Norquay, Alberta

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Sunny, temps around 30. About 4 hours of skiing with a couple ski talk folks.

Norquay is steep, with a mellow runout. About a third of the terrain on the map was closed because of avalanches above the ski area.

But…a really fun locals hill. Great terrain, good snow, relaxed vibes. No pretense.

Started the day by navigating to the Mystic chair (far skiers left) and skiing those extremely steep groomers. They were pretty icy, so a lot of power slide on the E99s. As the sun began to soften them, more of a stivot or feather to carve.

Then, made our way all the way skiers right to ride the North American chair. It’s a super old double, and they have put chairs in groups of four to allow the chair to run pretty fast for a while before really slowing down for load/unload. It’s quirky but I guess it works. The views from the top of the chair were phenomenal. Just magic. Then, really only one open way down (limited by avalanche debris), so made a long steep bump run. Good skiing really.

Then meandered back to Mystic by taking a couple rides on the chairs in the middle and ripping some groomer. By now Mystic had softened and it was very skiable, but there were a lot of people.

Oh well.

Really fun day. Norquay would clearly be a lot of fun on a powder day or really if you knew the terrain well. Would have been a good day for a carving-oriented ski. Glad I decided to try the locals hill.