Hello Albertans! We're off on a road-trip next week and wondering how busy Lake Louise or Sunshine are likely to be 3rd/4th March. Ideally we'd avoid weekends but we're picking a friend up from Calgary on Friday and considering either Fernie or the Banff area for the first couple of days. Is it usually super busy this time of year?
You should be fine - it's not a long weekend, just a regular weekend. I see lots of snow in the forecast next week though and that makes it busier. For both Sunshine and Lake Louise, I would suggest getting to the actual parking lot no later than 8.30 - that will give you the best guarantee of getting a good parking spot, close to the lodge/gondola. For Sunshine, that means being at the Sunshine exit from Highway 1 by around 8.15 or so.
If you have a Mountain Collective pass, or if you're heading up to Sunshine after 10am, I would recommend the ski shuttle from town instead (skibig3.com/ski-shuttle/). For Louise, same thing - if you are in the lot by 8.30, that's ideal. If you plan on going to Louise later, after 9.30 or so, I would recommend not parking in the regular parking lot. Instead, as you are driving up towards the resort, about a couple of hundred meters before the resort, you will see a parking lot on the right that says "Skoki Lodge" - go there. And park as close as you can to the trailhead there. You will be right next to the ski out (run number 155 on the trail map), and you can just put on your ski boots and ski down to the lodge area. At the end of the day, you can either do the skiout from Larch (be warned - it has a couple of flat parts), or you can take a diversion from Lower Meadowlark to the parking lot.
Once you're on the mountain, it won't feel that crowded - the worst part is getting parking that's not too far out, and it's worse at Sunshine than at Louise. Once you get up the gondola at Sunshine, crowds will disperse easily. At Louise, I would suggest getting off the main frontside runs early in the morning. People seem to like to do warm up runs on the front side first thing, so it will be busiest there in the morning. i woudl suggest to take the gondola up at Louise, and either ski down to the "Top o' the World' lift and lap that (both on the front and back side), or go over to Larch and start there. If it's not windy, you can always go to Top o', ski down to the summit platter and lap the front and backsides off of the summit platter.
I would suggest Banff over Fernie - lots of rain then snow then rain then snow lately at Fernie. I've heard there's lots of weird manky snow there right now. And I think this week is going to be a warm spell after the last couple of days of cold.
Wish I could meet up with you - however, I'll be coming back from Europe this weekend, so no skiing until after that for me! Have an amazing time! And please feel free to post any questions, or PM me for anything else!
we've been in a cold snap and I haven't done any skiing since Christmas. Many of the lifts haven't even opened before mid-day. It was -31 c before the wind chill this morning in Calgary. But the cold snap ends on Monday! Woo hoo! Here I come New Year's skiing!
Photo by Derek Ryder
