Skiing and Snowboarding - Page 57

Calgarian · #**1121** Posted **Feb 10, 2020, 10:45 PM**

I have a hard time believing that removing 95% of the traffic would make the experience WORSE for the rest of the users of that road. If you want to go to the back country and skin up, not sitting in traffic would likely improve that experience no? Either way, Norquay is small potatoes and can only handle small crowds anyway.

Calgarian · #**1122** Posted **Feb 11, 2020, 2:33 AM**

Spent the weekend in Castle, crazy weather brought about 25cm in the first 24 hoursand it was powder all over the mountain all weekend long. Top of the red chair had practically zero visibility, jut what you want to drop double blacks lol. Had to back edge the first hundred or so feet unti you could see trees through the fog, then it was epic all the way to the bottom. Castle is typically windy, so if you look in the right places, 25cm of pow can easily be 60cm, if you look in the wrong places it's more like 5 lol.

Calgarian · #**1123** Posted **Feb 18, 2020, 7:50 PM**

The conditions at Louise continue to be awesome! really impressed with the snow this weekend.

shreddog · #**1124** Posted **Feb 18, 2020, 10:31 PM**

Just back from 3 days at Whistler. First trip of the year and was surprised at the amount of "ice" was there - had not seen that there before. Anything serious steep and skied or exposed need serious edging. Kinda surprising given the amount of earlier snowfall. If you have been to the glacier, the cave is quite large this year.

And yes - it was busy at times, though manageable.

SaskOttaLoo · #**1125** Posted **Feb 23, 2020, 6:36 PM**

Hi all,

I'm about to do a bucket list trip starting this Thursday and do some skiing in interior BC. My only previous experience was 2 days at Whitewater, which were really amazing.

I am wondering what your recommendation would be for a resort to snowboard at near Kelowna. I'm planning to fly into Kelowna from Denver, spend 3 days at Revelstoke, then spend another 2 days at a resort near Kelowna (I'll be staying with a friend who lives in Kelowna). From what I've read, I'm thinking either Big White or Silverstar. I have a boarder friend who lives in Vernon who was saying Big White can have a lot of whiteout conditions, but if that means fresh powder I'm in! She recommended Silverstar for what it's worth. As background, I'm an advanced boarder and my favourite terrain is glades.

Would love any suggestions you have. Also, if anyone on this thread ever comes to Colorado and wants some suggestions on resorts, terrain, etc., I'd be happy to help.

Calgarian · #**1126** Posted **Feb 24, 2020, 7:53 PM**

Big White is in the middle of a pretty epic season, so I definitely suggest riding there!

svlt · #**1127** Posted **Feb 24, 2020, 8:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Big White is in the middle of a pretty epic season, so I definitely suggest riding there!

I was just there two weekends ago and the conditions and runs were fantastic.

VantageHD · #**1128** Posted **Feb 25, 2020, 6:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaskOttaLoo

Hi all,

I'm about to do a bucket list trip starting this Thursday and do some skiing in interior BC. My only previous experience was 2 days at Whitewater, which were really amazing.

I am wondering what your recommendation would be for a resort to snowboard at near Kelowna. I'm planning to fly into Kelowna from Denver, spend 3 days at Revelstoke, then spend another 2 days at a resort near Kelowna (I'll be staying with a friend who lives in Kelowna). From what I've read, I'm thinking either Big White or Silverstar. I have a boarder friend who lives in Vernon who was saying Big White can have a lot of whiteout conditions, but if that means fresh powder I'm in! She recommended Silverstar for what it's worth. As background, I'm an advanced boarder and my favourite terrain is glades.

Would love any suggestions you have. Also, if anyone on this thread ever comes to Colorado and wants some suggestions on resorts, terrain, etc., I'd be happy to help.

Out of those 2 I would go to Big White. You'll get bored at Silverstar if you're not a beginner. It does have a cool little village though.

Big White is a bigger mountain and better for glades, but ya it's notorious for poor visibility.

Calgarian · #**1129** Posted **Feb 28, 2020, 6:19 PM**

Snowfall warning in Banff, more pow on the way this weekend!

Calgarian · #**1130** Posted **Mar 16, 2020, 3:21 PM**

Louise was still open yesterday (think all Alberta hills are except Nakiska), conditions were awesome, though it was quite cold to start the day. Turned into a total bluebird, not a single cloud all day! Hope that wasn't my last day on the hill for the season, but half expect it to be...

shreddog · #**1131** Posted **Mar 16, 2020, 5:15 PM**

Was at Whistler this weekend ... a bit of crazy all around!

Saturday was a gong show as the winds forced reduced speeds on the up gondolas - so huge line ups getting up. Waited from 830 until 905 at the main Whistle Gondola - Blackcomb was a bit shorter (i heard), but heard stories of up to an hour wait after 9

The upside was no line ups on the alpine lifts! Winds forced most lifts closed until noon, but even with that, skied right onto Red all morning. Unfortunately Symphony and Whistler X never opened, but overall an okay day.

Until the announcement came about the closure ....

As such we closed the Dam and drove home yesterday. Hopefully this blows over before the season is out, otherwise that's all she wrote ...

Calgarian · #**1132** Posted **Mar 17, 2020, 10:15 PM**

And all hills are closed tomorrow, season is done! Now I'm really sad.

shreddog · #**1133** Posted **Mar 18, 2020, 8:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calgarian

And all hills are closed tomorrow, season is done! Now I'm really sad.

Vail has said the Whistler "could" still open if things settle down. I think that that is unlikely as lifties and staff will likely have moved on. That said, fingers crossed as the season was way too short!

