BC/Alberta - 1/17/25 - 1/26/25

[LoafSkier19]

Resort or Ski Area

Lake Louise, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke

Date

Jan 18, 2025

Snow Conditions

1. Powder
2. Packed Powder
3. Moguls

Flew into Calgary Friday evening on the 17th and headed straight to Banff where we were staying for the weekend to check out Banff Snowdays. Stayed at the Mount Royal right in the middle of downtown on Banff Ave. We scouted this place out on a previous trip as it had a great view of the skijoring comp happening right on the street.

Saturday morning the plan was to ski Mt. Norquay for half the day then get back to town for skijoring at 2pm. However, between the cold, lack of snow in Banff, and travel fatigue we decided to spend the day checking out the town. The event was pretty cool with a large crowd gathered on the streets to watch some brave skiers and boarders get dragged by a horse and pull off backflips and other tricks on the jumps set up.




Sunday, we started our journey west. First off was a quick drive to Lake Louise for the day. A cold, cloudy start turned into a clear day with some of the best views you’ll get at a ski area. Skiing on the frontside was very New England like due to some mild temps earlier in the week and a deep freeze after. After a couple front side laps we searched for better snow and immediately found it off the backside. A & B gullies skied really nice with some wind blown powder, along with the Whitehorn 1 area and Paradise bowl. Because of this we spent most of the day just lapping some variation of the paradise chair and the Summit chair. Once we had enough there, we took what I believe was Cowboy to the East Bowl trees and Pika trees to the Larch area. A favorite run of mine from my last visit. At Larch, we took a couple runs including the Rock Garden trail which was pretty unique. As the name insinuates, it’s a giant boulder field where you meander around and find the best path between the boulders. I’m sure with much more snow, this trails is a blast hoping over the rocks. By the time we were done in Larch there was just enough time to checkout the west bowl. At this point it was just me so I headed for the summit and traversed as far as I could in the bowl. The top half was wide open and quite pleasant, it then turns to a glade which noticeably got thinner in snow as you went down with less favorable conditions. By this point my legs were cooked and glad it was the last run. Met my girlfriend back at the base, loaded the car and headed for Kicking Horse.


Alphabet Gullies


Paradise Bowl



East Bowl Trees looking up at Cowboy



Rock Garden



Halfway down West Bowl

 

[LoafSkier19]

Monday, the 20th, we skied at Kicking Horse after a quick overnight stay at the Copper Horse on mountain. This isn’t on our pass, but Kicking Horse is my favorite mountain and I have no issue paying to ski here any chance I can.

It was another clear day with an inversion in the valley that netted quite the view skiing down the steep bowls at KH. The place has a great base right now in the bowls, but the lack of fresh snow left these runs in a chalky packed powder state. The low lighting on the northern aspects really messed with my mind in determining snow conditions on the steepest terrain. So I was not my usual confident self tackling this terrain. We mostly stuck to skiing the southern aspects which had better lighting and snow. I did get one run down the White Wall but one was enough for me based on the conditions. The front face below the bowls skied very nice. Really enjoyed the moguls under the gondola line and adjacent trails. Overall a good day but a little bummed the conditions were subpar compared to what I’ve skied here in past visits that made me fall in love with the place.

Sunrise from Copper Horse


Top of Gondi looking at Stairway to Heaven



Top of Gondi looking at T1 and T2



Skiing down from Crystal Bowl



Top of Show Off




Bumps on Show Off



Finding a line on CPR Ridge



North side of T1. Some fun lines w/ better conditions



Whitewall and a closed Ozone Peak from Redemption Ridge.



After the day we headed west again for our main destination: Revelstoke

 

[jimk]

Very nice.

I was at Copper Mtn, CO for some of the same time frame. The skiing was quite good, but it was bitter cold most of the time. Highs around zero. On my last day I came upon a rock formation/boulder field that reminded me of the Rock Garden area in your photo from Lake Louise ski area, which I skied in 2018. A Copper Mtn patroller told me they call it Moon Rocks as I was telling him about the similarity with a slope at Lake Louise. It's not as extensive, as Rock Garden, but somewhat similar. Kids were hucking it when I took this photo on Jan 24, 2025. There is more to it than I captured in this photo.

 

[LoafSkier19]

Nice! It’s definitely a fun trail. I’d be curious to ski it again with a bit more snow to see how it skis. Louise had a good amount of snow up high and on the backside, but pretty thin towards the bottom and Larch/Ptarmigan area

 

[LoafSkier19]

Tuesday, the 21st, our first day at Revelstoke this trip. Woke up to some flurries, but that turned to sunshine for the first few runs of the day. We took the Gondi to the Stoke chair to start. First time I’ve ever seen clear skies at the summit here. With this, we decided to head for the southern facing trails and settled on Tally Ho glades as a warmup. The flurries added up near the summit to probably 2-3” over a chalky surface. After a couple stoke runs poking into the trees, we went for a Top to Bottom cruise down Snow Rodeo to assess how the entire mountain was skiing. Stoke area skiing the best, mid mountain was firm and slick on the groomer, and the lower part to mid station was softening from the sun. Next up was to check out the Ripper area. We did this by going back up Stoke to the glade past Seperate Reality Bowl. Not many had skied this and seemed to have more fresh snow. Turned out to be similar at the Ripper. Glades of Glory skied really nice as well as the glades on the other side of the liftline. After a few runs here it was already 1pm and my gf called it a day. I took this as a chance to lap the Seperate Reality bowl which had excellent bumps! The clear day really allowed me to understand this area better. Ended the day with a top to bottom run down Pitch Black which was ungroomed. The bumps on mid mountain were way better than the groomers in this area. By the time I got to village I was wiped and called it a day at 3:15. At this point the glades were the highlight of the trip!

