Skiing in Banff

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Skiing in Banff Glynis Woodrow After sampling the lazy life majestic snowy mountains on in Tahiti, the fantasies of Disneyone side, a mediaeval castle land, the charm of San Francisco, style hotel on the other, and the many contrasts of Mexico the steam rising and icing up and the spectacular setting of in our hair. Seattle, we landed in Calgary in the middle of a blizzard. The third field we visited was What a bleak, cold, grey place Lake Louisae, well known to Broken it looked! The start of our River skiers. This is a 12 week's ski holiday in Canada hour drive from Banff so we caught was certainly uninspiring. the 7.30 am bus and breakfasted on the field. Lake Louise ski- The friendly bus driver took field has 6 chairlifts and 2 the supposed two hour trip to T-bars with 36 marked runs covering Banff very gently, stopping perioda complete hillside and both ically to unfreeze the windscreen sides of the valley beyond. wipers from the window. The The second day we skiied here road markings had disappeared we had to wait for an extra hour under the snow, so navigating for the temperature to rise above in the dusk caused a few problems. -30°C before they would open We arrived just in time to join the field. Even at -29°C the in a cocktail party and to win 10-minute chairlift ride to the a free fondue dinner for two top of the field was a killer at the Grizzly House Restaurant. but it was worth it. Things were looking up. For our final day's skiing we Monday morning the blizzard returned to Sunshine Village had passed leaving cold, clear, for another great day, although calm weather in its wake which by now the snow was getting thin was to last for the remainder in patches. of the week. After organising ski hire, we caught the 10 am We had one more day in Banff bus to Sunshine Village. This which we spent exploring the may sound late but with overnight town and the beautiful Bow River lows of around -30°C and daytime area before flying out to Vancouver highs of -20°C, there's no point and then to the black slushy in starting too early. Sunshine snow of Chicago and the end of boasts a 20 minutes long access our holiday. gondola ride, 5 treble chairs, 3 T-bars and 36 marked runs. January is considered the low The first few runs were very season for skiing in Canada, difficult as the extremely cold for like June in New Zealand, snow made our skis very slow the snow is unreliable and often and sticky. After a while our it is extremely cold. However skis speeded up and we explored we were unlucky enough to be all the major runs. there at a time when (according to a local) temperatures were On Tuesday we tried the Mt Norquay on average 10 degrees lower than ski facilities. This is a smaller normal. The advantages of January field with only 2 chairs and skiing are cheaper prices and 2 T-bars plus Olympic size ski no tow queues. We wore our jumps which we weren't game to usual N.Z. ski clothing but with try. They also offer night the addition of polypropylene skiing under spotlights but at long-johns, tops, undermits and '30°C and no sun for psychological balaclavas, and we survived. warmth, we weren't enthusiastic. Other people we noticed were We had a lovely day practising wearing neoprene face masks (which style, 360's, one-legged skiing seemed a great idea to avoid and generally clowning on the frostbite of the nose), electric perfectly groomed slopes. socks, "hot shot" hand warmers and other paraphernalia which We returned to the hotel fairly seemed excessive. early and explored Banff township. It was so cold that we could Overall it was a fantastic holiday wear street shoes without any and a great experience. The risk of getting wet feet. We only thing that we missed was returned to the hotel for a swim the Broken River style companionin the heated outdoor pool. ship. Maybe next year What a glorious experience