Alberta 2016/2017

[Albertan ski girl]

Ok - it's time to get this thread started.
Sunshine Village to start with.

Ssv opened on November 3rd - one of the earliest starts in 20 yrs and the dive opened about 10 days ago - also the earliest opening in decades. The opening of the season has been amazing - already 240 cm total snowfall this season and the settled base is almost a meter.

This past Sunday was probably the best day this season so far. It snowed about 20 cm overnight and then we had another 15-2o cm during the day while we were there. All out blizzard whiteout conditions - and it was an EPIC day. We had such a blast - we all agreed it was the best day of skiing we've had in the past 2 years. Now, goat's eye is still not open, but looks like it will be opening soon. The snow on lookout and standish is superb - dry champagne powder. The morning was very low visibility and flat light, but no groomed and freshies everywhere. Just a short 30 min lunch break during which I snapped the pic at the very bottom. And that was when the visibility got better! We spent the morning in the glades on standish and wawa, did only one run on lookout which was great. Things cleared up much more in the afternoon and we spend the latter part of the afternoon on divide - coming down bye bye bowl was beautiful ankle and calf deep snow everywhere, piste noir was bordered by snow fences and had knee high drifts. And the lower part of lookout was full of soft snow and bumps in the trees. All in all it was an amazing day!

If last weekend is any indication, this is going to be an amazing season! This is a pic of the kiddos playing in the snow before we downloaded on the gondola - the ski out is open but the bottom is really sketch, so we didn't want to risk it.

Bring it on, Ullr!!!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Sunshine Village : Went skiing yesterday - December 27. Got about 5-10 cm overnight and another 5 cms or so during the day. It was snowing all day - we skied from 9.30 - 4.

It was quite windy so the conditions up top in the alpine were very very windblown and icy, below tree line was amazing, pillowy and gorgeous. Skiing along the snow fences was nice - giant big soft bumps in the alpine. Visibility was really bad - with the wind and the snow, we could see very little on the top of lookout and goat's eye. Yesterday was all about the tree skiing - had a blast in the trees with the kids.

Conditions for this time of year are excellent - our current base is about 140 cm settled - that's better than anytime last year during our crappy snow year! Another big storm is coming on Thursday/Friday! Pray for snow!

 

[newboots]

Wow, that looks incredible! Enjoy!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

No new snow for about 5 days, and with the holiday crowds, most of Sunshine village is skied off. But there are beautiful soft bumps all over lookout, and they were especially nice today once the sun came up. Goat's eye is open but the coverage is pretty poor - all areas but the groomers are pretty rocky. Best spots today were in the boundary bowl, angel flight area, and also the choppy and bumpy area on the divide between the groomers. Groomers are running nicely and not very icy. Looking forward to more snow

 

[MI-skier]

Glad your skiing season is well under way. Loved Sunshine when we went.

 

[Ringrat]

Lake Louise, Jan 20-22

Spent 3 days at Louise last weekend. I hadn't been there in 15 years or so, so some things were different (like...a gondola at the bottom). Enjoyed the weekend and the views but also reminded me why I don't ski there much anymore, and how spoiled I am. There were lineups!

Coverage is quite good for mid-Jan. Rocks poking out all over, but that's typical Louise, and it was much better than expected. Snow quality off the groomers and beaten track was good, despite no new fresh. Chalky/cruddy in the gullies off the back of Summit and Top of the World. Avoided anything groomed except where it was unavoidable to get to a lift or to the bottom at the end of the day, and skiing that was a controlled skitter to the bottom...easier to straightline it. Again, typical Louise.

But the views were spectacular, as always!

 

[Christy]

Why is LL so much more crowded than Sunshine?

 

[Ringrat]

Why is LL so much more crowded than Sunshine?

Beats me, I haven't been to Sunshine in about 15 years either, so for all I know it's equally crowded. Friday there were no lines at all, but there was on the weekend. They moved relatively quickly, but I've been spoiled by the BC Interior to being able to ski straight on most of the time.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Why is LL so much more crowded than Sunshine?

I find Sunshine to be less crowded just because of the way it's set up. The gondola at Sunshine moves really quickly - and once you get to the top, people spread out over 3 mountains very very quickly. There are 2 gondola stops at SSV. and even if you go to the last gondola stop, there you still have 4 lifts and the ski-out to another mountain to choose from. At Louise - your only choices at the bottom are the gondola or the lift, and it seems to take a long time funnelling down the frontside. We avoid Louise like the plague on the weekend, because, even on a busy day, Sunshine seems to move faster and be just ski on at all the lifts. We try to visit Louise mostly mid-week. Despite this, we were at Louise this weekend, and it seemed crazy to me. We try to get up and over on the backside as quickly as possible, and we try to spend most of the day lapping the backside, and the upper front side when needed to access other parts of the mountain. Today because of all the snow, backside was closed a lot for avalanche control, and it was just crazy everywhere. Then again, I'm also told that the lines aren't bad compared to other places. SO is from Colorado, and he thinks that even Louise on a bad day is better than Copper on a good day, so I guess it's all relative..

