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Lake Louise

ThinkSnow

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Considering a trip to ski Lake Louise for the 19-20 season. Has anyone ever been?

Will be traveling with non-skiers, so I am interested to know what there is to do other than ski.

Also, interested in knowing what snow conditions might be like in January? Thanks!
 

Razor

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Considering a trip to ski Lake Louise for the 19-20 season. Has anyone ever been?

Will be traveling with non-skiers, so I am interested to know what there is to do other than ski.

Also, interested in knowing what snow conditions might be like in January? Thanks!


Went out there about 10 years ago. Spent 4 nights at the Chateau Lake Louise and 4 nights at the Banff Springs Hotel. Snow should be good in January, but make sure that you bring your long johns. Lake Louise is a great ski area. It's not as extreme as a Jackson Hole, but it has some of everything, like trees and bowls. You have to ski Sunshine Village, too, if you go there. The town of Banff is awesome. Incredible scenery and lots to do. No ski in/out at Lake Louise, so you'll be driving every day or taking a shuttle. Drive there from Calgary is exceptionally scenic.
 

chrisbk

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try to sneak in a day at kicking horse if you can. it's about 1.5hr west. it's amazing. not a lot for non-skiers there compared to Banff.
 

tekweezle

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I went there in January 2017 during a low snow year. As a result we were cruising on frozen hardpack. It was frigid and bitterly cold and I broke a binding crashing in an icy mogul. You might want to consider going in March April instead and give mother nature a chance to cover those slopes. I have this feeling that it's about the same weather temp wise as Tremblant and Whiteface.

As for what to do there, there's a hotel on the lake with some frozen ice sculptures. There's a small indian casino not far away, we took a shuttle bus to it from in town-buffet dinner was okay. There are charter buses to Kicking horse available. Revelstoke is about 3 hours away.
 

tekweezle

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Another thing to add.... The inexpensive hotel/motels are setup a bit like Jackson hole. You stay in town and take free shuttle/charter buses to the mountains about 25 minutes away. So I skied at Sunshine Village and Lake Louise. So if you take an airport shuttle to the hotel, no need to rent a car.
 

BenedictGomez

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I loved how craggly their mountains are. It's been a while, but I thoroughly enjoyed the back bowls. I was there in January of a poor snow year, so anything not groomed was firm and icy, which stinks, but it is what it is.

In terms of non-ski activities I recall drinking a lot (we were younger), visiting snails that live in geothermal pools in Banff Park* (more interesting than it sounds), skating on Lake Louise, spending a few days in Calgary (Flames game, etc..) and doing the drive from Lake Louise through Jasper National Park and seeing glaciers, big horn sheep, etc....


*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_Springs_snail
 

KustyTheKlown

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I was there this feb

Sunshine sucks, don’t bother. Louise is awesome and has amazing access to big steeps without hiking

Stayed in Canmore, which is far from Louise but is super cheap and has all amenities which are more lacking in the park (groceries, dispensaries, etc). Like $40/night for a very decent hotel, cheap.

If your non skiers like hiking, hot springs, nice scenery, they should be ok
 
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HowieT2

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I've been going to interior BC for the last 6 years. Initially we went towards the end of january but changed to mid february so as to increase the probability of good snow. Obviously past performance is no guarantee of future results, but january has a greater tendency to be cold/dry than february does.
 

Not Sure

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I was there this feb

Sunshine sucks, don’t bother. Louise is awesome and has amazing access to big steeps without hiking

Stayed in Canmore, which is far from Louise but is super cheap and has all amenities which are more lacking in the park (groceries, dispensaries, etc). Like $40/night for a very decent hotel, cheap.

If your non skiers like hiking, hot springs, nice scenery, they should be ok

I was in Banff in the 80’s but noticed that the elevation difference between Sunshine and LL made a huge difference in conditions. It hadn’t snowed in a while but LL was Ok , Sunshine had fresh snow a couple days while LL got nothing. I agree the terrain is better but if you’re in marginal weather Sunshine will be a best bet.
Kicking horse wasn’t around back then so I’m not sure how it compares.
 

KustyTheKlown

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Kicking horse and revelstoke are in a different league of challenge vs banff. Louise can be very gnarly but doesn’t need to be. Rev and particularly kicking horse are pretty steep and exposed. At kicking horse a steep entrance is required for every run unless you take the cat track of shame down

The terrain at sunshine was laughably boring. Perhaps the worst terrain I’ve ever skied out west. The goat eye chair is the only decently steep skiing with vertical >1000. All the other lifts serve up like 800 feet of medium pitched low angle open snowfields. And Delirium dive requires avy gear and is barely ever open.

