 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all – I have 2 days to kill in Canada, based out of Calgary, and thought that I would get up to Banff.
Now, I would rather not hire a car and just take the Banff Airporter, which will get me straight to Calgary airport, as I prefer to relax rather than drive on such trips. However, this means that accommodation needs to be convenient for both the Airporter and the slopes. I am struggling to get the layout of Banff – the town itself is not actually a ski resort, right? So are there ski buses taking you to the slopes etc, or do I need to stay in Sunshine for easy access to the slopes?
Perhaps hiring a car is the way forward. It’s about the same as taking the coach each way?
Is Banff the best bet anyway – what about Lake Louise? I suppose that if I did hire a car, I’d have more options…
Any tips appreciated.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Banff to Lake Louise or Sunshine is about 30-40 minutes by bus, which do a circuit of the main hotels and the bus depot before hitting the road. If you've only got 2 days and you can get the Airporter to Lake Louise, then that is probably a better bet than staying in the town, and only ski at LL (I would choose Banff for a longer trip, however, for the variety of eateries etc). There is a shuttle from the LL accommodation to the ski area and you'll be better placed for the 'first tracks' skiing.
Does the Airporter take a lot longer than driving (plus the time spent picking up and dropping off the car)? If not, or that extra wouldn't eat into skiing time then bus to LL would reduce a perceived 'need' for a car.
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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 for this. I've worked out that Banff itself is not a ski village, and buses are not a risk I wish to take when I only have 2 days. Airporter gets to Banff, not the ski villages. So I am going to rent a car from airport and stay in a ski in-ski out place in Sunshine Village. 1 day there, 1 day getting up early to drive up to Lake Louise, I think.
Car is more effort (as I have to drive) but more convenient, and hire is about the same cost as the bus (although I will have to add petrol)
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Sunshine Village is not a village, but a ski area with a single hotel, and not cheap. Lake Louise has a bit more, particularly a variety of lodging. Once at Sunshine your only eating options are those in, or adjacent to, the hotel. Again, for only 2 days probably not an issue, but bear it in mind. They do stay and ski deals which may dissuade you from the drive down from Sunshine and then up to LL (c20 mins I think in a cable car and then down the mountain road to the highway etc)
It's a few years since I've been, but there will be people along shortly with more detail.
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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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As they said. There are also a few hotels in Lake Louise village, but not at the actual ski hill. You still have to catch a bus. Banff has a better night life too.
Definitely get a car, rental is literally at the airport door. No mini-bus etc. Plus you can sight see on the way to and from the hill in the spring. (Less easy in winter) You're guaranteed to see elk, probably wolves and maybe bears if it's late spring 
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Are you heading out from Calgary the night before you plan to ski? As@Yellow Pyranha, said, you only really stay at Sunshine Lodge if you plan to ski at SSV for the duration of your stay. Banff is an easy trip to both SSV and LL so if you wanted to stay in just one hotel I'd stay in a Banff hotel--you will just have more options. The drive to SSV is about 20 mins and about 40 to LL.
Petrol is cheap as chips here at the moment. Even at the expensive highway gas stations you'll probably only pay around 40p a litre. In Calgary you can fill up for less than that.
One thing to add on the bus versus car debate, I'd hate to drive a hire car here in winter. And for the Sunshine access road you are required to have winter tyres. It's not uncommon to see cars without winter tires stuck on the access road.
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I'd stay in Banff and just catch the free bus like everyone else, it's a piece of cake!
And, fwiw, Sunshine rocks 
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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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My 2c:
Get the Banff Airporter - really nice little minibuses with great service. You can sight see on the way, if you're driving you'll be staring at the road and miss all the countryside on the journey.
Stay in Banff. Great town, loads of restaurants and bars, as others have said Sunshine "Village" is pretty much one hotel and the base station. Have a meal at Nourish (really good veggie food) and a great steak at the Saltlik.
Get the ski bus to Sunshine, 25 minutes of great scenery and a great ski hill.
Get the ski buss to LL, 40 minutes of great scenery and a completely different hill feeling.
No stress, all very very easy.
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Thanks guys - really helpful. I would prefer bus, truth be told as I can't really be bothered to drive. I think you've convinced me on Banff/bus. Hotels seem cheaper there, too.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Harry Flashman, do get a tri-area pass, as that is your free ticket on to the buses. There is a shop on Banff Ave, down the far end, called Ski Hub and they sell the tri-area passes which are valid at SS, LL and Norquay. The important thing is that you need one or you have to pay for the bus - I think it is $10 return but have never actually paid it. You can buy a day lift pass on each hill, but as I say, if you can get a tri-area pass it will save time and save you the bus fare.
