This was a long travel day but I still managed 21,200 vertical of interesting skiing from 11:00AM to 3:15PM. I had read that Lake Louise was quite busy this week and the parking lot had more cars that I have seen there before. The only lift line of consequence was the bottom gondola so I used the Glacier Express chair instead. Lines there and at Paradise and Larch were less than 5 minutes. I found out later that Saskatchewan and some Alberta schools are out this week.
Temperatures are gradually coming down to what’s normal in this part of Canada. It was probably over 20F only at the base of Lake Louise. However there was no wind and the sunny breaks were more frequent than at Kicking Horse the day before. Thus Lake Louise’s famed scenery was in full view.
The north side ungroomed terrain had soft packed powder and chalk similar to Kicking Horse. Groomers were firmer due to the relatively heavy skier traffic. I first took a long warmup on Men’s Downhill. Next time up I continued to the Summit platter and skied the steep but broad Whitehorn it face in this picture.
This faces east and is thus more illuminated than the chutes behind the Summit.
From Top of the World I also noted this steep face behind Paradise.
It’s called Big 7 on the map and had a section in the middle where you had to time turns around some small rocks. I thought I did well with that but I was soon passed by two local hotshots.
Their mom soon followed and told me they were 7 years old, very impressive!
Paradise Bowl under the lift is usually a mogul field.
On a later run I avoided most of those by skiing a chute Swede's to far skier's right.
With clearer than usual skies I then ran laps from Paradise to the Summit poma and the Whitehorn chutes. D Gully had excellent smooth snow but it was still cloudy enough to make the light flat in there. I took this picture of another skier in D Gully.
For some reason these runs always look clearer from below than when you are skiing them.
Next lap I skied the H and I Gullies in better light.
There were some interesting partially buried boulders at the bottom of H and I.
Overview of Whitehorn chutes:
After the run on Swede's I skied to Temple Lodge for a quick break and warm-up.
View of Purple Bowl above Larch chair.
I skied 3 blue Larch runs, two groomers as intended but Bobcat had moguls and some thin spots. I rode Ptarmigan up and skied Ladies’ Downhill to the base. I had dinner in Canmore, then a 3 hour drive in snow flurries to Castle Mt., where I’ll ski the next two days.
Temperatures are gradually coming down to what’s normal in this part of Canada. It was probably over 20F only at the base of Lake Louise. However there was no wind and the sunny breaks were more frequent than at Kicking Horse the day before. Thus Lake Louise’s famed scenery was in full view.
The north side ungroomed terrain had soft packed powder and chalk similar to Kicking Horse. Groomers were firmer due to the relatively heavy skier traffic. I first took a long warmup on Men’s Downhill. Next time up I continued to the Summit platter and skied the steep but broad Whitehorn it face in this picture.
This faces east and is thus more illuminated than the chutes behind the Summit.
From Top of the World I also noted this steep face behind Paradise.
It’s called Big 7 on the map and had a section in the middle where you had to time turns around some small rocks. I thought I did well with that but I was soon passed by two local hotshots.
Their mom soon followed and told me they were 7 years old, very impressive!
Paradise Bowl under the lift is usually a mogul field.
On a later run I avoided most of those by skiing a chute Swede's to far skier's right.
With clearer than usual skies I then ran laps from Paradise to the Summit poma and the Whitehorn chutes. D Gully had excellent smooth snow but it was still cloudy enough to make the light flat in there. I took this picture of another skier in D Gully.
For some reason these runs always look clearer from below than when you are skiing them.
Next lap I skied the H and I Gullies in better light.
There were some interesting partially buried boulders at the bottom of H and I.
Overview of Whitehorn chutes:
After the run on Swede's I skied to Temple Lodge for a quick break and warm-up.
View of Purple Bowl above Larch chair.
I skied 3 blue Larch runs, two groomers as intended but Bobcat had moguls and some thin spots. I rode Ptarmigan up and skied Ladies’ Downhill to the base. I had dinner in Canmore, then a 3 hour drive in snow flurries to Castle Mt., where I’ll ski the next two days.