Skiing in the Canadian Rockies

We Love Mountains, The Mountain Sports Store, situated at Rockcity has teamed up with Envy to provide you with a ‘no nonsense’ guide to the ski and snowboard destinations around the world. We will be giving you the information that the brochures don’t tell you.

We all know by now that last winter’s media coverage was ‘hyped up’. Lets face it, a poor start to the season in Europe was the perfect global warming story and boy did they run with it.

Many people believed this hype and didn’t bother to go away last winter. What a mistake that was, the resorts were empty, leaving the few that ventured away riding surprisingly well maintained, groomed pistes. Don’t get me wrong, we did encounter some ice, rain and the odd rock in our European travels but we also got fresh powder mornings and blue, blue skies.

To contrast Europe's slightly sticky season, North America had one of the best seasons ever. Obscene amounts of fresh snow and a shortage of fl ights to get there. So far this season, as far as our customers go, everyman and his dog are heading across the pond to either America of to Canada chasing the more guaranteed snow conditions that North America offers along with the strong Pound against a weak Dollar, its simply a great deal all round, we found 7 nights, room only, in Banff with First Choice Holiday Hypermarket for only £450 leaving on 12th January. Therefore our first featured destination for this winter is the Canadian Rockies town of Banff, which is well known for it’s three resorts and abundant snow fall. This was my second visit to Banff and I can honestly say that the people are some of the friendliest I’ve ever met.

The town has loads to offer visitors, there’s great food, night life and natural hot springs! What more could you ask for after a long day out on the mountains. The wild life will take you by surprise, you’ll see wild elk, as they are often seen venturing in to the town on an evening.

The town of Banff is situated in the heart of the Canadian Rockies and it’s a great place to stay, as it links up very well with the main resorts. Sunshine Village and Lake Louise are renowned for their lengthy season from mid- November until late May, whereas Norquay is December to April. Skiers and snowboarders staying in Banff can get a bus to the resorts, which run on a regular basis. You will get up in the morning and check the snowfall/condition reports that are faxed to your hotel reception. We found that only Sunshine were spot-on with their reporting with Lake Louise prone to exaggerating a bit. We advise you to get an early bus, as it can get very busy just after breakfast!

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