Northern Rockies/Alberta SkiBig3

[JoeSchmoe]

One of my favorites is a little hole-in-the-wall ramen place called Chaya on the main drag. I would characterize it as "surprisingly good ramen found in Alberta, Canada"! My favorite is the tantan with lots of spicy peanut broth. It's not a destination or atmosphere eatery, though. Have done less fine dining in Banff since only recently has my youngest stopped asking if there is a play area at the restaurant. (I'm not being fair to him, he's 14 and turning into a bit of a foodie now...)

I would put a vote in for Ramen Arashi. Same story as Chaya, not destination or atmosphere dining, but it was the best meal I had when I was there in February.

It's tucked way out of the way, upstairs in one of the indoor shopping/office areas. Despite the odd location, it was busy for a weekday mid-afternoon.

 

[DanoT]

and a bonus, the most memorable advertising sign on the drive in from Calgary to Banff for the last many years. "SPAAAAAAH" always gets voice-texted to other family members at that point in the drive

I've done the Banff Upper Hot Springs but not the Banff Springs Hotel Spa. However I once shared a chairlift ride at Lake Louise with a lady who could not stop talking about the wonderful previous day long spa day treatment at the Banff Springs Hotel.

 

[Mel]

For those who were worried/wondering…

Winter is still hanging around. Getting its mail forwarded to Banff, apparently, as it’s supposed to stay cold for the next 7-10 days. Just a dusting of fresh snow today (sort of like icing sugar on a pastry - mostly for decoration).

 

[Yepow]

Yay, looks like just plain ol' packed powder for next week! Can't wait to get back with my boys!

 

[ilovepugs]

I’ll be happy to have skiable snow, of any sort.

Lol. I did my first skiing of dirt at Sugarbush last week. Also skinned Mount Ellen on Sunday. There was a LOT of brown at the base of the mountain. Was still cleaning grass and dirt off my splitboard until I skinned through some actual puddles at Stowe on Tuesday.

Really hope the packed powder sticks around at Sunshine. I’ll *gladly* trade temperate shoulder season low elevation hiking with my mom for some packed powder.

 

[dovski]

So for on hill dinning at Sunshine, I have two recommendations. If you are looking for a quick bite so you can maximize your ski time, hit the small lodge at the bottom of Goat's Eye lift. In addition to the cafeteria they have two outdoor food stands and there never seemed to be a crowd there even on weekends. The other place to dine if you want something a little more leisurely was the Chimney Corner/Eagles Nest in Sunshine Mountain Lodge. The food there was excellent and it was the same price as the main cafeteria/lodge or Trappers but had a much better and healthier set of choices.

Personally I was disappointed with Trappers and the main lodge this trip as they had a very limited set of choices and the prices were quite high for what they were offering (i.e. $19 for a bowl of chili in disposable bowl). The lines/wait times at Trappers and the main lodge for lunch were also much longer.

At Lake Louise we ate at the smaller lodge on the backside. While not a huge variety the food was good quality and reasonably priced ($7.50 for a bowl of chili and $10 for a sandwich). It was also never crowded and got us out skiing quickly.

 

[Yepow]

So for on hill dinning at Sunshine, I have two recommendations. If you are looking for a quick bite so you can maximize your ski time, hit the small lodge at the bottom of Goat's Eye lift. In addition to the cafeteria they have two outdoor food stands and there never seemed to be a crowd there even on weekends. The other place to dine if you want something a little more leisurely was the Chimney Corner/Eagles Nest in Sunshine Mountain Lodge. The food there was excellent and it was the same price as the main cafeteria/lodge or Trappers but had a much better and healthier set of choices.

Personally I was disappointed with Trappers and the main lodge this trip as they had a very limited set of choices and the prices were quite high for what they were offering (i.e. $19 for a bowl of chili in disposable bowl). The lines/wait times at Trappers and the main lodge for lunch were also much longer.

At Lake Louise we ate at the smaller lodge on the backside. While not a huge variety the food was good quality and reasonably priced ($7.50 for a bowl of chili and $10 for a sandwich). It was also never crowded and got us out skiing quickly.

