 Poster: A snowHead
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By the way, the name Sunshine is a misnomer! Still, lots of fine skiing to be had there. I recommend the Shiraz in Trappers, especially for a black run called Rockledge which we accidentally strayed onto after lunch.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Cathy-we skied last year with our two teens. As we didn't need the bus, it was much cheaper to buy ticket for individual mountains as there was a youth ticket. We bought a 5 from 7 day Sunshine ticket and a 4 from 6 (?) day ticket for Louise. We didn't ski Norquay as th snow wasn't very good. With a bit of careful planning it worked quite weel, and we even got a day off to go dog-sledding (definitely worth missing a days skiing for-hubby took some persuading but it ws worth it).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Cathy,
I'll echo what's said about KH: Its a great mountain if you're a great skier (I'm not). If you're less than comfortable with the super-steep, you're pretty much confined to the lower half of the hill, or to falling down a lot.
Other day trips from Banff worth thinking about are Nakiska/Fortress (Nakiska has a load of good cruisers) and Panorama (where the lift system has just been substantially upgraded with two new high-speed quads replacing the T-bar to the summit) - although the snow conditions can be a bit thin and icy/slushy in late season, depending on weather. There are bus trips from Banff for all of these.
If you are renting a car, it's worth thinking about spending a couple of days in Jasper. This is about a 4-hour drive from Banff: do this in full daylight, as it's one of the most spectacular drives in the Canadian Rockies - along the Icefields Parkway, which runs along a valley bottom into which a number of glaciers discharge. Jasper itself has quite a nice little ski area which you can exhaust in a couple of days.
Dog-sledding is.....umm....an experience. It's amazing what these dogs can do while running flat out. I can testify to sitting in the back of a sled and watching a flying turd miss my head by a whisker.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm so proud of this!  This was taken last Thursday morning about 2 hours before I had to catch the bus back to Calgary - why waste a morning hanging around the hotel huh? Beautiful blue skies, fab views and the snow still pretty soft on the back of the summit.
http://www.skilouise.com/slideshow/index.asp?pic=3
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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How cool is that - on the official site! Nice hat!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Alex you are wicked 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Have a great time Cathy and Happy birthday for Saturday.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Enjoy yourselves, Cathy, and have a very Happy Birthday!
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Thank you! 
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Have a great time Cathy.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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If you're into the green/blue cruisy runs, then Norquay might be worth a look, particularly if you only want to ski for a couple hours one day. Its always quiet, and provided theres been some snow (which there is plenty of right now) conditions should be ok. Its all alpine tree runs, but it is a nice change from the bigger resorts for the day. You can buy lift tickets per hour too.
Steer clear of the N. American chair if you don't like your super steeps! 
Watch out for the racers...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Ah, back now - where has the time gone?! Just thought I'd give an update report on what was the best hols ever.
Thanks to everyone for all their suggestions - we took up a lot of them. Regrettably the Caboose restaurant is no more  after having given away one too many lobsters..... Can recommend Saltlik restaurant, excellent food, service, jazz music - bit more expensive but worth it. Thought the Maple Leaf was over-priced with poor service & not so great food. One of the best deals is to go to the Banff Springs Hotel (the one that stands in for Colditz) - you can have a great buffet dinner there with every type of food imaginable for $36, great value.
Went dog-sledding - great fun & our guide stopped the sled at appropriate moments so we weren't hit by flying dog poo . Managed snow-shoeing as well on one of our days of 'rest', though as we followed that by an afternoon's shopping then a walk to the Cave & Basin hot springs, we were more knackered than if we'd gone skiing.
Ended up not hiring a car - nothing to do with the snow storms that we had the first few days, honest . So went on a touristy 2 day trip to Jasper which was really excellent. The drive along the Icefields Parkway was soemthing else & seeing the clouds rolling in off the Columbia Icefield truly 'awesome'! The cost for 2 days was about $160 - first day spent getting to Jasper with the guide keeping us informed ALL the way  . Spent the night at the Jasper Park Lodge which is the posh luxury hotel there & then skiing from 8.45 am to 2.30 pm the next day at the local slopes, Marmot Basin. Nice slopes, but wouldn't want to spend more than a few days there.
Skiing: skiing was great. Really dumped it down our first few days with a few top-ups throughout the 2 weeks. Was so lovely skiing through the powder on-piste! Sunshine Village should definately be re-named! Though our last few days we had glorious sunshine (though slushy afternoons - we had record high temps at the end in the 20 degrees celcius!) Was great skiing for 2 weeks (first time we'd done that) - I really improved my skiing the second week & was able to consolidate all I'd learned the first week. Skiing much more of a downhill variety now rather then from side to side! Club Ski was good - M. Coins really liked as he got gold medal in his group 5 class race. I got bronze but was in a lower group .
I know some people say they'd never ski in Europe again after N America - although I really liked it I did miss the sense of 'travel' that you get skiing in Europe. I love skiing to a nearby village for lunch and the feeling that you are skiing for a purpose. The resorts we went to in Canda it was more a case of taking a chair up the mountain to come down it again, up and down. Although did enjoy at Lake Louise skiing down the back bowl, up the Larch area & then stopping at Temple Lodge for a burger in the sun.
As the slopes were so slushy the last day we only had a few hours skiing, then went to vist the 'Chateau Lake Louise' where we lunched in style with burger, chips & champagne - nice to see they let the rabble in....
Monarch flights surprisingly OK.....
