 Poster: A snowHead
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A promotional email from the Ski Big 3 claims that you can watch northern light at Banff.
Has anyone been able to?
Watching northern light with my own eyes is on my bucket list, and what better way to do it than combining it with my favorite sport.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We've been to Banff a few times and never seen them - bear in mind it’s on a similar latitude to Stonehenge, and I’m not convinced the altitude makes up for that. Could be wrong.
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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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@New Daddy, can’t answer the question but having lived in Sweden for 12 years and never seen the northern lights, despite plenty of travel to the north, I’ve come to the conclusion that a Hurtigruten northern lights trip is the best way (not done it though).
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I've seen the Northern Lights in Yorkshire and Hamburg. Very lucky both times, quite rare at those latitudes. But by far the best view of the Northern Lights was in Iceland.
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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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Yes you can, you can notice them often although seeing very bright ones is rather rare. It happens tho. If you travel north the national park you get better chances. Like on the way to jasper. Mainly because is there is no city lights at all around there I guess.
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 this is my mates picture in lake minnewanka. Just outside banff town
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If you head over to Canada to ski, one part of the trip where you have a great chance of seeing the northern lights is on the flight back from Calgary or Vancouver. I've seen them on both my return flights the last two years. Book a seat by the window on the left side....
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I saw them while flying to Calgary on the way to Banff. The plane flies right up by Iceland and Greenland. We had a great view.
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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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Banff is too far south, seen them only 3 or 4 times in northern scotland in my 50 years, once was half decent but not amazing, other times were fairly faint.
Get a little annoyed at the endless facebook posts round here of 'how they were the other night with these images full of bright green', either digitally altered and/or long camera exposures for night shooting embellish what the eye can't even see.
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As others have said Banff is possible, but by no means likely as it's too far south.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I guess @New Daddy is asking because we wants to go to a fantastic ski destination while being able to see some lights (I might be wrong).
So my answer would be: yes, maybe  if you are very very lucky you will see some lights waving in the sky... as other people mentioned it is too far south to be a likely, this means that if you go for a week period chances are you won't see anything. Is not that rare to see very discreet ones though, which is better than nothing I guess, specially if you've never seen them you would be happy (my first time seeing a little bit of a sparkle in the sky I was blown away).
I lived in Banff for two seasons and I got to see decent lights only twice, there is indeed a lot of misleading information and false advertising, and yes everything is filtered ( that happens with almost every single picture of nature these days)
My friend Jayden is from Yellowknife he told me that once he got to see them so bright that it was possible to read a book. He also told me that that only happened once in his 35 years of living in the Yukon (NT actually). I don't know what my point with this story, it is just kind of interesting.
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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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| marcs44 wrote: |
| If you head over to Canada to ski, one part of the trip where you have a great chance of seeing the northern lights is on the flight back from Calgary or Vancouver. I've seen them on both my return flights the last two years. Book a seat by the window on the left side.... |
Oh, yes, I had forgotten about that - on one of our (5) ski holidays in Canada they were visible from the plane, but I was asleep, so missed it.
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Aren't Northern Lights strongest around mid/end January?
I adore Banff, but skiing there end of Jan - wrap up well!
Also agree that it probably doesn't help to be reasonably developed, thus you have light pollution from nearby towns.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
I adore Banff, but skiing there end of Jan - wrap up well!
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I was skiing in sunshine one day, ski patrol told us to go to the Lodge. Because it was getting too cold to the systems that run the chairs to properly work, and too cold for anyone to be outside for that matter. It was -45 °C. haha
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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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I went to Banff a few times, in my ancient padded salopettes, with the usual fleece trousers and thermals underneath, and my 4 layers on top including heavy jacket. Once the instructor said "come on let's get out of the wind down there and let's all keep moving, it's so cold." I couldn't understand how a Canadian instructor could be cold and I wasn't.
Last time I went, it was in my fancy new "race" pants, only room for thermals underneath, same heavy jacket but probably without the thick fleece underneath. One morning it was bitterly cold, I had to hide in a cafe nursing a Large hot chocolate for an hour or more trying to defrost, I love skiing but I really didn't want to leave that room. Temp reading was somewhere around -15C.
Wrap up well 
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Poster: A snowHead
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They are certainly visible around Banff if the conditions are right but you'd have to be lucky and pretty committed to long nights out in the cold! And it helps to learn to understand the science and spot the signs of potential Aurora (spaceweather.com is a good resource to learn) - certainly no guarantees. I haven't seen them in 2 trips to Banff and 1 to Jasper, even with setting alarms through the night to check the stats (and cloud cover!) but my quest continues. I follow a group of Alberta aurora watchers and generally the Aurora has made an appearance as soon as I've got home to blighty  ...
Northern Finland offers more likely opportunities but the skiing is just OK
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| marcs44 wrote: |
| If you head over to Canada to ski, one part of the trip where you have a great chance of seeing the northern lights is on the flight back from Calgary or Vancouver. I've seen them on both my return flights the last two years. Book a seat by the window on the left side.... |
So seats on the right going from UK to Calgary and on the left coming back? I’ll remember that when we go next year.
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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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We saw them on Finland ski holiday. Pretty unspectacular - more just a green haze - but nice to have seen all the same.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Got you thanks.
Sad to say in this sort of thing I conform to my gender stereotype!! Drives my husband mad.
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| marcs44 wrote: |
| If you head over to Canada to ski, one part of the trip where you have a great chance of seeing the northern lights is on the flight back from Calgary or Vancouver. I've seen them on both my return flights the last two years. Book a seat by the window on the left side.... |
I concur, stunning show if skies are clear.
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