Yes, the food trucks at Sunshine (Tenn Roof, you can see the menu) are extremely good compared to the lodge food, and pricing is identical. There's also a Beavertails--these are pretty yummy to have once per year but are pretty close to nutritional poison, and not even diet poison. There is (or was, dunno at this time of year) one at the village and one at the base, both with the same menu. Agreed on the restaurant food also being better than Trappers/Goats Eye main trailer/the main lodge. When the Burger Company is open, it can be very good actually (hand cut fries and a good burger), but it feels like that's been closed all season and is not to be counted on.

At LL I also agree on the Skoki back lodge for food. I often just eat heartily before, pack some calories for the chairs/lodges, put something in the car, and eat heartily after. YMMV.

 

[Wannabeskibum]

Grizzly House is one of our favorites very cool and funky old school Steak and Fondue place in Banff. Food is great and it has been there for close to 60 years.

Melissa’s Misteak is also a great established Banff place.

There are also some great Sushi places in Banff.

Farm and Fire is an excellent farm to table place with a wood fired oven.

Banff Springs Hotel has some great restaurants and is famous for their afternoon tea.

Post Hotel in Lake Louise has a spectacular restaurant and used to bring in chefs from Europe.

Farm & Fire (in the Elk & Avenue hotel) is excellent. The Banff Brew Pub on Banff Ave. was also very good and reasonably priced

 

[msutherland]

I’ve been here in Banff two days . I’ve only skied Sunshine so far . It’s been pretty cold so the snow has held up well . I haven’t been to Lake Louise yet but everyone has told me it got warm a few weeks ago then cold again so it’s pretty icy and wind blown with no fresh snow since . Sunshine evidently didn’t have that problem
Being higher . I’m still going to Lake Louise to check it out while I’m here . So far I’ve really enjoyed it . Banff may be the coolest towns I’ve ever seen .

 

[msutherland]

Grizzly House is one of our favorites very cool and funky old school Steak and Fondue place in Banff. Food is great and it has been there for close to 60 years.

Melissa’s Misteak is also a great established Banff place.

There are also some great Sushi places in Banff.

Farm and Fire is an excellent farm to table place with a wood fired oven.

Banff Springs Hotel has some great restaurants and is famous for their afternoon tea.

Post Hotel in Lake Louise has a spectacular restaurant and used to bring in chefs from Europe.

I tried the Grizzly house my first night . Very unique . I had the wild game cooked on a hot rock on the table .

 

[Yepow]

I’ve been here in Banff two days . I’ve only skied Sunshine so far . It’s been pretty cold so the snow has held up well . I haven’t been to Lake Louise yet but everyone has told me it got warm a few weeks ago then cold again so it’s pretty icy and wind blown with no fresh snow since . Sunshine evidently didn’t have that problem
Being higher . I’m still going to Lake Louise to check it out while I’m here . So far I’ve really enjoyed it . Banff may be the coolest towns I’ve ever seen .

Yeah my nephew skied LL last weekend and said the frontside was pretty icy but larch and the backside was better. Glad to hear sunshine was in good shape, as expected. LL is super pretty and is worth a visit.

 

[Mike Rogers]

I’ve been here in Banff two days . I’ve only skied Sunshine so far . It’s been pretty cold so the snow has held up well . I haven’t been to Lake Louise yet but everyone has told me it got warm a few weeks ago then cold again so it’s pretty icy and wind blown with no fresh snow since . Sunshine evidently didn’t have that problem
Being higher . I’m still going to Lake Louise to check it out while I’m here . So far I’ve really enjoyed it . Banff may be the coolest towns I’ve ever seen .

Aspect and elevation is important for Lake Louise. Generally, the backside has the best snow. The backside is NOT Ptarmigan though. It's the terrain served by Paradise, the back of Top of the World, and the back of the Summit. This terrain mostly faces North East, so it doesn't get really strong sun, and if you are lapping the area, you only get down to 2190 meters at the Paradise base. This compares to 2210 meters at top of the Sunshine gondola. The backside of Louise is also leeward, so it gets small refresh between storms.

Expect the frontside to be full melt-freeze (or just freeze if it continues to be cold).

Larch is a bit in between. The terrain faces north, which is great, but the elevation band is firmly below treeline and it doesn't benefit from wind transport as much.

