 Poster: A snowHead
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It's pouring with snow here in Banff. Time now 2045hrs local time. Trying to keep myself awake but struggling. Been a long day flying from Gatwick to Calgary. Have to say the Monarch flight was very good, we paid for the Premium upgrade, well worth the extra. We were looked after very well and was grateful for the extra space as we had Grace (11 months) crawling all over us.
Bit of shopping for baby food and a few essentials, then a few beers, dinner and now bed, no doubt will be wide awake at 4. The snow I think is going to be excellent can't wait to spoil it.
Will report back tomorrow.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ken they said the snow would come I hope you get a good meter that will set you up for the next 10 days have fun 
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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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Met up with fellow Snowhead, Richie and his wife Jelena for a day at Lake Louise. Richie was sporting a splendid black eye following an argument with the terrain park. Good day was had by all on some empty pistes as we flew around. Temperature and wind chill were not for the faint hearted particularly in the back bowls, it did however mean there was no one else around.
Found a passable substitute for Gluhwein, - hot apple cider and rum. Very nice but has the potential to turn nasty I think.
Feeling really tired still, Grace's sleep pattern is all over the place. Grown ups can cope with jet lag after the first night small people just can't. Worth bearing in mind if any of you are contemplating long haul and in particlarly skiing.
Fairley relaxed day ahead as Gran finishes off her course of lessons, then its full steam ahead as she takes over babysitting duties for a couple of days. Sunshine on Monday where if conditions are OK will be attempting Delirium Dive, then Kicking Horse (thanks Alexandra) on Tuesday.
Another post card to follow soon.
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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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Ken Lingwood, good luck with DD, rather you than me. Free Fall was quite hairy enough.
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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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Kicking Horse with fresh snow around? I am soooooooooooooooooooooo jealous.
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Three excellent days of skiing. Tuesday back at Sunshine for more freshtracks in yet more snow. Slopes quite empty and clear skies. Wednesday saw us at Norquay rather than our planned Lake Louise visit. LL has missed most of the recent snow whereas Norquay had 12cms of fresh snow. Its a very underated hill, yes the runs are short, but there is no one there and the slopes are so well groomed. It was "corduroy" all day. Ridiculous speeds were achieved. A great place to put the Volkl 6 stars (which are superb) through their paces. The area has also a very testing aspect to it, in the steep double black diamonds off of the North American chair.
Today we had planned to go to Kicking Horse, but were warned off as the snow had not been as it should, whilst still great at the top, half way down was very sketchy. We have a mixed ability group and so decided against it. Instead we hired a car and took the 50 mile trip to Nakiska. The hill was purpose built for the '88 Olympics. Unlike the Banff ski areas Nakiska is very much a "locals" area. But what a gem. We arrived at about 10am the car park only had about 30 cars in it which we thought strange there must have been something wrong I thought, but no, the place was empty. We had whole runs to ourselves. Its a groomers paradise with quite steep very wide runs devoid of ice, moguls (even the black diamonds) and people. It was a great day under blue bird skies, we were worn out by the end of the day it was pretty much flat out fast skiing all the time. For those planning to come to Banff my advice would be to not just buy the 3 area lift pass for the duration but to consider travelling about. Car hire is dirt cheap, (although the car felt like I was driving a sofa!) 100 cdn for the day which is about £ 40.00. Nakiska, Kicking Horse and Panorama are all within easy reach.
Tomorrow (Friday) is our last day. I'm making a visit to Delirium Dive which should prove interesting  I've got to take a transceiver and a shovel. I'm looking forward to it in an apprehensive sort of way. I'm going with a local instructor so shouldn't get myself into too much trouble I hope. There's apparently a 20 odd foot jump to get into the Dive or a set of steps, followed by a couple of hundred metres of very very steep stuff where falling is not an option so I'm told When you get through that then it knee to waist high powder. Seems a lot of aggravation to get to the lovely stuff, still no pain no gain I'm lead to believe 
Hopefully I'm still in a fit state to report back.
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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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Well what can I say, conditions here in LL are fantastic. We have had about a foot of snow in the past 2 days and it is snowing steadily right now (5pm on Monday).
We arrived in Calagary Wednesday evening, spent Thursday shopping for clothes in Calgary (loads of bargains for my wife and kids but nothing for me), then on to Canmore where we had a chat with a Real Estate broker, then to Banff where we spent a small fortune on new skis for me, my wife, my daughter, plus new blades for me, plus new boots and helmet for my daughter! Finally Thursday night we arrived at LL and booked into The Post.
So Friday was the first day skiing, conditions pretty good on piste, but no powder and I didn't fancy going off piste. I skied with my wife and daughter, we did mainly blue runs on front side and Larch, but I did a couple of blacks (Raven which had massive moguls and was a little too much for me on the first day) and Wolverine which should be blue but has been re-graded black at the moment because of excessive moguling at the top.
Saturday started out as with Friday, but it was just me and my wife as our daughter went in to ski school (more of that later). Then at 11am the snow started coming down fairly heavily and it went on and on all day, much of the day was almost a white out but conditions were getting noticeably better as we skied. We stayed on the back side and Larch area most of the time doing Ptarmigan several times which was in great condition and we came back via the Ladies Downhill which was the best I've seen it in 10 years! Hardly any ice and by late in the day a nice covering of power, particularly at the edges.
