Fortress – My Kind of Mountain

Fortress Mountain becomes the 2nd cat ski operation in Alberta

After being down for the past few years Fortress is back in action with KPOW Cat Skiing. Photo courtesy of DOC POW/SnowSeekers

DOC POW

FORTRESS MOUNTAIN, AB — Big vistas and lots of natural half pipes jammed full of POW makes up a good perentage of the shred menu at Fortress Mountain, found just outside of Canmore, Alberta.

Did you know that, after years of being closed, the ski resort is now back in action?

KPOW Cat Skiing at Fortress Mountain has sparked skiing back up at the resort after being closed for a number of years. We have two superstars to thank for this - Leonardo DiCaprio and Joey O’Brien. The Hollywood blockbuster Inception was shot on site at Kananaskis’ newest playground and as part of the deal the production had to fix a condemned access bridge.

After being down for the past few years Fortress is back in action with KPOW Cat Skiing. Photo courtesy of DOC POW/SnowSeekers

However, you can’t get up there unless you are willing to walk or hop in with O’Brien and his crew for a day of cat skiing you won’t soon forget. Who doesn’t want a ski hill to themselves?! 

For those of us that are Alberta-based, this is a private ski experience that you can get out to and back in a day; when I went out it was about four hours door to door from Edmonton (from Calgary it’s an hour west of COP).

An environmental achievement

The Canmore-based O’Brien has spent the past four years becoming a skiing and environmental superstar by building the world’s greenest ski resort. The re-birth of Fortress Mountain as a full-fledged resort is slated to open in the fall of 2014, and he’ll be using a lot more than star power to fuel it. 

“We are sourcing the potential to include up to five types of energy sources (wind, solar, geo thermal, hydro and gasification - burning garbage into fuel), making it the greenest in the world,” explained O’Brien.

Fortress Mountain has seen lots of action from Hollywood – just take a look at these views. Photo courtesy of DOC POW/SnowSeekers

The resort, operated for many years by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies - the owners of Fernie, Kimberley, Nakiska, and now Kicking Horse - made investments into Fortress to build out the lifts and the runs, all of which are still there today.

“Come the new development we’ll be taking out all of these lifts and putting in new ones,” explained O’Brien. But one thing that will remain is all the epic terrain. The runs are cut; you and your mates just happen to use a cat to get to them.

Not just for experts

“Albertans make around five million ski visits each season, and 2.5 million leave the province for their fix. They typically leave in search of on-mountain accommodations and/or more advanced ski options,” explained Fortress President Thomas Heath. Fortress may not yet offer that on-mountain accommodation yet, but the advanced ski options are definitely there with KPOW.

And don't just think it’s for experts that have twelve friends. KPOW is set up to take ones and twos as well, and I’d suggest that if you can ski a blue run confidently you are ready for the cat ski offerings here.

“This was my first time cat skiing, and it was not what I expected. It’s easier than I thought it would be,” said Mark Parekh, who says he had no problem rallying 12 or so of his mates to join him for the day.

Get over to www.kpow.ca for the full skinny on now Alberta’s second cat skiing option.