Unfortunately, much of Louise's best spring terrain is steep and ungroomed, and a lot of the best intermediate terrain is less insulated from warm temps. Fortunately, the views are even better than Sunshine's.

Worth a visit for sure!

 

[dovski]

Aspect and elevation is important for Lake Louise. Generally, the backside has the best snow. The backside is NOT Ptarmigan though. It's the terrain served by Paradise, the back of Top of the World, and the back of the Summit. This terrain mostly faces North East, so it doesn't get really strong sun, and if you are lapping the area, you only get down to 2190 meters at the Paradise base. This compares to 2210 meters at top of the Sunshine gondola. The backside of Louise is also leeward, so it gets small refresh between storms.

Expect the frontside to be full melt-freeze (or just freeze if it continues to be cold).

Larch is a bit in between. The terrain faces north, which is great, but the elevation band is firmly below treeline and it doesn't benefit from wind transport as much.

Unfortunately, much of Louise's best spring terrain is steep and ungroomed, and a lot of the best intermediate terrain is less insulated from warm temps. Fortunately, the views are even better than Sunshine's.

Worth a visit for sure!

When we were at LL a little over a week back the best skiing was off the Summit Chair and Top of the World. These runs were labeled double black and were definitely steep, but definitely on the lower end of the double black spectrum ... maybe even hard blacks at other resorts. We had a lot of fun skiing this side of the mountain. For the rest of the mountain we found skiing was best in the afternoon once things had softened up, first thing in the morning front-side was bullet proof from the overnight freeze.

 

[msutherland]

Aspect and elevation is important for Lake Louise. Generally, the backside has the best snow. The backside is NOT Ptarmigan though. It's the terrain served by Paradise, the back of Top of the World, and the back of the Summit. This terrain mostly faces North East, so it doesn't get really strong sun, and if you are lapping the area, you only get down to 2190 meters at the Paradise base. This compares to 2210 meters at top of the Sunshine gondola. The backside of Louise is also leeward, so it gets small refresh between storms.

Expect the frontside to be full melt-freeze (or just freeze if it continues to be cold).

Larch is a bit in between. The terrain faces north, which is great, but the elevation band is firmly below treeline and it doesn't benefit from wind transport as much.

Unfortunately, much of Louise's best spring terrain is steep and ungroomed, and a lot of the best intermediate terrain is less insulated from warm temps. Fortunately, the views are even better than Sunshine's.

Worth a visit for sure!

You are exactly right. That is what i found to be true. It was too cold while i was there to ever soften up in the afternoons. I enjoyed the larch area but it was icy as well in certain spots. I think LL would be incredible under good snow conditions. Ill definitely go back.

 

[Mike Rogers]

These runs were labeled double black and were definitely steep, but definitely on the lower end of the double black spectrum ... maybe even hard blacks at other resorts.

Skied Louise for the first time in a while last Saturday. The snowpack has definitely made the steep sections more approachable. Steep chutes rocky chutes are now flatter and wide open. Crazy deep snowpack this year.

The grey area shows the upper and lower bounds for 25th to 75th percentile years. Blue is this year....almost off the charts.

Still had winter snow on ER6. Things are softening a bit in the sun on other runs. The front side sounded really scrapey in the morning.

 

[TonyPlush]

Hey folks, lots of good info about the late April conditions in this thread. I thought about starting a new thread but decided I'll just leave my question here:

How big of a risk is a trip to Lake Louise/Banff next year in late April? I'm considering April 17-21, 2023.

For background, we've got some CPAs in our group who can't travel before U.S. Tax Day, which is April 15. Our group is not filled with pounder hounds, so missing big dumps is fine. Slush is okay and even enjoyed. But mostly I'm worried about the ice and hoping to avoid it at all costs.

Obviously nobody can predict next year's weather. More just looking for general trends on late April at SkiBig3. From what I've read, it's one of the best bets for spring skiing in North America.

 

[Mike Rogers]

Hey folks, lots of good info about the late April conditions in this thread. I thought about starting a new thread but decided I'll just leave my question here:

How big of a risk is a trip to Lake Louise/Banff next year in late April? I'm considering April 17-21, 2023.