The bus is easy and relaxing. Good advice on here , do SS and LL. They both have their own charms and it would be a shame to miss one or the other. When you go to SS, do ski on the Goat's Eye hill. It's fantastic and a lot of people don't go down there. It's the first stop on the gondola or you can ski down to it at the end of the day. Either way, it's a great part of the ski hill. Lots of good restaurants in Banff - you are spoiled for choice really.
Have a great trip.
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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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And don't board out of Sunshine! Unless they changed it, but it was a looooong flat to the base of the gondola...
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I would say get buses and not stay at Sunshine village if you intend to ski Lake Louise. The hotel is up the hill which is a 20 min gondola ride.
When are you arriving?
PS seeing wolves really rare. I've been here 8 years and seen one, on the road to panorama. Bears unlikely during ski season. We ski every weekend.
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You know it makes sense.
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@gryphea, what are the conditions like just now? We are out there in 10 days.
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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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@gryphea, we've been to Canada 3 times, for either ten days or a couple of weeks. Fernie, Banff and Revelstoke/Banff. My other half has seen wolves on each trip.
In Fernie she went dog sledding. They passed a fresh kill and were chased/harried by a pack for about a quarter of an hour, the wolves nipping at the sled dogs on occasion. It was the first time the sled guide had seen wolves.
Banff three years later and she saw wolves when sledding on a frozen lake (spray lake?), they paralleled the sled but were a good distance away.
Banff again three years later she walking one of the trails on the edge of town and saw three wolves come out of the scrub, approx 20m away. She reported it to the parks guys and they knew the pack.
Moral of the storey, if you want to see some wolves hang out with my partner.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Orange200
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And don't board out of Sunshine! Unless they changed it, but it was a looooong flat to the base of the gondola...
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Sorry to hijack the thread, but my husband will be boarding when we go in 3 weeks - any other recommendations of areas to avoid which are hell for boarders?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Orange200 wrote: |
| And don't board out of Sunshine! Unless they changed it, but it was a looooong flat to the base of the gondola... |
You can snowboard the run-out of Sunshine, just carry your speed and you'll be fine. Yeah it can get a bit flat and goes up a bit but you don't need that much pace to do the whole run without having to stop.
Another vote for the Saltlik too.
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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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| Quote: |
any other recommendations of areas to avoid which are hell for boarders?
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Not really, no. Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise are all pretty much devoid of the long, flat sections that you tend to find in the euro resorts. There are maybe a few bits where you have to come up over a crest so if you're not carrying much speed you'll slow and maybe stop, but if he is ok holding a bit of pace, then he should be fine.
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The only real flat spot is right up at the start of the run home - carry as much speed as possible coming from the day lodge to the little uplift. You can just flat base it. Even if you have to scoot or walk it's only 50-100m or so
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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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| gryphea wrote: |
I would say get buses and not stay at Sunshine village if you intend to ski Lake Louise. The hotel is up the hill which is a 20 min gondola ride.
When are you arriving?
PS seeing wolves really rare. I've been here 8 years and seen one, on the road to panorama. Bears unlikely during ski season. We ski every weekend. |
Unlucky. Maybe I see them because I'm usually the passenger in the car rather than the driver. Once I even saw on running up the side of a run in Nakiska
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Lots of 'wolf sightings' in Canada will be coyotes. Coyotes get quite large. Wolves are naturally shyer. Very few of my friends have seen wolves ever. But my son did see a bob cat last weekend at Nakiska............Sounds like rogg's partner are sightings though. People who do see wolves are usually sighting known packs. The one I saw last year was no mistaking it from anything else. its was so big that from a distance I thought it was a moose and again it was in a known area. Since then they have fenced the road in there.
@lynnecha, I was in Jasper at the weekend and we had 5-20ish centimeters of fresh pow and conditions were good. My OH was at Nakiska and he said they also had fresh snow, so Sunshine and LL would have got it too. However in the preceding period there wasn't much fresh snow and this week has certainly been ridiculously warm in Calgary. Yesterday broke records I believe. Hopefully it wasn't that warm in the mountains.
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| gryphea wrote: |
| Lots of 'wolf sightings' in Canada will be coyotes. Coyotes get quite large. Wolves are naturally shyer. |
That's what I was thinking - if it's solo it's likely to be a coyote (one man wolf packs being rare). I've only ever seen two - one pack from a considerable distance and one luckily close up in early May in Yellowstone when they happened to come down to the far side of the river I was parked on. Not nearly as big and fierce as you might expect although I know from various BBC docs that they can be when they get operating a pack.
