 Poster: A snowHead
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Never been skiing outside of Europe but have the chance to do Panorama Mountain middle of March. Is it any good as i have no idea about skiing over the pond.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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mightysaints, it's worth doing a search on 'Panorama' - not forgetting to tick 'search title AND message text.' There's been quite a lot of discussion.
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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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Nice ski area with big vertical for a North American resort. Only issue is snow - it doesn't get that much of it! You may get lucky I suppose but if I was in that area and had the means, I would be heading to Kicking Horse a couple of hours up the road at Golden, which has a way better snow record and awesome off piste.
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mightysaints, Yes it is good - what type of holiday are you looking for? Feature of Panorama is the hot pool/tub complex that is slopeside.
Do the search as Hurtle, recommends and there are photos around the media site as well.
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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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It depends how adventurous you are. If you want to stick to groomers, forget it - you'll ski every run in the resort in a couple of hours. If you're happy to extend to bumps, you'll have a much better time, as most of the blacks are only groomed once every few weeks. You'll enjoy yourself even more if you're happy skiing lightly gladed stuff, working around small natural obstacles and undergrowth; that'll open up Founders Ridge, Bell's landing and the Sun Bowl to you. If you're looking at the trail map, be warned that many blue runs fall into this category: a Panorama blue is definitely a much more interesting experience than a European blue.
But to make the most of Panorama, you need to be comfortable with slopes that are simultaneously steep, ungroomed and gladed. Pretty much every run in the Extreme Dream Zone and Taynton Bowl fall into that category, and together they account for maybe 30% of the mountain.
I've been to Panorama three times and never had problems with snow, although the groomers have undoubtedly had their icy moments, and you sometimes find thin patches where several ungroomable runs converge, such as on Funnel, the run-out for many runs in the Taynton Bowl.
My verdict? It's the best place that I've ever skied. Taynton has some awesome runs such as Ktunaxa where you can cut fresh tracks several days after a snowfall. The Extreme Dream Zone offers Orca (short but incredibly steep) and Fat Chance, which always seems to have fresh powder hidden in the trees. Nearer the central lifts, Tree Time and Hideaway offer moguls amongst perfectly spaced trees, and Black Bear is a hidden gem - a narrow path in a densely wooded gully just yards away from the main piste motorway. Sun Bowl, Bells and Founders are a great place to learn to ski through light vegetation, and you'll find perfect moguls on Tacky and Whisky Jack.
But don't go to Panorama for gentle cruisers, bawdy nightlife or sophisticated cuisine. You'll be bitterly disappointed.
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mightysaints, in case you should get the impression from the last post that it's only for extremely good/gnarly skiers, I did enjoy it (twice) even though I'm not a good skier. Don't mind intermittently groomed-ish bumps, though, so as Jonny Jones says, that opened up some blacks to me. The main downside for me was the lack of half-way decent shopping for self-catering. You can drive down into the valley for stuff, but in the resort itself, the single supermarket was a joke, particularly in terms of any fresh produce: I'm used to improvising, but I couldn't cook a week's worth of interesting meals out of it. But that's a few years ago, things could have improved since then, I don't know.
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Going tomorrow!!
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Hurtle, unless they've revamped it this season, the shop is still dreadful. It can sometimes be out of stock of basic fresh items like meat, onions or apples for days at a time, but bizarrely will always have a large choice of muffin mixes available in case you fancy some light baking in the evening. The supermarket in Invermere is very good, but it's a 25 mile round trip and you absolutely need a car to get there. There's not a lot of choice if you want to eat out either.
The only positive spin that you can put on the situation is to say that Panorama is for real skiers rather than pampered foodies.
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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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| Jonny Jones wrote: |
But to make the most of Panorama, you need to be comfortable with slopes that are simultaneously steep, ungroomed and gladed. Pretty much every run in the Extreme Dream Zone and Taynton Bowl fall into that category, and together they account for maybe 30% of the mountain.
But don't go to Panorama for gentle cruisers, bawdy nightlife or sophisticated cuisine. You'll be bitterly disappointed. |
^^This^^
I heard they might have upgraded the general store recently.
The choice of eateries annoyed me slightly as we ended up at the same place most nights. I did think the prices were reasonable though.
I enjoyed myself there, though I won't be rushing back until I am more confident skiing steep gladed runs with lots of powder.
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| Quote: |
bizarrely will always have a large choice of muffin mixes available in case you fancy some light baking in the evening
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Canadians are really into baking....................
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Thanks for all the info...
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I noticed the bakery things in the shop also - I was rather disappointed to find that betty crocker does a whole range of other products than what they sell in my local morissons.
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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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| Hurtle wrote: |
| mightysaints, in case you should get the impression from the last post that it's only for extremely good/gnarly skiers, I did enjoy it (twice) even though I'm not a good skier. |
I didn't mean to say that Panorama is only good for expert skiers, and I'm certainly no expert myself. If you have a sense of adventure and want to push yourself or maybe take some lessons to learn how to tackle new types of terrain, it's a great place to develop your skills. But if you're content to stick with groomed slopes for the rest of your life, or if you have medical problems (dodgy knees, perhaps?) that prevent you moving onto tougher slopes, there are better choices for a week's stay. The resort would suit anyone for a short break - but British Columbia is a long way for most of us to travel for the weekend.
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Poster: A snowHead
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luigi, Nice pics!
We never got any days like that on the mountain sadly. All cloudy ones 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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v1cky24, it was a nice sunny day, but I don't think there had been any fresh for quite a while, so the runs were really hard-packed, wasn't nice as we had been spoilt by squeaky powder at Sunshine.
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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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luigi, I know what you mean about the hard packed stuff, I'm just learning/improving and that scraping sound of the skis on the icy bits frightens the hell out of me.
I don't think the tipi was there when we were there sadly. It looks very cool.
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Middle of March it'll probable be icy in the morning and slushy in the evening. Reasonable sized area for a week if you're between a 1 and say 4 week skier. Not much to do off the slope. Worth considering if you've got a good deal.
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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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Just back from 4 days skiing in Panorama. It made me weak at the knees. Thank god for the outdoor hot tubs in the evening.
Snow wasn't good. Very thin in places, some runs were in very poor condition, and will probabaly remain so for a while as ungroomed runs take a lot of snow to cover the ground round the edges of the moguls. Still we had a good time and for some reason my kids love moguls! It was very warm 2 or 3 C for first couple of days and then 6 or 7.
Favorite runs were Bell's landing and Sun bowl. Kids loved Roy's run and my 5 yr old for some reason loved Stombock.
Shop may well have improved- its certainly new, having moved downstairs. Were some fruit and veg, not much fresh meat though.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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hi gryphea
have you got any photos , i,m going out on the 24th . 
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f1l,
Not many as our SLR we cleverly forgot every day and our little mini as usual packed up intermittently. I'll try and download them tonight
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gryphea, sounds like you had a good time. Shame about the conditions, I think they were reported as being excellent the week we were there just before xmas.
I liked bells landing and sun bowl - I can see why your kids would like them, loads of little trees/shrubs to dodge!
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