Most of the time this isn’t a problem, except on a powder day when you notice that they can’t load every chair and a ridiculously long lift queue ensues.

Lift Tickets

Lift tickets prices at the Marmot Ski Resort are middle of the road for Canada. For beginners that only use the lower chair lifts, the lift ticket prices are very inexpensive.

Marmot Basin Snow

Marmot Basin receives an average of 4 metres of snow, which isn’t a lot especially when you consider the snowfall is spread across a very long season. Snowfalls tend to come in small to medium dribbles rather than big dumps. To top up the snow near the base area, there is a little bit of snowmaking.

Thankfully the quality of the snow is well maintained due to the aspect of many of the slopes, the high base elevation (1,698 metres), and the cold temperatures, which is also why the Marmot ski resort enjoys a very long season (November to May).

Beginner Skiing Marmot Basin

Marmot Basin is a very good ski resort for beginners. Complete novices can start on the magic carpet right out the front of the day lodge and progress to the School House Chair which services about 6 beginner trails. At least a few of these runs have massive signage at the top to deter faster skiers from using these trails for access to the base, or as a minimum to ensure they keep their speed to a minimum. Jasper Ski Resort also has a handful of trails further up the hill, where beginners can explore a bit more.

Intermediate Skiing & Snowboarding Marmot

The Marmot Basin skiing is just OK for intermediates, and whilst you’d be unlikely to complain about the blue runs, there are much better ski resorts in Canada for cruising on blue runs.

Whilst the official trail stats are 30% for intermediates, it feels less than this in reality and there is only one blue run (cat track) that runs the full length of a lift. Most blue trails start with a green or black run, and terminate into a green run.

Terrain Park

The Marmot Basin terrain park is small to medium sized, and includes rails and boxes, and some moderate sized jumps. There are also some rails further up the mountain on the S-Turns run.

Advanced Skiing On-Piste

A black run under the Paradise Chair may be groomed, otherwise the black piste is left ungroomed. The moguls on the cut trails near Paradise are not likely to get flattened on a powder day with the usually small volume snowfalls at Marmot, so bring your best knee cartilage. Conversely the upper parts of Paradise and the terrain off the Knob chair tend to be much more fun on a powder day.

Most of the zones off the Knob chair are ideal for advanced riders, with the exception of the little chutes that are close to the skiers’ left boundary. These are not super gnarly but they might not suit your average advanced skier or snowboarder.

A hike from the Knob Chair up to the top of Marmot Peak opens up a large bowl to skiers’ left which is reasonably mellow and generally has a dearth of tracks.

Advanced Off Piste Skiing and Riding

So once the moguls develop on the cut trails you might want to head to the trees. There are lots of patches where you can just go in for a quick experiment without having to make too much commitment. Longer lines of trees can be found in the Chalet Slope region off the Eagle Ridge Quad Chair, although when we visited there were quite a lot of moguls in this area too, which a decent dump of snow didn’t completely cover up.

Expert Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Most of the double black diamond terrain is in Eagle East which can be accessed off the Eagle Ridge chair lift. The terrain it pitchy, has plenty of rocky features, and further down it provides some great tree skiing. Unfortunately when we visited the whole area was closed due to a lack of snow.

Sidecountry and Backcountry

Huge opportunities for backcountry skiing don’t present themselves readily at Marmot Basin. There are a few backcountry skiing spots from the top of Marmot Peak, but you can’t drop into the Saddle Area (if there’s enough snow cover) as the resort considers this a closed area due to avalanche risk.

Tres Hombres to skiers’ left of the resort provides some good sidecountry with easy egress back into the resort, although this is also considered a closed area by the resort due to national park considerations.