 

[Christy]

That's good info, thanks. I really want to get there, and I was thinking we would do it this year since we have the MCP, but we still haven't planned anything and it's getting late. Maybe the lines aren't as bad as Colorado, but my home mountain (Crystal) isn't bad, and my favorite place, Sun Valley, has no lines almost ever, so I hate to go to the hassle of flying somewhere to stand in lines. It sounds like we just need to make it a point to go on weekdays.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

That's good info, thanks. I really want to get there, and I was thinking we would do it this year since we have the MCP, but we still haven't planned anything and it's getting late. Maybe the lines aren't as bad as Colorado, but my home mountain (Crystal) isn't bad, and my favorite place, Sun Valley, has no lines almost ever, so I hate to go to the hassle of flying somewhere to stand in lines. It sounds like we just need to make it a point to go on weekdays.

I would say that probably 90-95% of the the time is ski-on at Sunshine (including weekends). For Louise, that's true on the weekdays. Weekends are a little more crowded. However, even yesterday when we had the crowds at the bottom, all of the backside and mid-mountain lifts (ie Top of the World, Ptarmigan, Paradise, Larch) were ski-on. I think Louise is just really in the bottom of the frontside.

 

[Ringrat]

Castle Mountain, Feb 18-19

Spent the weekend at Castle. Nice place to go for Alberta Family Day...a bit of a line at the Red chair was as bad as it got.

After the previous week's massive snowfall, Castle suffered the same warming as the rest of the region. On Thursday the rain line was ~1900 m, right around the bottom of the Red Chair. Skiing above that was quite good on Saturday, with cut-up soft snow in the main bowl. We did one run in the north glades and it was good up top and then really quite painful getting down. We were hesitant initially to head into the chutes as they also spit back to the bottom but eventually braved it and found the skiing over there to be great and only the very bottom bit to be frozen underneath. Winds came up a bit and it started to snow Sat afternoon and we woke up to some fresh Sunday morning. Headed up to the Red Chair first thing and into the main bowl. The snow was wind buffed and hard work to ski, getting progressively easier through the day as the lines became more skied up (let someone else break the wind slab for you...). The chutes were awesome, though playing with micro-terrain was beneficial to avoid wind scoured areas and hit the wind deposited snow instead. It started dumping on Sunday afternoon and I was sure sad to see the time for lift closing come around!

Castle is one of my favourite ski hills, and despite the re-frozen lower mountain, it didn't disappoint!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Sunshine Village - march 3 & 4

It's been snowing since Friday afternoon. And it was still pummelling the mountain when we left Sunday afternoon. Got 19 cm Friday night and 17 cm Saturday night, they're forecasting another 15 cm Sunday night. Everywhere is beautiful - we were getting fresh tracks until noon, and beautiful bumpy chop thereafter. The roads have been pretty bad though, but the good part is that it has kept a lot of people away. Our favourite conditions were on Lookout - in bye bye bowl, the north Divide bump run under the lift, all over boundary bowl/Viking ridge area, and in the wawa trees. Star Trek - an awesome bumpy tree run - is in the best conditions it has been all year. We were on goats Eye twice - once did afterburner top to bottom and ewe first area to wildfire - but the visibility was so bad and it was so windy that we retreated quickly to Lookout. There is also great snow on standish - especially in the whole area off of upper standish - ie standish face, virgins etc. Big soft piles!

We skied onto every lift except Divide - there was a wait of about 5 minutes for the the hour or so when the sun was out. Sunday afternoon, the gondola broke down for about an hour - so we did the ski out along with many many other people. Not fun.

Apparently it will be snowing this whole week too!

 

[Jenny]

Sounds great! What's the long-term (into April) forecast looking like? (You know, because they can predict that so accurately at this point.)

