alison wong
Angel Diva
My 2nd annual Banff trip: March 9 – 11, 2017
I enjoyed my Banff ski trip last year so much that I decided to return this year.
March 9th – returning to SSV.
I arrived to Banff on March 8th in minus 12 degree Celsius. Eunice, my ski buddy, was supposed to be joining me but her flight got delayed and I ended up skiing solo the first day.
I decided to ski Sunshine Village (SSV) on the first day because it was an easier mtn for warm up. Plus, my favorite SSV mtn host, Brian, was working on Thursday. I contacted him in advance that I would be joining his noon tour on Thursday.
I guess I was so excited about SSV, I actually arrived 20 minutes early to the shuttle stop. Waiting in -12 degree Celsius was not pleasant!
Few photos of the green/ blue runs from Strawberry chair. I felt very good that I was able to return to the same place I enjoyed so much last year. It brought back fond memories and smiles on my face. I really like SSV, it has a special place in my heart.
I tried to repeat some of the same runs that I did last year. For whatever the reason, some of the runs I found easy last year, e.g. Downhill, I found it so steep that I chickened out.
One of my favorite chairs at SSV, the Divide Chair. I finally got to take some photos. These were the towers I kept referring to. Tower #16, Welcome to Beautiful British Columbia.
Tower #18, Welcome back to Sunny Alberta. This is just so cool!
I did few laps around the runs off the Divide Chair. I skied very slow and felt like my feet were swimming again in my boots. Somehow, when I skied by myself, I struggled and just could not get my bearings together.
It was close to noon by the time I made back to the base. I practically inhaled my lunch and went to the mountain tour meeting point to meet with Brian.
I was very happy to see him again!
There was another girl joining our noon tour, miss M from Australia. She was in Canada on a 10-week vacation, doing the powder highway ski trip by Greyhound. Banff was her 2nd stop.
Brian started us with Strawberry chair, he showed us few spots with powder stash. Compared to last year, I skied much faster this yr., so I was able to keep up with the tour. Brian did not have to wait me as long….
He even took us to do some of the black diamonds, Rolling Thunder in Goat’s Eye mountain, Tin Can tree that I had my first taste of skiing in trees.
The grand finale, Brian took us to my favorite run, Bluebell off the Jackrabbit chair. Again, it brought back my fond memory of this tree-line trial.
Not sure why, but I skied much better when I skied with the tour group in the afternoon.
The tour finished the tour around 3pm, we bid farewell and told Brian hope I would get to see him again next season.
The tour was done but I was not done yet. I spent the last hour went back to the Blue Bell run, and then grabbed my backpack at the lodge and skied down Banff Avenue.
I played hard this day, started at 7 am and finished at 5 pm.
March 10th –
Eunice arrived last night. We decided to hit Lake Louise (LL) this day. I was a bit concerned for Eunice because LL was a more difficult mountain, it was her first day of skiing, and she was lower intermediate.
We started with the Glacier Chair, which leads to the easy green and blue runs. I confidently told her I would lead the way to the easy green, Wiwaxy, for our 1st warm up run.
Mistake #1: Turned out I missed the turn and by the time I realized it, we were too far down to hike back up. So we had to ski down on a blue (Cameron’s way) for our 1st run. For me, it was ok, but for her, it was a bit tricky…..(sigh) I know I had poor sense of direction. Sorry, Eunice!
We did few more runs for warm up and then joined LL Ski Friend mountain tour at 10.
LL Ski Friend mountain tour is divided into Green, Green/Blue, Blue, Black and Double Black. We joined the Green tour, our mtn host: Kathy.
For me, the good thing about taking the tour was, we were able to visit places that I would not be able to feel comfortable going alone. With Kathy, I visited the back bowl the first time. (Last year I did not get a chance to). It was true that the snow in the back bowl was better and the view was better too! The tour was 2 hours long and most of our time lapping different parts of the back bowls, we stuck w/ the green and easy blues.
After lunch, we decided to do another Ski Friend tour at 1:30pm. I requested our Ski Friend host to go to my favorite run Jerry’s Jungle, it was a tree-lined half pipe trail, and I wanted Eunice to experience the uniqueness of that run.
Mistake #2 – I forgot it was tricky to get to Jerry’s Jungle. You needed to take “Top of the world” chair, skied through a narrow icy traverse, then down an icy steep blue (Home Run and Grizzly Gully), then arrived to Jerry’s Jungle.
Visibility was not so good that time, as we were approaching to the peak, it was foggy. The 2 ski friend hosts said: “well, who’s idea was that?” I felt bad, but it was too late to do anything now!
Eunice fell on the narrow icy traverse…. by now, I think I totally traumatized her. By the time we arrived to Jerry’s Jungle, she was too anxious and stressed to appreciate it….. So we took it easy the rest of the day.