Our group is not filled with pounder hounds, so missing big dumps is fine. Slush is okay and even enjoyed. But mostly I'm worried about the ice and hoping to avoid it at all costs.

The coverage is almost always excellent in late April. The last time we had poor coverage in late April was about 7 years ago, but that was an exceptionally bad snow year, with a VERY warm spring. Even so, Sunshine stayed open until mid May.

In my opinion, March to mid April is the safest time for Sunshine. Lake Louise would be mid February to end of March. Conditions typically very good outside of this prime window, but can be a bit more variable.

I think you have very good timing for Sunshine and reasonable timing for Lake Louise.

Obviously, the biggest risk is a warm up followed by a deep freeze. If this happens, expect the front side and Ptarmigan areas at Lake Louise to be a bit icy. The back bowls at lake louise tend to hang onto winter snow longer.

Sunshine has a later spring than lake louise, you will usually find winter snow on all terrain except south facing and lower elevation Goats Eye runs throughout April.

It's not a sure thing, but Banff is a very good bet this time of year.

If possible, I would delay booking to see the snowpack situation. You'll have an idea of the type of year by January ( el ninos can be rough here), and hotels rooms are always easy to come by after Easter. The hills will be empty by then as well.

For reference, look at the upper mountain/back bowl snow depth at Louise. Great seasons top out at 180cm. I would want to see at least 100cm by new year's day.

They are currently reporting 255cm, but this year has been exceptional.

 

[TonyPlush]

The coverage is almost always excellent in late April. The last time we had poor coverage in late April was about 7 years ago, but that was an exceptionally bad snow year, with a VERY warm spring. Even so, Sunshine stayed open until mid May.

In my opinion, March to mid April is the safest time for Sunshine. Lake Louise would be mid February to end of March. Conditions typically very good outside of this prime window, but can be a bit more variable.

I think you have very good timing for Sunshine and reasonable timing for Lake Louise.

Obviously, the biggest risk is a warm up followed by a deep freeze. If this happens, expect the front side and Ptarmigan areas at Lake Louise to be a bit icy. The back bowls at lake louise tend to hang onto winter snow longer.

Sunshine has a later spring than lake louise, you will usually find winter snow on all terrain except south facing and lower elevation Goats Eye runs throughout April.

It's not a sure thing, but Banff is a very good bet this time of year.

If possible, I would delay booking to see the snowpack situation. You'll have an idea of the type of year by January ( el ninos can be rough here), and hotels rooms are always easy to come by after Easter. The hills will be empty by then as well.

For reference, look at the upper mountain/back bowl snow depth at Louise. Great seasons top out at 180cm. I would want to see at least 100cm by new year's day.

They are currently reporting 255cm, but this year has been exceptional.

Great info, thank you!!

It also sounds like the three different mountains provide some hedge too; visitors could play the conditions at each mountain vs. being all in on one mountain at most destinations.

I'll look into some refundable lodging for the group, and then keep an eye on those Nov/Dec snow reports!

 

[Mike Rogers]

Great info, thank you!!

It also sounds like the three different mountains provide some hedge too;

Two mountains, for sure! I wouldn't count on Norquay being open. It's closed now, and was only open on a full time basis until April 17th, but they opened last weekend for a "bonus weekend".

 

[dovski]

Two mountains, for sure! I wouldn't count on Norquay being open. It's closed now, and was only open on a full time basis until April 17th, but they opened last weekend for a "bonus weekend".

So I agree with everything @Mike Rogers said except his point about waiting to book. The nice thing about Banff is Winter is actually their off season and they have tons of hotel capacity. What this means is that most hotel bookings can be canceled up to 72 hours before arrival. If you book now you can get a 50% discount on your hotel booking with only a small deposit that is fully refundable. Once I look in my dates for next year I am booking immediately. This is a trick that makes skiing Banff one of the more affordable places in North America .... so just saying that in this case the early bird really does get the worm lol.

Trick number 2 if you don't get an Ikon Pass which covers all ski areas in Banff, consider a Mountain collective which will get you 2 at each resort plus one bonus day at the resort of your choosing plus 50% off additional days once you use up your free days (about $60/day for an adult).