My max altitude on ski tracks is only 200 feet higher for sunshine vs Louise (8800 v 9000)
 

crazy

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Kicking horse and revelstoke are in a different league of challenge vs banff. Louise can be very gnarly but doesn’t need to be. Rev and particularly kicking horse are pretty steep and exposed. At kicking horse a steep entrance is required for every run unless you take the cat track of shame down

The terrain at sunshine was laughably boring. Perhaps the worst terrain I’ve ever skied out west. The goat eye chair is the only decently steep skiing with vertical >1000. All the other lifts serve up like 800 feet of medium pitched low angle open snowfields. And Delirium dive requires avy gear and is barely ever open.

My max altitude on ski tracks is only 200 feet higher for sunshine vs Louise (8800 v 9000)

I pretty much agree. Goat's Eye has some pretty fun terrain. I haven't skied Delirium Dive, but it's supposed to be excellent when it's open. I will say that on a bluebird day, the views from Sunshine Village can't be beat. If you're on a week long vacation, it's worth a day of skiing in my opinion.

Lake Louise is a huge, with some incredible alpine skiing in the back bowls. Note that Lake Louise gets about as much snow as Cannon (160"), which is not a lot! Though to be fair the back bowls will get more due to wind loading. It takes a long time for the great terrain to fill in, but when it does it lasts a long time thanks to excellent snow preservation on the north-facing backside slopes. March is a much better bet in terms of snowpack, temperature, and daylight.

A day at Kicking Horse if you're an expert skier is a must.
 

abc

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I’m so glad everyone hates SS. It won’t be overrun by all those steep chasing east coasters.

I’ve been to Banff area several times. I like them both. I’ve always split my days between LL and SS, depending on weather and conditions.

I’ve also skied Kicking Horse. While steep, there’s nothing else to recommend it. The lifts are poorly laid out. Practically no true intermediate terrain, never mind beginners terrain. In less than perfect weather, there’s very little shelter from trees. Nothing else to do in town either. Would I go again? Absolutely! But would I recommend it to anyone and everyone? Absolutely NOT!!!
 

Edd

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I like both Sunshine and LL as well. My one day at Kicking Horse I got weather screwed hard. My friend who was with me went back to KH the following season and got screwed again. Top of the gondola fully socked in and not many trees for reference. Scary.


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone
 

Hawk

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If you fly all the way up to Calgary and you do not ski kicking horse and Revelstoke you wasted the trip. Make sure to go. The only people that I have ever heard Poo-Poo those two areas are on here.
 

fbrissette

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If you fly all the way up to Calgary and you do not ski kicking horse and Revelstoke you wasted the trip. Make sure to go. The only people that I have ever heard Poo-Poo those two areas are on here.

Agreed. However, the dude is traveling with non-skiers. There's not much to do in Revelstoke/Kicking horse.

LL is the best of the of the Big3. Sunshine gets significantly more snow than Louise, and does not suck despite what Krusty said. Norquay... Let's just say it should be called the Big2.

Having said that, there is no reason to ski any of the Big 3 with Revy and KH so close. All the driving you do daily to get to Louise and Sunshine would be better spent getting to one of the other 2 resorts. They get better terrain and, especially better snow consistently (and especially Revelstoke). In addition Revy is the world's capital of heli/cat skiing, and is 40 minutes away from Rogers Pass, Canada's backcountry skiing capital.
 

jimk

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Interesting variety of responses to OP's questions.
I went to the Big3 last March and also Revy on same trip. Revy was neat with great potential, but rain-soaked and low-viz during my visit. Found much better conditions at the Big3 same week. Best conditions were at Sunshine and I found some nice challenge in Del Dive and Goats. Photos and more commentary here: http://www.dcski.com/forum/93462
Suffice to say, none of the cited ski areas are losers. Even little Norquay had fascinating history, magnificent scenery and some bad-a$$ bumps runs off the ancient North American chair.

Hmmm, this site blocks links to NMS forum:-(
 

KustyTheKlown

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sunshine is cool i guess if you like lame ass terrain.

buy a park pass for your car. they will ticket you in the resort lots if you dont have one.

saying kicking horse is poorly laid out is ridiculous. they have a gondola that serves 4000 vertical and 90% of their terrain. they have a high elevation chairlift to serve the other 10%, and a chair that goes to mid mountain if the weather is socked in at the top. the gondola lets you access like 4 different ridges with over 100 different bowls, chutes, or couloirs, that open up into nice aprons that lead to decent bump or tree skiing. repeat x 6 = 25000 vertical day with 6 chair rides. it's one of the most efficient lift layouts i've ever encountered. abc's opinions are almost always absurd, and condescending, so no surprise there. having no intermediate terrain is a positive. it means less children and weak ass skiers to deal with.
 
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