I enjoyed my Banff ski trip last year so much that I decided to return this year.
March 9th – returning to SSV.
I arrived to Banff on March 8th in minus 12 degree Celsius. Eunice, my ski buddy, was supposed to be joining me but her flight got delayed and I ended up skiing solo the first day.
I decided to ski Sunshine Village (SSV) on the first day because it was an easier mtn for warm up. Plus, my favorite SSV mtn host, Brian, was working on Thursday. I contacted him in advance that I would be joining his noon tour on Thursday.
I guess I was so excited about SSV, I actually arrived 20 minutes early to the shuttle stop. Waiting in -12 degree Celsius was not pleasant!
Few photos of the green/ blue runs from Strawberry chair. I felt very good that I was able to return to the same place I enjoyed so much last year. It brought back fond memories and smiles on my face. I really like SSV, it has a special place in my heart.
I tried to repeat some of the same runs that I did last year. For whatever the reason, some of the runs I found easy last year, e.g. Downhill, I found it so steep that I chickened out.
One of my favorite chairs at SSV, the Divide Chair. I finally got to take some photos. These were the towers I kept referring to. Tower #16, Welcome to Beautiful British Columbia.
Tower #18, Welcome back to Sunny Alberta. This is just so cool!
I did few laps around the runs off the Divide Chair. I skied very slow and felt like my feet were swimming again in my boots. Somehow, when I skied by myself, I struggled and just could not get my bearings together.
It was close to noon by the time I made back to the base. I practically inhaled my lunch and went to the mountain tour meeting point to meet with Brian.
I was very happy to see him again!
There was another girl joining our noon tour, miss M from Australia. She was in Canada on a 10-week vacation, doing the powder highway ski trip by Greyhound. Banff was her 2nd stop.
Brian started us with Strawberry chair, he showed us few spots with powder stash. Compared to last year, I skied much faster this yr., so I was able to keep up with the tour. Brian did not have to wait me as long….
He even took us to do some of the black diamonds, Rolling Thunder in Goat’s Eye mountain, Tin Can tree that I had my first taste of skiing in trees.
The grand finale, Brian took us to my favorite run, Bluebell off the Jackrabbit chair. Again, it brought back my fond memory of this tree-line trial.
Not sure why, but I skied much better when I skied with the tour group in the afternoon.
The tour finished the tour around 3pm, we bid farewell and told Brian hope I would get to see him again next season.
The tour was done but I was not done yet. I spent the last hour went back to the Blue Bell run, and then grabbed my backpack at the lodge and skied down Banff Avenue.
I played hard this day, started at 7 am and finished at 5 pm.
March 10th –
Eunice arrived last night. We decided to hit Lake Louise (LL) this day. I was a bit concerned for Eunice because LL was a more difficult mountain, it was her first day of skiing, and she was lower intermediate.
We started with the Glacier Chair, which leads to the easy green and blue runs. I confidently told her I would lead the way to the easy green, Wiwaxy, for our 1st warm up run.
Mistake #1: Turned out I missed the turn and by the time I realized it, we were too far down to hike back up. So we had to ski down on a blue (Cameron’s way) for our 1st run. For me, it was ok, but for her, it was a bit tricky…..(sigh) I know I had poor sense of direction. Sorry, Eunice!
We did few more runs for warm up and then joined LL Ski Friend mountain tour at 10.
LL Ski Friend mountain tour is divided into Green, Green/Blue, Blue, Black and Double Black. We joined the Green tour, our mtn host: Kathy.
For me, the good thing about taking the tour was, we were able to visit places that I would not be able to feel comfortable going alone. With Kathy, I visited the back bowl the first time. (Last year I did not get a chance to). It was true that the snow in the back bowl was better and the view was better too! The tour was 2 hours long and most of our time lapping different parts of the back bowls, we stuck w/ the green and easy blues.
After lunch, we decided to do another Ski Friend tour at 1:30pm. I requested our Ski Friend host to go to my favorite run Jerry’s Jungle, it was a tree-lined half pipe trail, and I wanted Eunice to experience the uniqueness of that run.
Mistake #2 – I forgot it was tricky to get to Jerry’s Jungle. You needed to take “Top of the world” chair, skied through a narrow icy traverse, then down an icy steep blue (Home Run and Grizzly Gully), then arrived to Jerry’s Jungle.
Visibility was not so good that time, as we were approaching to the peak, it was foggy. The 2 ski friend hosts said: “well, who’s idea was that?” I felt bad, but it was too late to do anything now!
Eunice fell on the narrow icy traverse…. by now, I think I totally traumatized her. By the time we arrived to Jerry’s Jungle, she was too anxious and stressed to appreciate it….. So we took it easy the rest of the day.