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another warm day
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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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@gryphea, thanks for the report. We are there for our regular two weeks from 23Feb to 8 March. If you are in LL or SS at all we'd love to buy you a coffee and put a face to the name. Do send a PM if you'd like to meet up. In any event, thanks so much for all the info you share. It's great having someone local on the ground ( or 'on the snow', as it were!).
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Went to Sunshine yesterday. Fresh Pow! Around 10cm I reckon. And I think it was going to snow more overnight. Conditions were good; but in some places there had clearly been a melt and it was crusty. Shoulder was fabulous; South side chutes were crusty and heavy. Pistes generally really good, although some wind blown ice in places. There was rain in the valley, so am not sure how good Norquay would be.
For those who haven't been recently, the new Tipi town is just amazing and they also have new deals on lift tickets. They have never done that before and my guess its the result of a deep Calgary recession.
@lynnecha, Likely be in LL weekend of 26th as my daughter is likely racing ski-x; but our plans are less than clear atm. I'll let you know
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@gryphea, thanks for the update - we're out at the beginning March and eagerly keeping an eye on conditions, but always better to hear how it is from someone on the ground!
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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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@lynnecha, May see you there 
We're flying BA from Heathrow tomorrow (23rd), then doing a 3-centre trip to Banff (Sunshine/LL) : RMR : KHMR, flying back on the 8th March too
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| Quote: |
| One thing to add on the bus versus car debate, I'd hate to drive a hire car here in winter |
Over the years I've been on five Alberta/BC road trips between Dec and late Feb - last one was 2 weeks ago when we did 1450km. Yes we have encountered snow - on virtually the whole Trans Canada Highway between Banff and Golden on one trip - but nothing that the hire car snow tyres couldn't handle. So generally trouble free and - compared to the UK - such easy, stress-free driving on empty, straight roads. The only negative has been a few long drives after skiing in the depths of winter. It's sometimes not much fun on pitch dark roads with muck covering the lines at the sides and middle of the road - very difficult to see, especially if lights and windscreen are dirty too.And they don't seem to have cats' eyes.
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You know it makes sense.
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@geoffers, hope your trip went ok. Couldn't spot any SnowHeads at the airport but trust you made it to Banff ok. We come here every year so know the place reasonably well (but not as well as @gryphea!).
If we can supply any info just PM me- we alternate between LL and SS deepening on our mood that day. Hope you enjoy it, let us know what you think!
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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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What are good ways of saving money when booking LL or SS? Lift passes, lessons, rental in particular?
I just booked a family trip last Nov for this March, I was offered 30% off early booking by SkiLouise, but not sure if that's something that runs throughout the year with rolling deadlines just to get the punters in... Now I see they're offering a ski pass sale from 1 March... Sure, TOs and hotels all offer discounts, but I can never work out which is the best combination.
I struggle going via TOs as I'm in Portugal so the flights are odd and I have two tweens so I want a one-bed suite to put them in a separate "room".
We're landing on 18 March - can't wait 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sunshine has new cards for multi day tickets@Orange200,
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@gryphea, back on the topic of wildlife : driving down from Sunshine yesterday a big cat/wolf ran across the road ahead of us. I've seen Coyotes before in Yosemite, and this didn't look like that at all so we're sure it must have been a Cougar. What do you reckon?
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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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@geoffers, I know a few people who have seen cougars on the ski roads. I've never seen a cougar in real life, but I think their tail is distinctive.
Cougars are present everywhere in the mountains, on foot you rarely see them because they are silent stalkers; if you see them, they will likely attack. They have seen you way before you see them. To me they are way scarier than bears.
I have heard there are lots of cougars around at the moment. Ones in West bragg creek took a pony and dog the other day
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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 heard they go hunting near the Grizzly House in town on occasions. (unconfirmed rumour)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We've seen a few lone dogs by the highway between Banff and Calgary which,I suppose, were coyotes; a moose in the Bow River between Banff and Lake Louise (it didn't look well) and, memorably, a pack of wolves cross the road just outside Jasper. Last time we were at Lake Louise, some folk claimed to have seen a Lynx from the Ptarmigan chair.
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Lynx mum and kittens was in Lake louise I think last year (or maybe the year before). They closed the lift down for a bit.
Saw a lynx in Jasper once. They are a rare spot and a treat
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@Yellow Pyranha, Some of those could be dogs on the reservation lands as well. Jasper does have wolves
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FAQ
They do check and they do fine, as well as making you buy the pass.
