TR - Christmas in Banff "en famille"

A snowHead

Resort: "Banff" = Lake Louise, Sunshine Village and Mount Norquay

Country: Canada

Date: 16th to 27th December 2016

Logistics: 2 adults, 1 youth (age 14) and 1 child (age 12). Booked direct with Crystal for everything bar lift passes. B&B at the Aspen Lodge (10 nights). Manchester to Calgary via Heathrow.

Cost: Not entirely sure, as split across several credit card bills and to be honest, I'm rather scared to tally everything up! This was a major holiday treat though, having had a couple of years of modest summer hols and no skiing in the 15/16 season, so we weren't looking to do it "on the cheap" (thankfully!) Flights, transfer and hotel = £4100. Ski hire and lessons (kids only; 3 * full day) = £800. Lift passes $2200 (ouch!) and that was benefiting from youngest child counting as a child (12 and under) which saved a couple of hundred $. Eating out plus non-skiing excursions = circa £1500.

Travel: Younger Miniplough was ill on the last Friday morning of term, but we felt confident that she would be ok for the 3pm flight from Heathrow. So we kept her off school and made our way gently to Heathrow via Manchester airport. Elder Miniplough fortuitously had a dentist appointment that morning and didn't need to go into school either. Thankfully, after a 545am start, both Miniploughs were fine by the time we rolled down the drive at 546am. One can only marvel at the recovery powers of youngsters!

After nearly missing the plane on our last ski jolly, we took no chances this time, arriving at the airport before 8am, for a 12pm flight. This four hour interval was actually not over generous as there was an hour queue for the bag-drop and a 90 minute passage through security. After a leisurely breakfast, it was pretty much time to board for an uneventful trip to Heathrow. The wait at Heathrow was just long enough for lunch before the 9 hour flight to Calgary. We flew on a nearly new 787-9, which is by a country mile the nicest plane in which I have endured Cattle Class. I was almost sad to land, as my book was getting particularly interesting!

We landed on time and were met by the Crystal rep and escorted to our minibus. If you've seen the scene in "Cool Runnings" where the Jamaican bobsledders exit the airport in to the extreme cold then you know what we experienced. It was -19C and cooling rapidly. The cold genuinely did take our breath away. Despite the view from the front window looking like in-cab coverage from "Ice Road Truckers", the journey to Banff was uneventful, except for the thick ice on the inside of the windows.

We checked in without incident, receiving our pre-ordered lift tickets, as promised. No-one fancied doing a "Captain Oates" to get anything to eat, so we got some burgers delivered by what appeared to be an extra from "The Day After Tomorrow". One can only commend Canadian insulation technology, as I burnt my tongue on the first bite! We were all asleep by 10pm local time, which turned out to be our latest night of the holiday.

Day 1: We were up early, so unpacked before heading down to the breakfast room as it opened. The offering was quite modest in range (bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, muffins, fruit salad and porridge) but high on quality and volume. My only complaint would be the absence of Maple Syrup.

We then had to brave the cold to go to the ski shop. It was apparently -27C at 730am, and there had been an extreme cold weather warning overnight. In a part of the world where at this time of year -15C counts as pleasantly warm, one can only wonder at just how cold it actually was! (-41C apparently.)

We randomly chose Sunshine Village to start with, as the bus there was earliest and we wanted to get cracking asap. There's a heated, covered lift new for this season, which we found after taking an uncovered lift up high. This lift ride redefined cold. -27C plus a bit of windchill was almost too much, but on the ground it was quite pleasant, and we passed the day alternating a couple of runs with a trip inside to warm up. The temperature reached the dizzy heights of -22C in the afternoon.

Day 2: Sunshine again, as the Miniploughs' lessons kicked off there. They were doing Club Ski, where a day is spent in each resort. There were only three in the group, so it was almost like a private lesson for the kids for the cost of a group lesson. There was one poor guy condemned to share the slopes and chairs with the rather chatty Miniploughs! The Miniploughs loved the lessons. The combination of everything being conducted in English, the enthusiasm of the instructor, the absence of a formal assessment and a focus on fitting the tuition round what the students wanted to do was a winner.

It was much windier than the previous day and despite higher temperatures (-16C in the afternoon) the high uncovered lifts were even worse than the day before. We stayed low and/or used the gondola to ascend in general.

Day 3: Lake Louise. Larch area was fantastic - lots of soft moguls and tree-lined runs. Front side was a bit icy in places.

Day 4: Norquay. There was a distinct lack of snow, open pistes and indeed skiers. So we had a day in empty, icy, artificially covered pistes. This was the warmest day of the trip (negative single digits) and proved that even the worst day on the slopes is better than the best day in the office. The conditions were a bit of a shame as when we'd been here in March '97, the place was fully open and we'd really enjoyed it. Anyway, the kids had enjoyed their lesson again and even a short day of skiing on ice was enough for my legs.

Day 5: No skiing. Johnston Canyon tour in the morning. Long lunch. Washing in the afternoon.

Day 6-9: We alternated Lake Louise and Sunshine on these days, with no lessons to worry about. The Miniploughs took great delight in showing that the previous Top Dog on the pistes (Mrs Plough) was now near the bottom of the Dog Pile. I of course retained my position as Tail End Charlie. We took consolation in seeing a return on our non-trivial expenditure on lessons over the years!

