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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

So much for worrying about parking. There's no one here.

Yup, cool-guy-hour'ed right into first row.

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

If you came late, you done goofed.

1,000 days in at Louise; I know where to find the goods.

Originally Posted by kevman

Rode West bowl this morning. I've been in there before while touring but I have to admit the day after leftovers were suprisingly good. Two thumbs up that you still get to hit the park every lap. When the collector fills in a bit more there's going to be a bunch of good side hits too. Good lap.

Agreed. My only gripe is that I could rock thru Star Wars, pumping thru the trees, where as the ski-out back is too slow (snowboard)..

Originally Posted by Tacopuck

After skiing Louise my entire 30+ year life, I entered west bowl for the first time over the weekend and it blew me away. Its huge, a patroller told me it now represents 30% of the total skiable area of the resort. The fact you have to take 3 chairs to get to the entrance and have to ski to the base seems annoying however definitely limits people lapping the area and using all the fresh snow which allows you to get good untouched turns in later on in the day, so I'm all for it.

Little disappointed the platter was replaced with the chair as I always liked that the platter filtered out those who couldn't handle the terrain with the horribly painful lift up, but the new chair is so wind exposed it might keep people away for that reason alone. That said with this much new area you have to have a chair so I cant really complain.

Originally Posted by Flames0910

Hmm, "30% of total skiable area" is exactly the kind of number I was looking for but based on the googling I did this morning I'm not sure the patroller's math adds up.

West Bowl is 480 skiable acres.
Lake Louise is 4200 skiable acres.

I did the math earlier to compare with some of the smaller mountains and came up with 2.5x Norquay (190 acres), 0.8x Cypress (600 acres) or 0.5x Nakiska (1021 acres) lol.

I think the problem with much of Louise' marketed, skiable acrege is that it falls below a tree-line that cannot be gladed (parks), vs wide-open West Bowl. While there are pockets, to exploit pow in the lower, trees -- ultimately un-gladed coniferous trees, are a heckuva natural deterrent to ripping thru them. It's how I best explain the benefit of Japan vs the Rockies. Where-as the Hokkaido resorts, are for the most part but a small fraction the size of our big 2, their addressable acreage can be ripped in totality. Their hills are covered with deciduous (infamous cherry blossoms in many spots), and as such the base can be ripped right to the trunk. Coniferous △ vs Decidious ▽ (plus Hokkaido gets absolutely nuked on)

Thus, the patroller may have been on the thought of actual skiable terrain, increased 30%. Not outlandish.