First ride up Stoke


First run in Tally Ho





Glade from Stoke to the Ripper



Glades off the Ripper

 

[LoafSkier19]

Wednesday, the 22nd, was a solo ski day for me as my gf needed a full rest day. Got in line at the Gondi at 8:30 and headed for Stoke again. Turns out, it snowed another 2-3” overnight and was mostly sunny at the summit with an inversion in the village. Warmed up with a few runs through Seperate Reality and the glades back to Stoke chair. By now, I was ready to hike to the sub peak. Took the boot pack up and was greeted with my first look at the North Bowl straddled between the Subpeak and Summit of Mt McKenzie. It looked really sweet but elected to go with the South Bowl first in order to ski Subpeak to the village. The turns above the lift served trails was a blissful pocket of untracked powder followed by skied in packed powder on the main trails. By 3/4 of the way down my legs were burning, and opted to take Fast Fred which was a nice switchback blue trail all the way skiers left. By the time I reached the village I was pretty wiped after skiing 6,000 continuous vertical feet. A new record for me. Used the Gondi ride to rest up and headed right back to the sub peak to try the North Bowl that had looked so great. Sure enough, it was perfect powder all the way to the runout to Baxter L’s glade which takes you to the Ripper. This run was only a paltry 3,000 vert run down the north side. After a few Ripper laps, I made the same North Bowl trek before it closed for the day. At this point I’m hyped at the conditions and couldn’t wait for the next day as we were supposed to get a decent snowfall amount overnight. After a few more runs, I tapped out at 3:30.


Warmup in Seperate Reality


Inversion from the Stoke trails


Boot packing to Subpeak



Top of the hike, looking at summit of Mt. McKenzie and the North Bowl


Skiing South Bowl


Dropping into North Bowl


Middle of the North side


Looking back from the runout

 

[jimk]

Great pics. I skied two days at Revy, also in 2018. Never got full clear viz like some of your pics. Love these two in particular. In one of our runs through North Bowl there were hang gliders flying through there even though the ceiling was low/sketchy.

 

[LoafSkier19]

Thursday, the 23rd, started out with light flakes and not much accumulation from the hotel window. My thought was we got skunked, however that was just the beginning of 6-8” by late morning! We spent most of the days just skiing our favorite glades. To my surprise, my gf was up for the hike to North Bowl (great skier, hiking just isn’t her thing). After skiing the exact line from the day before she quickly learned the hike was worth it and was game to do it again. Although we had so much fun in the Ripper trees, we didn’t make it back to the boot pack in time. No biggie, the glades were outstanding all day! Also, made our first decent down Kill the Banker of the trip!

Random Glade shots




Kill the Banker in all its glory

 

[LoafSkier19]

Great pics. I skied two days at Revy, also in 2018. Never got full clear viz like some of your pics. Love these two in particular. In one of our runs through North Bowl there were hang gliders flying through there even though the ceiling was low/sketchy.

Thanks! We got really lucky with clear skies everyday but Thursday. A good trade off with the dryer, cold pattern they were in. Cant imagine hang gliding in visibility like that!

 

[LoafSkier19]

Friday, the 24th, picked up where Thursday left off. Probably another couple inches overnight and another clear day on the mountain. I thought this was the best day of the week personally. Separate Reality first run was great untracked powder! Followed by a run through the trees between Pitch Black and Snow Rodeo. After that we set for another boot pack to the sub peak and like the day prior, it was excellent.

At the Ripper we lapped Glades of Glory a few times, starting at Burn Down trail and staying closer to the liftline. This is a big glade that has many different ways to ski it. I think a lot of people enter the upper glade off skiers left when they offload Ripper and enter GoG from the lower entrance. I think the best line is skiing the upper lift line, cross Burn Down, and enter the glade there. This became my favorite line to lap as it was not getting skied and had a great fall line to the base of the lift. We also checked out the Back 40 glades for the first time, staying closer to skiers left next to the trail you enter. Another big glade with a bunch of options. Last run we finally checked out Sweet Spot which was closed most of the week for the freeride comp. Plenty of fresh snow on that ridge!

Random shots from the Ripper side



Sweet Spot

 

[LoafSkier19]

Saturday, the 25th, was a bonus day at Revvy. The original plan was traveling back east towards Banff but made the easy decision to stay where the snow was. The trade off being a long travel day Sunday. No biggie, I was ready for an off day after 8 straight full days for myself. This day was a rinse and repeat from Friday. Clear skies and some leftovers from Thursday. We started right away where we left off on Sweet Spot but chose to enter 3 Bears Glade after dropping in. This is a gnarly glade with chutes and cliffs abound. Wish I found it after the storm! The girlfriend called it at noon time after a Stoke to village run. Which left me enough time to do one last run in North Bowl. This time I changed it up and tried Greely Bowl after skiing the upper half of Powder Assault. A nice change up to the whole Powder Assault on the North Side! Skied right to closing bell lapping the Stoke chair as the sun set over the mountains across the valley. A fitting end to a great trip!

Clear trip up Stoke



One last sub peak run



Greely Bowl


Final Run of the trip

 

[Edd]

Jesus, what an awesome set of pics! Great trip!