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Not sure - but it's definitely winter, and April is always one of my favourite months!!!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

And some pics from the weekend:

we had about an hour and a half of semi-sunny first thing in the morning. we got first tracks off of divide - lots of soft bumps already forming around 10.30 am:


the morning after the storm. i had to lift my left foot out so you could actually see my binding, and know that there was a ski under there somewhere. good ankle deep everywhere.



me under the divide lift, around 11 am. note: clouds are already starting to move in again.


mr.albertanskigirl emerging from the trees in star trek. we had our best day of tree skiing all season too!



me enjoying the storm roll in on standish face, standing on top of a nice big soft bump. huge soft bumps at this point in the day. so beautiful!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

This has been another amazing weekend - lots of snow. I skied with @alison wong and her friend Eunice yesterday. And we had a great time! Beautiful cold snow - sun and cloud in the morning and then snow falling in the afternoon. @alison wong and i found some beautiful powder on lookout, over the ankle deep. Lots of nice chop and soft bumps everywhere else - on runs, in the trees. Groomers are running beautiful - great dry creamy packed snow. Thanks for hanging out @alison wong - I had a great time and am looking forward to skiing with you when you come back next year, or maybe...Alta next year?

I'll post some pictures soon!

 

[Ringrat]

I spent Sunday at Castle Mountain again. It's been dumping snow steadily there since the unfortunate mid-Fed warming/rain event. That layer's all been buried and I didn't find it all day. The mountain had been blanketed with a little new fresh again, so there were fresh lines all around in the morning. It had been a bit warm up top the day before thanks to an inversion, and was warming up again (spring is coming...ugh) so the chop in the afternoon was a bit of work to push around. There was a very light sun crust underneath the fresh on south-facing slopes, but nothing too hard or unbreakable. It was a great day from north to south again and the coverage there is amazing!

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Louise and sunshine the past 4 days - epic! Something like 76 cm in the past 4 days!

We had amazing days on friday and Saturday! Friday was deep soft snow and bluebird everywhere! The back bowls at Louise are the best they've been in years. Sunshine on Saturday was tons of fresh soft snow everywhere. The visibility was just awful. We were on Viking ridge with the kids in the morning and had no idea which way was up. However, we made it down laughing. The snow was amazing and soft, and all of us fell at some point because we just couldn't tell the angle of the slope! But all slow silly falls! Snow is amazing in the trees. The afternoon Snow was pretty wet and heavy, but temperatures are low again for the upcoming week and more snow in the forecast.

Avy forecast is bad. Avy forecasters from avalanche Canada and kanakaskis public safety are calling these current conditions the most treacherous ones in the past 30 years. We saw a slide above Canmore this morning off of eeor.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Is it spring? Is it winter? IT'S BOTH!!!
AND IT'S THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!!!

mr. albertanskigirl and i had probably our best day of the season yesterday at Sunshine Village.

We headed up to Sunshine Village early on Saturday morning expecting a couple of cm of snow - there wasn't much in the forecast for Friday night. On the drive up, we got a powder report around 7.30 am with the news that 27 cm had fallen overnight! We were both giddy.

We got there early and from 8.30 until 11am - we had completely fresh untracked snow everywhere. I guess nobody was expecting the snow, so the mountain was pretty deserted. After 11 though tons of people started showing up, but there was still so much untracked and soft big bumps everywhere until the end of the day.

We started the morning on lookout, and kept lapping the Divide until 11am as there was no one there and the snow was just incredible! It was almost knee deep in most places, and we did a run under the Brewster rock (I think the area is called South Pocket or North Pocket on the map), and it was amazing - waist deep snow! Deepest snow I've ever been in, and yes, of course, I had a wipeout, but basically I wiped out in kind of a 'standing up' position, with skis on, so I just pointed them downhill and kept going. The pictures I have can't even do justice to the snow!

We stayed on lookout for the morning because it was in the shade and the snow was winter snow - dry champagne powder. We didn't go to Goat's Eye yesterday as the sun was on it the whole day, and we had heard from some other skiers that it was deep and stick and already sun-affected.

After the morning on lookout, we were pooped, so we took a short break and had a coffee. Then spent the morning and early afternoon on Standish, and in Paris Basin. Even by about 1pm, Paris Basin was largely untracked, and the snow was amazing, though it was heavier than on Lookout. We lapped that area a few times

We ended off the day on Star Trek (thought of you @alison wong !) with a fun romp through the trees on Wawa, but we decided to call it a day just before 3 as the snow was getting manky and really sticky. We spent another hour listening to music, having beer and enjoying the sun!

I LOVE spring skiing. And it looks like it might be snowing here all week too. Thought of you @Jenny and @vickie too! Maybe next year for spring skiing?

Here are some photos from the most awesome bluebird(ish) pow day!


Me happy somewhere on Viking Ridge:


mr.albertanskigirl enjoying the views!



views for days - this was just before the skies cleared and the sun came out!


me coming off of Paris Basin, going towards waterfall- check out all those freshies in back -and this was around 1pm or so!



on top of the divide!



mr.albertanskigirl - there's just no way to capture how much snow there was!



yay spring skiing!