Joking aside, I was actually on good form skiing-wise, and was tackling the tree-lined single blacks with confidence on the last few days. I even linked up to five turns on a black mogul field at one point, although this was sandwiched between some rather spectacular crashes! Still, the snow was soft and our insurance up to date, so why not throw caution to the wind?

Christmas Day was spectacular - there was not a cloud in the sky and the pistes were pretty much empty. Best of all, the groomers had clearly been on double-time for Christmas, so there was a lot of groomed blue runs on which to delude myself I am a good skier.

Comments on ski area: Something for everyone at both Lake Louise and Sunshine, ranging from almost flat green runs to some utterly terrifying looking - even from the chair lifts - double blacks. Lake Louise takes the honours marginally as the single blacks tended to have moguls rather than just being steep as at Sunshine. Snow better at Sunshine, given ice on front side at Lake Louise.

Refreshments: Mountain catering is good - typically $50 for a good sized lunch. More based round fries than pasta though. Spreadable gravy with chips is something of a speciality. By adding cheese curds to it, one creates "Putine" which is apparently a local delicacy, though looks awful and according to Mrs Plough, tastes even worse. The lodges are quite happy for you to bring your own food and provide microwaves. Lake Louise and Sunshine may be the Noodle Soup capitals of the world!

Mid-price restaurants in town (eg $100-$150 inc drinks) are almost on every street corner. We particularly enjoyed the Bear Street Tavern (particularly $10 Calzone night!), Touloolou's and Melissas' Misteak. We dined at the latter for our early Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Christmas dinner itself was chips and gravy on the mountain!

Didn't drink much due to fatigue and a desire not to turn into too much of a bloater. Locally brewed pale ales were very good, though.

Return journey: Dull. No delays. Mrs Plough and I slept for a few hours. The Miniploughs didn't and had had to be dynamited out of bed at 11am this morning!

Overall: Everything we'd hoped for and a little bit more. Saving the pennies for another Christmas trip in three years!

A snowHead

What, no panckakes and maple syrup Shocked

I'd say a strongly worded letter is in order!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

So it is as i had heard.....damn cold.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

This Easter (late March) I scraped a "dream trip" to Banff, as it was a 2-week Easter hol relatively early in the year so more snowsure.

I now have a little devil on my shoulder whispering to me that half term is late this year (end Feb), and if I snuck a few days' off the children's school, we could get another 10 days. But €3200 plane tickets, then all the other stuff on top, sigh... As opposed to Andorra, a few tanks of fuel... Sad

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@The Flying Snowplough, thanks, we are heading there on the 14th Jan, same hotel. Excited slightly Very Happy

You'll need to Register first of course.

@spyderjon, Tooloolou's filled this gap adequately!

@essex, cold and then some on the extremities. The inside of my nose froze on the first day!

@Orange200, it's certainly not cheap, though day-for-day, actually quite comparable with a TO offering to Europe at half term. Or so I tell myself...

@graeme, very jealous, despite not yet having done all the washing from this trip!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thank you! We are thinking of doing a similar trip for Xmas 2018 either Banff or Whistler!

After all it is free

@The Flying Snowplough, we all still have our face masks from our trip to Banff, but we loved it. I preferred it to Whistler. =

@The Flying Snowplough, I don't know how one compares prices for DIY trips - is it a science or an art, with all the different combinations of discounts? - but I just did a basic comparison of 5 days lessons in Banff and Grandvalira, and 5 days lift ticket in each, and Banff was 50% more each time Sad

. I gain on the accommodation, but given the plane tickets as well, that's a hell of a difference...

Ah well. I see Easter is early in 2018 Toofy Grin

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

You were here for a bit of a chilly patch. Now its much better, above freezing in Calgary today!

Glad you had a good time!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

snow reports

Our first trip skiing in Canada was to Banff the thermometer on the wall in the room we were in showed the out side temp at -42 and -46 by the next morning. In the 10 days we were there the temp eventually rose to +5 at Banff.
Lake louise was so cold we got there walked about a bit and drove to the chateau for hot chocolate and to look at the view. We set off back to Banff with cold flattened tyres they took 3 miles before they became round. This problem with the wheels happened alot..

You know it makes sense.

We went to Banff this Easter and there's a lot to be said for that time of year. It was nice and warm and sunny but still good snow and almost everything open. Sunshine doesn't close till end may and lake Louise mid May. But it was really quiet in the week - Easter isn't a school holiday - great service and lessons. Our 5yr learn to ski there and the children's facilities and lessons were superb.

It was meant to be a once in a lifetime trip but it was so good we are going again this year! We went DIY and totally guessing I think we spent £6k for three for 11 days. Flights were £550 each - but to put that into context we paid £400 each to go to Portugal last half term! There doesn't seem to be the same holiday mark up - presumably different school schedules. So a half term or Easter break looks better compared to Europe than a January break.

If gong diy there's a few things you can do to save money. Pre booking lift passes saves upto 40%. A lot of hotels have tie ins and discounts with certain rental shops. Also what was sold as an economy small car was huge - plenty big for a family of four and luggage.

I can't wait for april!!!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@The Flying Snowplough, Thanks man, we'll be there in March and same hotel. Can't wait!

Help!!

TR - Christmas in Banff "en famille"

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