Overlooking the town of Banff, Norquay is a decent resort for the intermediate rider. The North American double chair accesses some steep terrain, which also offers a good challenge of skill and endurance. The 1,300-vertical-foot runs are on a consistent pitch, but they are covered with moguls from top to bottom. It is rare to find snowboarders on this lift, because of the constant bumps.

On the other side of the mountain the Crystal Express (quad) offers up a number of intermediate and slightly advanced runs. The off-piste advanced runs of Sun Chutes and Sheep Chutes are fairly dense glade runs with more bumps. Most beginners start on the Cascade quad, where five short green runs meander to the bottom. Next to Cascade, the Spirit quad has 3 short intermediate runs.

Overall, most serious riders wouldn’t spend much time at Norquay with the other options in the area, but there is night riding on Fridays and the views from the mountain are first class.

Parks and pipes
The small terrain park is under the Cascade quad. Some decent kickers are lined up and random features are scattered throughout the area. The good size quarter-pipe with a box on the lip is a lot of fun, and the many boxes offer low consequence jibs for those who are learning.