Calgary to Golden, BC Beta

Taking a trip to the winter wonderland of Canada, eh, in early February.

How likely/common are road closures due to weather or dumbass driving in between Calgary and Golden?
Assuming competent drivers and shitty rental car tires, should we rent an AWD vehicle?
Best place to stay in Golden? We only will be there for one night, cheapish but not shitty accomodations preferred.
Am I correct in assuming that road closures over Rogers pass to the west are more likely than to the east?
Any common ways to get discounted lift tickets to Kicking Horse?
Should we call it a toque in an attempt to blend in?
Anything else I should know about your great country?

TIA

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

Taking a trip to the winter wonderland of Canada, eh, in early February.

How likely/common are road closures due to weather or dumbass driving in between Calgary and Golden?
Common but usually cleared up in a few hours.

Assuming competent drivers and shitty rental car tires, should we rent an AWD vehicle?
Winter Tires a must (mandatory in BC), awd preferably.

Best place to stay in Golden? We only will be there for one night, cheapish but not shitty accomodations preferred.
I've had good luck at the Brookside Motel, you can rent a whole mini-house for a bit over $100. The Rondo if you're really short on funds.

Am I correct in assuming that road closures over Rogers pass to the west are more likely than to the east?
Correct.

Any common ways to get discounted lift tickets to Kicking Horse?
Costco has deals for 2 day passes.

Should we call it a toque in an attempt to blend in?

Anything else I should know about your great country?
Bring your touring gear and head to the pass if you get a chance.

TIA

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Thanks! Any advice on where to get a rental car in Calgary with winter tires?

We will have touring gear as the trip is a backcountry hut trip - only reason I'm interested in KH is we may leave an extra day on the tail end of the trip in case of weather delays.

we make jokes about the learner plates, they are Albertan eh?

marys motel is cheapish, great parking and crawling distance from down town, get a ground floor for easy in/out

road closure thru the pass just about every day it snows for aviy control

If you wana blend in walk around with rum n coke in an old fashion glass like Julian,

maybe watch all 9 seasons of trailer park boys to get in character

"eh " should go at the end of a sentance eh?

you don't need any guns here

We stayed at Mary's a few years ago. It was decent, not fancy but worked great for a night. $89 CDN at the time but likely more, now. I'd recommend it for a night.

I will also be there in early Feb.

You must rent a car with winters, and as far as I could tell Enterprise was the only company to offer this. You need to actually call them.

I like staying at the Best Western in Golden. Good quality and relatively inexpensive.

The technical requirement for BC highways is Winter (snowflake icon on tire) or M+S (mud/snow, M+S icon on tire). Winter = soft rubber and specific tread pattern, M+S = tread pattern but hard rubber so way less grip. If you get M+S just adjust your driving accordingly as you will have less traction.

It's bullshit that the Ministry allows M+S, it should be full winter tires only in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by gramboh

The technical requirement for BC highways is Winter (snowflake icon on tire) or M+S (mud/snow, M+S icon on tire). Winter = soft rubber and specific tread pattern, M+S = tread pattern but hard rubber so way less grip. If you get M+S just adjust your driving accordingly as you will have less traction.

It's bullshit that the Ministry allows M+S, it should be full winter tires only in my opinion.

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And make sure those M&S have most of their tread left. The legal requirement is 3.5mm of tread, but that's damn little tread for those passes.

And I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion on the full winter requirement for those highways that have a need to begin with.

I'm not really that worried about making the drive regardless of what tires are on the car. Here is America, where we have Freedom, there are no silly laws, and as such, I spent my youth rallying Colorado mountain passes in a FWD Buick with bald tires. That said, decent tires would certainly be preferred, both for traction and in case the Mounties chase after me. I assume that the Mounties are on horseback and carrying muskets and thus would be easy to outrun, but I'd like to be prepared just in case I'm wrong and they actually have automobiles, eh.

Once in Golden, we'll be spending one night then parking the car at a heliport for a week, hence wanting budget accommodations and not wanting to spend too much on a rental car unnecessarily.

Excellent advice overall from XXXer, although I'd like to point out that as an American we need guns everywhere, although the airplane won't let us bring them.

Did a similar trip last year. We rented a minivan from some major rental co (can't remember name). We requested winter tires and got em.

We liked Days Inn in Golden. There's an indoor waterslide. Nuff said.

You must ski KH. That place is unreal - so many steeps. Find the Coffin Trees and Dutch Wallet.

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

I'm not really that worried about making the drive regardless of what tires are on the car. Here is America, where we have Freedom, there are no silly laws, and as such, I spent my youth rallying Colorado mountain passes in a FWD Buick with bald tires. That said, decent tires would certainly be preferred, both for traction and in case the Mounties chase after me.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmD0YKEOh_0

Last time I was up there we rented an AWD Equinox without snow tires in Spokane. Had zero problems except wishing we had snow tires when meeting semi trucks on the trans can between Revy and Golden. Pepper spray is allowed as long as you tell them it is bear spray and not people spray and pretend to love Tim Hortons coffee.

Also Kicking Horse was my favorite mountain ever.

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Originally Posted by uglymoney

Also Kicking Horse was my favorite mountain ever.

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+1

Adrenalated, keep in mind your perception of shitshow on winter roads is skewed from our beloved I70. You'll giggle at how easy that drive is.

Also, this trip is a great decision.

With my wife having announced that she is going shopping for cabana boys in Cabo with her sister this winter, I'm eyeballing my opportunity to follow OP's tracks and wave the almighty United States Dollar around like a red white and blue, tobacco spittin', home-run hittin', pie eatin' patriot on spring break.

I had assumed Canada would designate one lane of all highways for Mountain Collective holders? If not, please report back if you locate a spot that will guarantee wicked good snow tires, eh?