Klazu · #**1134** Posted **Mar 22, 2020, 11:40 PM**

Our last ski day this season was few weeks ago an evening in the slopes of Cypress Mountain.

Sunsets on top of Mount Stratchan can be something else.

flipper316 · #**1135** Posted **Mar 24, 2020, 4:32 AM**

nice photos

Klazu · #**1136** Posted **Apr 6, 2020, 1:19 AM**

Just before the world went crazy with COVID-19, we had the chance to put in the best skiing of the season on our trip to Colorado. It was our first time to the state and we were quite thrilled to experience the high-altitude skiing the state is famous for.

Arriving at DEN, one is greeted by a beautiful and efficient airport which has the second largest footprint in the world.

There is first time for everything, like seeing a special ski claim system like the one DEN has.

Unfortunately we wouldn't be having any time to spend exploring Denver and only saw city skyline from I-70.

Denver is on the western edge of the Great Plains and is where Rocky Mountains begin rising.

As you head further west, the I-70 starts slowly ascending the snow covered mountains.

Loveland is the closest ski area to Denver.

Approaching Loveland Pass, the highest point of the entire Interstate system.

The four-lane Eisenhower–Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel along I-70 is the highest highway tunnel in North America and one of the highest in the world at maximum altitude of 11,158 ft (3,401 m).

We chose to stay in Keystone, which is a fairly quiet resort town close to Denver.

Most resort towns are served by free and regular bus system which makes it convenient to move about. Pay parking is unfortunately very common at most resorts with only few options for free parking. We ended up not paying for parking anywhere, but had to utilize ski buses to do so.

Keystone has a small yet neat town center with a lot going on during the season.

Our first ski day took us to nearby Breckenridge which has some wide open ski runs. Weather was absolutely fantastic on our first day and we really enjoyed our day in the easy runs.

A special shout out needs to be given to all resorts we visited for their excellent lift capacity which makes our home mountain Whistler-Blackcomb look a bit poor in comparison.

While the weather was beautiful, it was still very windy and we couldn't ride the legendary Imperial Express SuperChair which is the highest chair lift in North America taking skiers to the crazy altitude of 12,840 feet (3,910 m).

It's no wonder that local stores actually sell bottled oxygen, should one be hit by altitude sickness. We were a little worried about it ahead of arriving, but ended up not having any problems. We did still hear about people that had problems wit the altitude, which is pretty extreme compared to most ski regions on the continent.

Even the valley floor in places like Breckenridge is at 9,600 feet (2,900 m), so you end up spending days in high alpine air.

We ended our great day by visiting Keystone Ranch which is an awesome steakhouse with mouth-watering food.

Plenty of meat for the hungry skiers.

Our evening ended up relaxing by the fireplace in the log cabin's beautiful lobby.

More photos from our next few days in the second part of this trip report.

Coldrsx · #**1137** Posted **Apr 6, 2020, 2:23 AM**

Pretty spectacular man.

Klazu · #**1138** Posted **Apr 9, 2020, 3:12 AM**

The next day we woke up early and drove some 60 kilometers west of Keystone to the legendary Vail. We had heard many stories of this fabled ski destination which had set our hopes for the day extremely high.

And boy oh boy, we were not disappointed! The day started off coming down some crispy runs under the blue sky.

Vail is so huge that it took us some time to navigate our way to the legendary back bowls area around the Blue Sky Basin. This area is a skiers paradise with extremely wide bowls everywhere you look. The furthest chair lift will take you almost 9 kilometers from the village and you start to feel very remote from the crowds.

It took us over an hour to track your way back to Vail and not a moment too soon, as a snow storm was picking up. We had a 2WD rental car with all-season tires, so we would have been trapped in Vail only an hour later as they closed down I-70 due to heavy snowfall.

Vail's main village has been built in Bavarian style and is very appealing. I wish we would have had more time to explore it!

Snow would be falling for the next 1.5 days and so we chose to return to Breckenridge for a second day. And what a great decision that was as we got to enjoy a great powder day with Breckenridge promoting this year being the snowiest February on record! Having been there, I can believe that as snow was plentiful everywhere we went!

After another amazing day of skiing we had made a reservation to the famous Ski Tip Lodge in Keystone, which is one of the premier restaurants in the region. They have won numerous awards for their 4-course meal which was excellent.

Just like at Keystone Ranch, dessert was served in front of a fireplace which made for a special evening even more special.

Our last day took us finally to test out Keystone itself and boy, did we have a beautiful day to end our mini-vacation!

Just like the day before, also Keystone still had plenty of fluffy powder to enjoy and that we did!

Beautiful vista

Spectacular Mosquito Range with several 14,000ft peaks. One can also see the nearby Breckenridge in the middle of the picture.

And there you have it. We had a fantastic trip to Colorado and were blown away by the well-groomed wide runs. While we heard locals complaining how busy everything was due to President's Day, it didn't feel overwhelmingly crowded to us who have grown used to weekends at Whistler-Blackcomb...

This region has so many more resorts to try and we want to return one day to explore especially Vail's back bowls more. For that reason, I am sure we will find ourselves on a plane to Denver soon again.

shreddog · #**1139** Posted **Dec 10, 2020, 7:45 AM**

Anyone been out this year yet? I have my first reservations at W-B second week of Jan - here's hoping that Bonnie will let me go. I heard rumours that Sunshine was a zoo last weekend .. but the source wasn't that trustworthy.

Airboy · #**1140** Posted **Dec 10, 2020, 9:01 PM**

Have friends that Have been to Louse. They said conditions are good , crowds are reasonable and covid precautions seem good. ( the friend is a doctor).