-
Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.
Question: Kicking Horse/Lake Louise - current conditions?
- Thread starter MrsPlow
- Start date
Albertan ski girl
Angel Diva
Skiing is great at them Lake right now - haven't been to kh yet this season but a friend of mine says it's running great. Best conditions in years! Back side of Louise is great - big storm this weeeknd, and looks like it will be continuing all week!
Well in case anyone is thinking of KH in the next few days - go! It was in great shape today. Did some hiking to the other bowls - T2 in particular was amazing, apparently it had been shut for 2 days so there was a heap of fresh powder up there. Good cover the whole way down, and nice soft snow up top. Very tired now but it was a great day.
veronicarella
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thinking of going to Revelstoke and Kicking Horse next week. Will only have 2 days at each mountain. Any recommendations on how to move my way around the mountains so that I can experience the most with limited amount of time?
The weather forecast for Revy this week is not good. Tuesday/Wednesday we're looking at rain most of the way up the Stoke chair; if the freezing level's below 1600m, then it could still be ok, but at the moment snow forecast is showing up to 1900 on Tuesday and 2000 on Wednesday. We have a ton of snow at the moment, but it's definitely warmer today. :( Let me know if you're still going to head this way and I'll see if I can suggest good options (although tbh I'd recommend coming another time).
KH - the hikes up T1 and T2 are well worth the effort if you're comfortable with skiing steeper terrain and don't have a problem with heights. I'd recommend a backpack or sling for the skis - especially on T2, bit freaky in parts and you would want your hands free. It's possible to get down both peaks on wide open runs. T2 has the mellower run off the top, but the climb up is a bit more exposed. We had good visibility and very good, light snow so that made the runs much easier. Wouldn't go up there without decent vis. Plenty to ski if you don't hike as well though. Good long bump runs down the front of the hill and some nice groomers too. I didn't really notice what the runs were called, I think I skied one black run called Liberty, which was a nicely pitched run with soft bumps. There are a few short runs at the top that you can do without having to ski all the way down but generally you're going to have to get the gondy back up each run.
KH - the hikes up T1 and T2 are well worth the effort if you're comfortable with skiing steeper terrain and don't have a problem with heights. I'd recommend a backpack or sling for the skis - especially on T2, bit freaky in parts and you would want your hands free. It's possible to get down both peaks on wide open runs. T2 has the mellower run off the top, but the climb up is a bit more exposed. We had good visibility and very good, light snow so that made the runs much easier. Wouldn't go up there without decent vis. Plenty to ski if you don't hike as well though. Good long bump runs down the front of the hill and some nice groomers too. I didn't really notice what the runs were called, I think I skied one black run called Liberty, which was a nicely pitched run with soft bumps. There are a few short runs at the top that you can do without having to ski all the way down but generally you're going to have to get the gondy back up each run.
veronicarella
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for the heads up on Revy! I think I'll stay an extra day at KH and then wait until Thurs/Fri for better snow forecast at Revy.
Rainbow Jenny
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Arrived LL from Whistler this evening, nice rest day while SO drove after skiing 7 consecutive days. Haven't had time to read about skiing here but I'm sure we'll have fun exploring over the next 2 days.
veronicarella
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Loooong drive! I came from Whistler to Kicking Horse today, and I can't imagine sitting in the car for another couple hours to LL. Which route did you take: North through Pemberton to Kamloops or South via Vancouver/lower mainland?
Rainbow Jenny
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Through Kamloops, hadn't even considered via Vancouver. Weather isn't bad at all. I enjoyed it more than from LA to Salt Lake.
Albertan ski girl
Angel Diva
@Rainbow Jenny - have an awesome time at LL. the conditions in the area this past weekend were amazing! So you should be able to get some amazing at Louise!
veronicarella
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Rainbow Jenny - How's LL? A few people I talked to at KH said that LL is having good snow!
@MrsPlow - Thanks for the KH recommendations. I got to check out KH today. I took the 10am free mountain tour to get an orientation. We took the gondola to the top and did a run down Crystal Bowl while the mountain hosts pointed out the other terrain options as well as where Boo lives. The top had almost zero visibility but still have a good layer of soft snow on top. And as the visibility improved towards the lower part of the mountain, the snow got crunchier. Catch 20/20.
I did a couple more runs in the Crystal Bowl off the Stairway to Heaven lift, and stayed within the tree lines to have better visibility. I also did a few laps up and down the Catamont lift and played with the feel of my news skis in easier terrain. Finally, I decided to drop into Bowl Over from Sluiceway. With the bad visibility, I found myself at the top of the ledge with 7-8 other visitors who had no idea what's below us. The longer that we stood there, the more I feel myself tense up. After a few of them dropped in, I could kinda see the terrain watching them. I basically side stepped the steeper part, and then got to have so much fun on the natural half pipe part of the Sluiceway. I found Liberty, but the moguls look taller than I am, so I went through the trees to the next trail over. The bumps in the next trail over were smaller and surprisingly soft. I wished I had given Liberty a try if the snow was also soft there. However, I couldn't bear the thought of dropping into the Bowl Over without any visibility again, so I just had to savour every moment of this run.
