Skiing Lake Louise

Last week I had a massive gap in the middle of the week with no work. So Brandon got a few days off and we booked at trip to Lake Louise to go skiing. Well, sort of. We actually stayed in Golden again because it's so much cheaper than the Banff area.

Why are all the ski hill signs so hard to get to!?

So we left early (not really) in the morning and drove to Lake Louise through the Kootenay National Park from Radium hot springs. It was a really pretty drive through the National Park there. We also saw a large group of mountain goats on the road in Radium, which is always cool. Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful trip.

We got to Lake Louise in time for their half day pass, but since we had bought the Lake Louise plus card, we used it. It gives you 3 free days skiing and 4 that are $20 off, so even for the half day it works out better to use it. The hill itself was about as busy as Fernie gets on a Saturday, except with more maniacs screaming down the runs as fast as they can. Anyway, we both really liked the hill itself. The best part is you can do a nice long green run from basically the top all the way to the bottom, which is what Fernie is lacking most. Oh, and the lack of cat tracks. Oh the joy of not having to cat track at the top of a lift, or the bottom! It's a reasonably small hill, but it does have a nice mix of green, blue and black runs, with most of the back of the mountain being black. The main downside is the minimal parking; I can imagine it would be a long walk on a weekend! Oh and the Lake Louise Burger from the food court was just super bland. We were very glad we upgraded to "Direct to Lift" on our passes and got $10 bonus credit, which we used for our gross burgers. Because we would have been super annoyed if we'd paid full price!

Snow selfie Kings

My riding has been super messed up since I tried a 10cm longer traditional camber board. I had a lesson at Fernie (which was a bit of a waste of time, because the girl in the group with me was not capable of doing blue runs), and have my confidence back. But any time I get to the top of a blue run I just freak. So I came over really hard on one of my knees and have a really pretty knee now. So, I took it easy after that and mostly stuck to the green runs...

We had an uneventful night. I was wiped and super glad I had dinner pre-cooked and we just had to heat and eat that night.

The next morning we got up and left early (even more of a stretch of the truth). We went straight up the gondola (another thing it would be nice if Fernie had), ad dropped over the back of the hill to try it out. And I had an awesome time struggling down a blue run, mostly because of fear... So I spent the rest of the day on green runs again, just trying to improve my technique and confidence. Meanwhile, Brandon explored most of the rest of the hill, and found what little soft powder was left, mostly on the black runs (something Fernie does not lack for! Powder that is). This was actually the day we ate our dismal burgers. And also the day Brandon tried a massive jump, chickened out and landed on his bum. To be fair, he's not done any lessons in jumping. He just has a lot less fear than me! Haha!

We were both exhausted by 3pm, so we took our borrowed ice skates and drove across the highway to the actual lake. I was a bit disappointed that you couldn't skate on the WHOLE lake, it was just a smallish cleared area. But, I guess they don't want people falling through thin spots... Sigh... fair enough. 3 tour busses pulled up in the half hour we were there. I found that super surprising, considering there's not that much to see there now. Oh, except the ice castle! I found out after we'd booked our trip that an ice sculpting competition was about to start just after our trip. So, I probably would have booked it for later if I knew that. Anyway, they'd started the castle and it was pretty wicked.

We had a late morning the next day and drove home via Cranbrook so we could stock up on coffee and canvases for me! It rained most of the way home (Boooo!), which completely changed the look of the whole drive.

Well that's it for now!

Top tip, there's a water bubbler in the main lodge near the Slope Side Cafe at Lake Louise ski hill!