A free trip that combines resort skiing and actual heli-skiing is not a bad reason to fill in an entry form. Explore Magazine is running a contest with Tourism Golden worth roughly $10,000 CAD: five nights for two in Golden, British Columbia, two days of skiing at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, and a full day of heli-skiing with CMH Purcell — plus flights, transfers, meals and spending money.
Golden sits about three hours west of Calgary, wedged between the Columbia and Rocky Mountains. It's a working mountain town rather than a glossy resort village, and it's well positioned for snow sports: Kicking Horse offers around 4,000 feet of vertical skiing, and the area is widely credited as the birthplace of heli-skiing, with five ski resorts within a two-hour drive.
The prize breakdown is thorough. Flights to Calgary International are covered up to $2,000 CAD for two people, with round-trip transfers to Golden on the Champagne Powder Shuttle and local Connector tickets between town and the resort. Accommodation is five nights at Copper Horse Lodge. On the mountain side, you get two lift days at Kicking Horse and one heli-ski day with CMH Purcell — the catch being that both travellers need strong intermediate-to-advanced skills for the heli portion.
Food and extras are covered too: $100 CAD toward lunch at Eagle's Eye, one of Canada's highest-rated restaurants, perched up on Kicking Horse; $700 CAD for dinners around Golden; and $300 CAD for shopping in town. If heli-skiing isn't your thing, the town is also a base for snowshoeing and winter hiking.
Timing matters here. The draw happens on or around December 2, 2026, and the winner must book by December 10, 2026. Travel runs from January 4 to March 31, 2027, with a blackout from February 12–21 — so no Family Week powder chasing on the freebie. It's a sponsored promotion from Tourism Golden, so expect the usual contest terms, but the itinerary is a genuinely complete mountain holiday rather than a loss-leader. If you and a ski partner have the legs for big terrain and a flexible winter calendar, it's worth an entry.
