Banff Gate Mountain Resort

It was first named “Pic de Pigeons” by Eugene Bourgeau, a French-born botanist on the 1858 Palliser Expedition. Many longtime Calgarians remember it as the hill where they learned to ski. It had two Poma lifts and the Calgary Herald Ski School, in conjunction with the Calgary Ski Club, held free ski lessons here for 500 children every weekend for about three years.

However, the hill was situated on a west-facing slope of the mountain which meant continual exposure to sun and chinook winds. In fact, the sunny open slopes at the top are a favored feeding ground for bighorn sheep. The hill only operated from mid-January to mid-March with poor conditions forcing its closure in 1968. It opened again briefly in 1979 until 1983 when it closed permanently. Although time, and trees, are slowly regaining the land, you can still just make out the old ski runs when driving east on the Trans-Canada Highway by Lac des Arcs.

Equipment was rudimentary in those days, with injured skiers taken off the hill on old Parks Canada wooden toboggans. A brake chain attached to the bottom helped slow the sled on steep inclines. There was a first aid hut at the bottom of Pigeon Mountain, but any major injury means a trip back to Calgary in the most unusual make-do ambulance. The poor conditions were most likely a factor in the hill’s closure. However there was a massive electric generator to run the whole operation back then, but it was wired backwards, and it blew out. It took out the entire Bow Valley power. It was sent back and rewired but it blew again the next year. That was the true demise of Pigeon Mountain ski hill.