Currently petitioning HQ and Ullr to do Lake Louise, Sunshine, Kicking Horse and Rev, 2/28-3/10.

Used to go down there for the annual jan 25th medical conference in Banff which was really just a Canadian taxpayer funded all expense paid trip to ski sunshine LL, KH, Revy

Eventualy I would give LL & sunshine a pass and then gave KH & Revy a miss to just tour at rogers pass

ski for free the dribbs and drabs as the park guy refered the nightly 15cm dumps at ski rogers pass

If you really want to spend the least on transport . Go to Golden Rides Shares on Facebook, offer money for a pickup at Calgary airport and return trip. People are going into Calgary all the time. Stay at Mary's or Kicking Horse lodge and hitch up to KH resort. Depending which lodge and trip going to may be a van in the morning to the heli. Or just ask if could get a ride with guides for $.

Would help if knew which heliport or staging going to. Donald or up by Great Canadian ( GAH and Sorcerer(ACC shares with Sorcerer) )

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

I'm not really that worried about making the drive regardless of what tires are on the car. Here is America, where we have Freedom, there are no silly laws, and as such, I spent my youth rallying Colorado mountain passes in a FWD Buick with bald tires. That said, decent tires would certainly be preferred, both for traction and in case the Mounties chase after me. I assume that the Mounties are on horseback and carrying muskets and thus would be easy to outrun, but I'd like to be prepared just in case I'm wrong and they actually have automobiles, eh.

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They manage the road snow completely different in BC than they do in most of the USA. They often just scrape it flat, throw some gravel on it, and call it good. They do NOT plow it to pavement and in many parts of the province they definitely don't use any sort of ice melter like salt or anything. When I lived in Revy everyone had studded snows on their tires are the road is basically a gravel/ice mix. Get winter (snowflake) rated tires.

Duno who plows yer highways down south but up here its all contracted out to private companies who may or may not be able to keep up

but like the man sez real snow tires and often studded,

I have seen rim/tire combos on a car that were worth > the car

cuz a trip to the ditch can ruin yer whole day

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Originally Posted by DougW

If you really want to spend the least on transport . Go to Golden Rides Shares on Facebook, offer money for a pickup at Calgary airport and return trip. People are going into Calgary all the time. Stay at Mary's or Kicking Horse lodge and hitch up to KH resort. Depending which lodge and trip going to may be a van in the morning to the heli. Or just ask if could get a ride with guides for $.

Would help if knew which heliport or staging going to. Donald or up by Great Canadian ( GAH and Sorcerer(ACC shares with Sorcerer) )

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ACC - so out of Donald, no guides. However we have other members of our group coming from Seattle so we should be able to get from Golden to the heliport no problem. Great beta on the Facebook group, thanks.

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Originally Posted by boardtodeath

They manage the road snow completely different in BC than they do in most of the USA. They often just scrape it flat, throw some gravel on it, and call it good. They do NOT plow it to pavement and in many parts of the province they definitely don't use any sort of ice melter like salt or anything. When I lived in Revy everyone had studded snows on their tires are the road is basically a gravel/ice mix. Get winter (snowflake) rated tires.

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That's exactly what they used to do here until all the motherfuckers from California started showing up.
We're high on beta to get winter tires, low on beta on how to achieve that on a rental car.

I'm pretty sure ACC shares with Sorcerer now whose staging beside the Heather Mountain Lodge ( close to Rogers pass). The ACC site for Fairly Meadows directions sound like GAH staging but pretty sure ACC pays or invested in Tannis's staging area. Anyway lots of time to figure that out.

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Originally Posted by boardtodeath

in many parts of the province they definitely don't use any sort of ice melter like salt or anything.

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They most certainly do use rock salt (and brine) on the Trans-Canada between Golden and Revelstoke. But when you have thick compact packed down by all the semis and is still snowing hard you don't want to salt it - they did make that mistake once and it made a hell of a mess - badly rutted compact/ice that had traffic down to a crawl until the graders could ice blade it off.

Don't drive 50k over, mounties take your car for a week motherfucker

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Originally Posted by Abol98

Currently petitioning HQ and Ullr to do Lake Louise, Sunshine, Kicking Horse and Rev, 2/28-3/10.

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I hit Fernie, KH, LL, Sunshine, a day of touring in Banff National Park (and a half-day at Norquay) last spring. Your dates suggest a better agenda than mine, but I'd strongly recommend at least two days per resort, even if that means skipping one or two. I'd have loved a second day at KH, but the travel plans were built around my gf's work schedule and we didn't get there until closing day. I also managed to put something like 2300 miles on my XTerra during the trip (driving from Montana to Fernie to Calgary to Golden to Banff to Calgary and home), it's easy to rack up a lot of miles on "relatively close" places.

[QUOTE=XXX-er;5150396}

I have seen rim/tire combos on a car that were worth > the car

[/QUOTE]

See that lots and it makes my heart happy. I had a VW Rabbit with snow tires, ski rack and booming system. Easily tripled the value of the car...

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Originally Posted by anotherVTskibum

I hit Fernie, KH, LL, Sunshine, a day of touring in Banff National Park (and a half-day at Norquay) last spring. Your dates suggest a better agenda than mine, but I'd strongly recommend at least two days per resort, even if that means skipping one or two. I'd have loved a second day at KH, but the travel plans were built around my gf's work schedule and we didn't get there until closing day. I also managed to put something like 2300 miles on my XTerra during the trip (driving from Montana to Fernie to Calgary to Golden to Banff to Calgary and home), it's easy to rack up a lot of miles on "relatively close" places.

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You were in Fernie and you didn't go to Casrle=huge mistake.