BisonGirlLife: Rocky Mountain Road Trip: Part 3

Did you read Part 1 and Part 2 of our adventure?

Day 6: GONDOLA ride up Kicking Horse Mountain, Golden, BC

The day started out with not much of a plan. A thunderstorm rolled through mid morning so we all sat out on the cabin porch to watch. Our North Dakota prairie thunderstorm are quite a lot more exciting than these mountain storms were. But boy oh boy did it smell good.

After the storms cleared, and after we had lunch, we headed up to Kicking Horse Mountain to ride the ski lift gondola. Before traveling to Canada I honestly didn't know much about the sights and attractions but I did learn from multiple people that, "riding a banff ski lift" would be a great bucket list item. So after just a few minutes of research I learned that the Kicking Horse Mountain ski lift was far more impressive (and significantly less busy) than those in Banff. Lucky for us it was just a 10-15 minute drive from our cabin.

Kicking Horse Mountain has the fourth highest vertical drop in North America (over 4,100 ft), with a summit elevation of just over 8,000 ft. Oh and for you skiers ... the average snowfall at the summit is over 295 inches and well over 15% of the ski runs are rated for "expert only." It's an extreme place.

So ... up, up, up we went. It was definitely a day for challenging my fear of heights.

As if gondola ride aren't exciting enough, this one also has front-row seats to X-Games-style extreme mountain biking.

These guys zoomed down the hill right under us, but one had an intense wipeout on nearly vertical sheer rock. We hope he was ok.

The town of Golden and the Columbia River wetlands valley down below us

We reached the summit and it was windy and snowy. Chilly to say the least. And my fear of heights was in full swing.

But the views were breathtaking!

In every direction. Mountains for days. The brighter green vertical paths on the mountains (that look like ski runs) are avalanche paths.

Kya loved every minute of it. Typical of her sherpa ways.

Gavin couldn't take his eye off the bikers. He was fascinated with their gear and speediness.

This photo is so special to me and I will never forget it. Corey and Gavin were on the middle bump, and Kya and my Mom were heading down to it. My dad and I were planning to chill at the top while the adventurers did their thing out on the ridge (with cliffs on each side!).

But at this point, Kya turned around and said, "mom, aren't you coming?"
I said,"yep, in a few minutes ..." (fully intending to stay put in my safer location)
Kya was quiet for a minute and then said (in a completely un-whiny tone) "You can do it mom, I'm right here to help you" "It's awesome, you have to mom!" "I can do it, so can you" "One step at a time" ...
She kept going like this, saying the most encouraging, supportive things I have ever heard. I totally need her as a childbirth coach, should I ever have another baby.
So what was I to do? I listened to my spunky 5-year old and started my journey toward her. She talked me through the whole thing, "one step at a time." And she was totally right, it was SO WORTH IT.
So we snapped a few photos out on the pinnacle of death (as I was referring to it in my mind). And then we started back up to the summit. Kya looked over at me and said, "don't give up on this mountain!" Ha. Like I was going to spend any more time out there than I needed to.
We raced to the top. Safely. In the absolute center of the trail. Single-file. Haha. I may or may not have been a little nervous mama with my two squirmy kids out on a cliff.