No, I haven’t been meaning to neglect this blog. I just decided that spending the weekend skiing was a better alternative to writing stuff up. Now that the long Easter weekend is over and I’m back in my hotel, I can afford a little time to write up about the weekend.

I can’t really complain about that much, even with legs as sore as I have now, considering I’ve fit in two and a half days of skiing and I’ve only been in Canada for just over a week. With a ski package for Lake Louise conveniently booked via SkiLouise I was fortunate they still had rooms available for this Easter weekend. Despite three major ski areas located relatively close to Calgary (one to three hours away), it’s not as easy as you’d think to get to each of the ski areas from downtown Calgary with most of the transportation direct from the airport. None of the transportation is publicly owned, so I ended up booking transportation from my hotel to get to where I was staying through SunDog Tours.

Of the three major resorts I’m told are near Calgary (Banff, Lake Louise and Sunshine) I’m glad I went to Lake Louise. It helped that my old workmate, Suhail is based out there at the moment, helping me upgrade my stuff to a high performance kit and just helping me out on the slopes and around town. Staying at Lake Louise means that you’re also only about a five minute drive from the base of the mountain, unlike the longer forty minute drive from Banff with your trade off being less of a night life scene (not a big problem when I’ve only got two and half days to ski!). Suhail did give me a glimpse of the crazy antics that staff parties are known for, showing me “Chucktown”, the block of apartments he stays at hosting the hundreds of staff manning the slopes. In one way, it feels very much like an American college with 5 or so rooms to each apartment, in addition to a shared living space and bathrooms. Each building also has a large social common room well equipped with pool tables, football tables, stereos and TVs. Although the accommodation is pretty basic, the social scene more than makes up for it. It seems though that, with the way some people speak of it, becomes a little stifling at the tail end of six months.

Lake Louise claims to be one of the biggest single ski resort areas, and offers plenty for everyone although most of the trails appear much more suited for the more advanced skiers. One of the areas, aptly named the Ultimate Steeps (see above picture) show a series of double-black only trails with a single blue trail the only other alternative down that side of the mountain. Another big contrast was the huge number of trees on the slopes that I’ve seen. Apparently Lake Louise are much more lenient than other litigation-conscious North American ski resorts with many people heading off the trail to weave in and out of the trees.

I am thankful that the snow was much better than I was fearing (i.e. at least it was there) although for the first two days, it tended to be a little bit icier in the morning. Only just before the last day did the mountain get some fresh snowfall and with it, the lush softness only deep powder brings. As a result, after the first two days, I ended up extremely exhausted with that shin-splitting, leg straining tiredness you only seem to get with those unforgiving ski boots. All of it, of course, completely worth it.