My friend who works at KH is going to show me tomorrow a better way to drop into Bowl Over in the tree line which should have better visibility and easier terrain. I hope the snow stays nice tomorrow too. No fresh snow in the forecast until later this week. On my last run of the day, I saw a bride and a groom getting on their skis and snowboard going up the chair lift to get married at the Eagle Eye Restaurant at the top. How sweet! Love is in the air, and on the mountains!
@MrsPlow - Thanks for the KH recommendations. I got to check out KH today. I took the 10am free mountain tour to get an orientation. We took the gondola to the top and did a run down Crystal Bowl while the mountain hosts pointed out the other terrain options as well as where Boo lives. The top had almost zero visibility but still have a good layer of soft snow on top. And as the visibility improved towards the lower part of the mountain, the snow got crunchier. Catch 20/20.
I did a couple more runs in the Crystal Bowl off the Stairway to Heaven lift, and stayed within the tree lines to have better visibility. I also did a few laps up and down the Catamont lift and played with the feel of my news skis in easier terrain. Finally, I decided to drop into Bowl Over from Sluiceway. With the bad visibility, I found myself at the top of the ledge with 7-8 other visitors who had no idea what's below us. The longer that we stood there, the more I feel myself tense up. After a few of them dropped in, I could kinda see the terrain watching them. I basically side stepped the steeper part, and then got to have so much fun on the natural half pipe part of the Sluiceway. I found Liberty, but the moguls look taller than I am, so I went through the trees to the next trail over. The bumps in the next trail over were smaller and surprisingly soft. I wished I had given Liberty a try if the snow was also soft there. However, I couldn't bear the thought of dropping into the Bowl Over without any visibility again, so I just had to savour every moment of this run.
My friend who works at KH is going to show me tomorrow a better way to drop into Bowl Over in the tree line which should have better visibility and easier terrain. I hope the snow stays nice tomorrow too. No fresh snow in the forecast until later this week. On my last run of the day, I saw a bride and a groom getting on their skis and snowboard going up the chair lift to get married at the Eagle Eye Restaurant at the top. How sweet! Love is in the air, and on the mountains!
I've never actually been to Kicking Horse when it's white-out up top - good to hear you found a way down to something fun. Hope that having someone there to show you some good lines down through the trees was a help, I've usually got my husband with me to send over the edge and then yell back up if it's ok. (Which is sometimes followed by me yelling back 'seriously??? down there???').
veronicarella
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Another day of whiteout at the top of KH. My friend showed me a few entrances into the bowls lower down so the visibility was better. Makes a big difference having someone to show the way on such a challenging mountain.
I'm going to head over to Revelstoke tomorrow morning instead of getting in a third day at KH because with the storm moving in, I don't want to get stuck on this side of the Rogers Pass until the end of the week if the highway closes. Looks like the snow forecast for Revi is looking better starting Wed afternoon and onwards!
Rainbow Jenny
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
SO isn't into social media so I did my best to stay away during our brief 5 day vacation together. I was working on full immersion/living in the moment and being offline
We enjoyed skiing and dining at LL very much. The Ski Friend program allowed me to explore some Back Bowls terrain I wouldn't go by myself in low vis condition. Would have liked to ski some more longer advanced/expert runs but didn't like the look of some of the exposed rocks while riding Panorama and Larch chairs, and Ski Friend wasn't allowed to take us down any double black diamonds. Boy, the bumps were more like deep long trenches, a bit intimidating but fun after some...desensitization.
We absolutely LOVED the carving station at NorthFace Bistro. I actually packed my own lunch for the 7 days at WB but was so thrilled that we filled our tummies with several servings of Alberta prime rib, ham, veggies, and the best potatoes! Checked ice skating on LL off my bucket list on the same day. Dinner of salad and rutting elk beef and mushroom pie with puff pastry (recommended by waiter) at Lakeview Lounge was yummy too.
We chilled on the second day instead of going to Sunshine Village, explored Banff, took the 1A route from Canmore, and arrived Calgary too early for our flight home. Knowing nothing about Calgary, it's quite telling that we agreed to visit U of Calgary and to check out their Student Union. We definitely spend too much time in ivory towers in real life and just are instinctively attracted to institutions of higher education.
Albertan ski girl
Angel Diva
just got 30 cm last night at louise! and more on the way!