My daughter (age 9) had been in level 7 (out of 9) at the ski school in 2002/3 when we were here last but now they only have 6 levels, so I put her in level 5. However after the first 30 minutes they put her up into level 6 and at the end of the day the instructor said she should go into the performance groups! However it turns out that the performance groups are for adults and they won't allow anyone younger than 12 into them because it 'might upset the adults'! So it seems she has progressed too quickly (with 2 weeks of skiing almost every year since age 4) and now I am having to decide whether to stump up the considerable cash for private lessons. We put her in the level 6 lessons for another three days and will have another think on Wednesday.
Sunday conditons were very good, the snow stopped about 9am having carried on through the night and all pisted runs were excellent. Later on in the day we headed over to Top of The World and I decided conditions were good enough to try the ER7 gullies. So I picked what look like a nice one, from the map probably Gully 7, but they are not individually marked. It was incredible, powder up to the top of my boots and I was making fresh tracks even in the afternoon, then a terrible scraping sound and I knew I'd gone over a rock  Sure enough, when I got to the bottom I had a nasty gash about 3 inches long and about a quarter of an inch wide and deep. Fortunately there was not damage to the edges and this gash was right in the centre of the ski under the foot so it was easy and cheap to repair, but we decided to call it a day at that point and dropped the ski into the repair shop. My daughter came back beaming because she had done both the ladies and mens downhills (even I haven't done the mens yet this year) and her skis were still in perfect nick!
Last night it started snowing at about 6pm and continued until this morning so again conditions were superb, but we had already made plans to go and see the real estate agent in Canmore, so the kids went skiing and we headed for Canmore. The visit with the agent went very well and we are booked to see a load of houses on Friday, our dream of emigrating has taken another step forward! For a ski report, I therefore have to relay second hand info from my daughter. She said 'the snow was great' they did the mens downhill again as well as loads of other stuff that she didn't know the names of!
Tomorrow I will be out on my newly repaired skis (they look perfect!) and if we continue to get snow over night then I'm sure I'll find some more powder to brag about  We have also booked me, my wife and my daughter in to a private group lesson on Wednesday for 3 hours so no doubt I'll have something to report then. Also I'm planning to get to Sunshine, Kicking Horse and Golden over the next two weeks so will report on those trips too.
Right, off to the Out Post now for a little beer and food, I'll report back later in the week.
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solarfish, congratulations, seems your timing is spot on with the snow. I too was at Lake Louise on Friday, it was the busiest I've seen it in my visits. Sunshine had a three mile queue to get to the car park!!!
Our planned visit to Delerium Dive was aborted as the whole of Banff was out of transceivers due to the holiday, that was really disappointing. Instead, we spent the day (Friday) In the Whitehorn Gullies and the chutes of The Diamond Mine, there was still fresh snow left. I was grateful to my friend and guide/instructor who knew the right spots to ski. It was the most exhilerating days skiing I've had and the perfect way to end our trip.
solarfish, Canmore is a good choice to buy, its just outside the Banff National Park (by a couple of miles), and therefore not subject to inflated prices. Enjoy the rest of your stay.
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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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Time for another update, Wednesday we had our private lesson and it went very well, in particular I was taken back a bit experience-wise to practice some turning without edging. I must admit I have got a little lazy in my turns with modern skis doing most of the work for me! But during the lesson everything was focussed on much slower turns where edges couldn't really be employed and it certainly did help me when the technique was employed at higher speed in conjunction with edging. Now I feel more able to control my acceleration on steeper runs where previously it was sometimes a case of how fast I was prepared to go before baling out and skidding to a dramatic stop 
It was also a bit of a revalation skiing with my daughter in a lesson, I knew she was good but whenever she skied with me I would lead and would take it a little easy. In the lesson today the instructor led then my daughter then me and finally my wife. I really was going close to flat out at times to keep up, it could well be a matter of a few weeks on snow before she is better than me
After the lesson I skied Lynx and it was very nice indeed with a little moguling but deep snow in places and no signs of rocks, roots or ice. Again we did Ptarmigan a few times and there was still plenty of snow down the left hand edge. My daughter insisted on doing some tree runs so we did the trees below Eagle which had nice snow and continued in those just above Top of the World which were also pretty well off for snow.
Yesterday we had no new snow, but we did do a lot of skiing, non-stop from 9.30 until 3.30 with most of the runs being done on the back side and Larch. Pistes were a little hard in the morning, but no sign of ice so perfectly good intermediate and above levels. I tried several runs through the trees on Larch and conditions were very good, often I was making fresh tracks in powder which was very surprising since we had not had snow since Monday. Pisted runs were again in good condition with only a couple getting a little slushy in the afternoon.
My son went in to the ski school as he was just being lazy in the daycare (he was probably the eldest and had a 'posse' of three and four year olds following him around all day so was skipping ski lessons). He loved the skiing so we booked him in for all day at level 3.
Today (Friday) we went to see some houses in Canmore, needless to say, because we were not skiing today it was dumping heavily this morning! The kids spent all day in ski school, my daughter came back saying she had again done both Ladies and Mens downhills and had managed to do a jump that took her as high as the instructors head! This was particularly sweet apprently as she was in the group with four boys, all older then her and she out-jumped them all  My son's instructor said that after tomorrow he will be ready for level 4 (of 6) which is incredible after a total of about 3 weeks on skis and age 5, I just can't see any way that I can keep ahead of the kids for much longer
The house hunting went well today, we were amazed at the size and quality of the homes that were within our budget. We are going to see some other properties on Tuesday, but a move to Alberta is now looking very realistic. The only unanswered question is what we will do for income, but the absence of a mortgage and school fees certainly takes the pressure off salaries!
I'll give another update early next week, we have just been invited to special 'Wine Makers Dinner' being thrown at The Post in celebration of Caymus Vineyards tomorrow night, so I expect to be well and truly wasted for the next couple of days 
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