2021-22 Ski/Snowboard Season

[CedarMeter]

Went to Louise yesterday and it was absolutely epic. I went up the summit chair in the afternoon and just by luck they opened brown shirt. Pow galore back there. It got tracked out pretty quick, though. The have so much snow at the Lake.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Fernie is no "harder" than any other hill IMO. It has all kinds of greens and blues off a number of different chairs, and lots of options if you do want to go higher up and scare yourself. Lots of traversing though, so not the greatest if you're an intermediate boarder who doesn't wax their board properly.

To me the hardest hill around is still Castle. It's cold as F, windy as F, and steep as F with a "blue" run to get you down from the top of Tamarack if you don't want blacks and double blacks. Opening up huckleberry helped, but it's still mostly intermediate terrain.

Especially if he lives in the deep south.

Our day was always:

Hit the road in time to get to the hill around 8:30-9:00 (that means I picked buddy up on the extreme SW side of town at 6:00).

We would eat breakfast in the car on the way.

Ski nonstop till 2:30/3:00 then grab a bite to eat and a beer then his the road around 4:30. Usually back in time to watch the late game on CBC.

I am trying to recall where we bought tickets before we went down. AMA? Costco? They were unusually cheaper.

Anyway, Fernie is a wicked hill and if you live in the deep south like me it honestly is doable for a day trip.

Auburn Bay to LL - 208 km
Auburn Bay to Fernie - 264km

[kevman]

Honestly, we live just north of downtown and at 3 hours it's still doable as a day drip when the snow demands it.

Besides, with the growing trend of upside down trucks in the ditch on the #1 in the last few years, we've had numerous 3 hour drives to or from Louise. All of a sudden a Fernie day trip doesn't sound so crazy.

[NinePack]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Rain hit the peaks of alot of hills the last week or so.
Friends telling me about Baker & Whistler. Fernie too, like you mentioned. I was in Revy last week, and fortunate they were still cold enough. Albeit heavy, accumulations.

NinePack, how are White Water & Red Mtn for rain of late?

There was a bunch of snow earlier but all this week was warm , no rain of snow really. looks like another dry week ahead of us. WOuld rather warm, dry and sunny over rain. hopefully it cools down soon.

feels like spring skiing lol

[Tron_fdc]

Yeah, the kids are all out racing at Red this weekend so if the conditions suck, I'm the guy posting up at Rafters for a noon to dinner beer drinking shift.

Who am I kidding, even if the conditions are good I'm still doing that.

[flamesfan1297]

Went skiing at Lake Louise today! I've bought a helmet and goggles this year, I was thinking about maybe buying boots eventually, and then skis at after that. You can use boots you own on rental skis correct? I assume bindings are pretty standard, and especially rentals are adjustable

[wwkayaker]

Yep, I know many people who have bought boots so that they always had a good fit and then rent skis.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

Went skiing at Lake Louise today! I've bought a helmet and goggles this year, I was thinking about maybe buying boots eventually, and then skis at after that. You can use boots you own on rental skis correct? I assume bindings are pretty standard, and especially rentals are adjustable

Yes. Boots are most important by far. Highly recommend somewhere like Lou's, but Ski West/Ski Cellar etc. are fine, too

If you want to save a few bucks, go with used skis...but renting/demoing for a bit is a good way to find out what you like.

[Weitz]

Anyone else lose their motivation to ski? I’ve been skiing for 30 years and I just can’t find the motivation to go anymore. I haven’t gone once this year and last year I did one warm up day at lake Louise and 2 days of heli skiing. I just can’t get motivated to go unless it’s a weekend trip to fernie/KH/Revy/Big white.

Anyone else like this?

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Anyone else lose their motivation to ski? I’ve been skiing for 30 years and I just can’t find the motivation to go anymore. I haven’t gone once this year and last year I did one warm up day at lake Louise and 2 days of heli skiing. I just can’t get motivated to go unless it’s a weekend trip to fernie/KH/Revy/Big white.

Anyone else like this?

Now that you've had filet mignon it's hard to go back to ground beef?

I've taken 2 years off due to fatherhood/pandemic without missing it too much, but I'm getting the itch again. I've never been a morning person though and I totally know what you mean...I hate the wake up/drive and could easily talk myself out of going. Full days are long, too...I wish I lived closer and could just go for 2 hours a day.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Now that you've had filet mignon it's hard to go back to ground beef?

I've taken 2 years off due to fatherhood/pandemic without missing it too much, but I'm getting the itch again. I've never been a morning person though and I totally know what you mean...I hate the wake up/drive and could easily talk myself out of going. Full days are long, too...I wish I lived closer and could just go for 2 hours a day.

Heh wasn’t meant as a brag or anything. Year before that I don’t think I skied at all then one trip before that.

I enjoyed a while where I’d go out and do a few laps at black prince or something but my buddies stopped doing the back country thing. Maybe I just need to get back into that? I just love skiing but can’t convince myself to go!

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Heh wasn’t meant as a brag or anything. Year before that I don’t think I skied at all then one trip before that.

I hear you...I can see how it would make it harder for me to get up for a day of 'average' skiing, though.

[cam_wmh]

Nope. 80+ days last season, aiming for similar again this season.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Nope. 80+ days last season, aiming for similar again this season.

Unreal. I was, I think, 26 days last year and thought that was pretty good.

Hoping to meet or beat that this year but that cold snap over the Xmas break was a downer. I only went out once then when I had planned to get out at least five times.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Unreal. I was, I think, 26 days last year and thought that was pretty good.

Hoping to meet or beat that this year but that cold snap over the Xmas break was a downer. I only went out once then when I had planned to get out at least five times.

I was a putz, and went to Louise on Boxing day and got frost bite. It's not always noble, hahaha.

[Northendzone]

my wife and i spent the weekend in lake louise - was so nice to be done skiing for tehd ay, then drive 15m to the hotel and be relaxing, and then the next morning being able to sleep in until 71.5, and slowly get ready. We got lots of laps in on friday and not as many on saturday as it was busy. Teh addition of the juniper chair will help somewhat.

on Saturday night we went out to eat at the station in LL - I had an awesome steak.

it is really stunning how much snow they have in the town of LL. It seems like a different world out there relative to calgary or even in Banff there is not as much snow.

[cam_wmh]

I’ve heard this before, I’ll try to be optimistic.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/fortress-...GHVTO0BUFZqmAE

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

I’ve heard this before, I’ll try to be optimistic.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/fortress-...GHVTO0BUFZqmAE

lofty goal

[Fuzz]

Fortress re-opening is a bit like cold fusion. Just around the corner.

[powderjunkie]

This has now been in the works about as long as Chinese Democracy was.

It's a real shame the way RCR (owned by Murray Edwards for anyone who doesn't know) left the facilities when they walked away...it had been poorly maintained for years and may have been difficult to salvage anyways, but if it hadn't immediately turned into a disaster zone something might have been possible.


It would be interesting to see how the hill skied these days now that everyone is on fatties. There aren't many comparable lifts anywhere nearby...Knob and Eagle Ridge at Marmot or Huckleberry at Castle are the closest. Fortress Farside Chair wasn't that much shorter than the main chairs at Norquay, but IIRC it skied a lot shorter since you could only go to one side which collected into a cattrack (though it looks like they plan to realign that chair a bit and open up skiers left side).