Busy looking in Early Birds brochures to book for next year now! I had said there's so many resorts to go to I wouldn't go back to one we'd previously been to until we skiied all the places we wanted to - I think Banff has just proved me wrong! Excellent value for money, great for non-skiing activities (yes, I know it's hard to imagine not skiing all the time but my legs can't take 14 days of it!). Really efficient skibus system (I'd imagined it would be like in France, stupid!) - can't wait to get back there now....
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Sun 4-04-04 15:33; edited 1 time in total
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Cathy Coins, a most excellent report!  I've been to Banff in the summer - flew into Calgary.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Must be lovely in the summer Ian, but I hear just so many people! I was surprised before we went to hear that summer is their high season but can understand it now...
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Great to hear you report Cathy.
I am close to booking our honeymoon in Lake Louise. Early December, thinking of 2 weeks. We were thinking of staying in the Chateau Lake Louise.
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johnboym, the chateau is lovely, but transport from the lake louise area to the ares at norquay and sunshine is limited: conversely, there's excellent links from Banff itself to all three ski areas, and the banff chateau looks just as nice
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Glad you enjoyed yourself Cathy, thanks for the report.johnboy, The Banff Springs would I think be a better option for the same reasons as nbt highlights. I honeymooned at the Banff Springs.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Snow can be patchy around that time of year, this year was an exception with a HUGE dump in November, but 2002, 2003 and 2001 both had to wait until nearly xmas to get a decent covering and even then they could've asked for more.
Staying in Banff will give you a better bus service but it will depend on where you want to ski. The Chateau in Louise is all well and good if you like seeing ugly tacked up buildings destroy a naturally beautiful place. The Banff springs at least fits the environment.
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Cheers for your comments folks. I was really thinking of Lake Louise as I thought the ski-ing looked more limited at Banff/Norquay. What about the Lake Louise Inn?
How far away are all the areas ?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Lake kouise in general is not theplace to stay, being just the resort and a handful of hotels, whereas Banff os a real town. the ski area at louise is about a 45 minute journey from banff, sunshie is about 25 minutes and norquay is 15 minutes or so
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Fair enough, Banff is a decent sized town, but where is the best ski-ing to be found, I was under the impression it was LL and not Banff.
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But you have the evening to consider too, you can ski all day at lake louise then go back to banff - conversely, if you stay at LL for two weeks, you'll find opportunitites to visit banff extremely limted (or extremely expensive if you tak a taxi)
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Well basically, I'm looking for some good quality relaxed ski-ing, nice scenery, good food and a few pints in the evening, so I'm still tempted by LL. What do you think of the Chateau Alexandra?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Welcome back Cathy! Glad you had a good time. Thinks - How could you not in the Canadian Rockies?
johnboy, this is the Lake Louise Chateau. Personally I think it looks like a prison. My favourite view of it is this one, which is taken from the Top Of The World at LL and is about as far away as you can get from it and still see it. 
| johnboy wrote: |
| Well basically, I'm looking for some good quality relaxed ski-ing, nice scenery, good food and a few pints in the evening, so I'm still tempted by LL |
The skiing at Lake Louise Inn fits this bill IMO. As for a few pints in the evening, the basement bar at the Lake Louise Inn is very comfortable (I think we were in there every single one of our 14 nights trying very hard to drink them out of Rickards Red!); you can eat there too (the Inn has three places to eat, from the bar up to a full-on restaurant with THE best AAA Alberta Steaks in the area). If you cringe easily, however, beware the bar's "themed" evenings - karaoke, "talent" night, etc. 
If it's nightlife you're after, LL is not the place to go.
Wherever you end up in the Banff National Park you're sure to have a fantastic time and end up wanting to keep going back
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks everyone! For my two pence-worth johnboy, , I'd stay at Banff but at the Rimrock Hotel, - I think the Banff Springs and the Chateau LL are ugly as hell, rooms at Banff Springs are apparently tiny so if you do stay there make sure you upgrade to the better room/suite. Although I prefered the skiing at LL I don't think I could spend a whole 2 weeks skiing there - it is limited skiing by European standards & if you're staying at LL it's VERY hard to get to Sunshine/Norquay. Staying at Banff gives you the option of variety & it really is a very efficient ski bus system, involving walkie-talkies, back-up coaches hiding round the corner & minibuses for those one or two extra bodies. Plus you have the variety of restaurants & bars at Banff, some of which really are very good.
I echo what moosepig says: Wherever you end up...you're sure to have a fantastic time & end up wanting to keep going back - that's us!!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Another wee question,
Most of the brochures quote the area as having 33 ft of snow with sunshine in brackets.
Then, Iv'e seen others that quote LL as having only 12 ft. Is this so as both resorts seem to be at the same altitude 1600m?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Aren't they on different sides of the continental divide or something? They do seem to have different weather patterns and traditionally Sunshine gets more but the last couple of years have been terrible anyway and a friend caught a lot of rocks in sunshine this year.
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Sunshine & LL are the same side of the Continental Divide, but regarding the valley going east from Banff, Sunshine is on the South side and LL ski resort is on the North side about 35km further on. (Lake Louise -the lake itself - is on south side, and LL village is in the valley).
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DOesn;t the continental divide run right through sunshine, hence the nameof one of the runs?
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nbt, Indeed it does and Sunshine definitely gets more 'weather' - could be a lovely sunny day in Banff, blizzards in Sunshine. The second day we were there Sunshine got 20cms overnight whereas LL just got a few cms
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Most of Sunshine is on the west side of the continental divide.
Strangely, there is no restaurant on the east side at Sunshine. BC's PST would have nothing to do with this of course! (It's the terrain honest).
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When you say continental divide what exactly do you mean?
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FAQ
