Its time to do some product testing!!

7 Canadian Ski Resorts in 12 Days

This year our crew included Nicole from marketing, Steve GM and Phil Senior Ski  Consultant  and together we all decided to check out a few of the lesser and greater known Canadian ski resorts and remind ourselves of the awesome Canadian hospitality.

Days 1 and 2 at  Whistler Blackcomb

After enjoying a stunning Pacific Coach drive up the Sea to Sky highway after a 13 hour flight from Auckland, we checked into our accommodation at The Westin. We were greeted with a sumptuous dinner at Aubergine and promptly crashed out for the night. After some amazing snowfall, the following day dawned clear and blue just to really welcome us to Whistler.

Great day at Whistler

Kimberly from Whistler Blackcomb  gave the lads a serious look over the mountains while Nicole checked into a lesson and promptly destroyed her shin muscles and bones.

Day one at Whistler, what a day!!

The great thing about Whistler Blackcomb  is that you can spend a morning cruising around Whistler and then jump onto the PEAK 2 PEAK and spend the afternoon at Blackcomb – and if you don’t have an aversion to heights – make sure you check out the glass bottom gondolas on the PEAK 2 PEAK – amazing!

Phil and Kimberely enjoying the ride on the PEAK 2 PEAK Whistler

Olympic rings at Whistler

On Day Two we discovered that there are free daily mountain tours of both Whistler and Blackcomb. These tours are perfect for mixed ability group such as ours, as there is a harder tour for expert skiers into the Blackcomb Glacier and easier blue cruiser tours for those of that ilk. The Blackcomb Glacier is a must do at Whistler Blackcomb and even though the day was marred by limited visibility, we had a great time skiing the Glacier.

A great day on the glacier at Blackcomb

Beautiful day looking at Whistler from Blackcomb

Days 3, 4 and 5 at Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise

We fly to Calgary and pick up a rental car and head for Banff and Lake Louise. A couple of tips for rental cars- always get a car larger than you think you’ll need, make sure its 4wd and be careful paying any of the extra charges offered to you. Thrifty gave us a fantastic Dodge Durango which had sufficient room for 4 of us and gear.

Wow, Calgary is Flat, amazing coming from New Zealand to see miles and miles of prairie.Good thing we’re heading for the mountains and not further east. Heading west, in an hour you’re in the Rockies and an hour later you’re in Banff. What a diverse landscape.

Banff is very like a Canadian version of Queenstown – cool shops, bars and restaurants and a great feel to the place. If you’ve never tried a ‘Beaver Tail’ – you’ve got to try one here. They are a delicious pastry and iconic in Eastern Canada!  Even Obama hunts them out when he is here!

Banff town

After finding one of the best boot fitters in Canada Nicole is all sorted with a new non shin killing pair of boots, and after a couple of days off, she’s keen as a bean to get skiing again.

The lads spend some valuable time discovering a Canadian delicacy called a Caesar. (hey they serve drinks in Jam Jars how cool is that)  World famous in Canada!

Drinks in Jam Jars. Left to Right - Ceasar, Water, Cocktail, Ceasar

Recipe for Caeser : Take Clamato juice (tomato juice made with clams, sounds bad, tastes good), add vodka, a pickled bean, an olive, horse radish and sometimes a rasher of bacon or beef jerky, and you have one of the worlds best drinks!

The next day, the lads are off to Sunshine for the day while Nicole checks out the shopping. It’s snowing, blowing around 30 – 40 knots and COLD. On the upside there is a metre of fresh powder on the leeward sides of the ridges, which is AWESOME!! Man this product testing sucks sometimes. Phil gets the powder skiis out and goes nuts.

Learning to ski pow at Sunshine, Banff

Jake our intrepid guide and instructor had the lads skiing powder like heroes.

Then its Lake Louise's  turn – Its now been snowing all night and most of yesterday.

Fairmont Lake Louise - Mega Snow Dumps

Fairmont Lake Louise during big dump

We have breakfast at The Fairmont Banff Springs, which is like a slightly less mad version of Hogwarts castle – its amazing with grace and old world charm all mixed in ( with great eggs Benedict) and then head off to Lake Louise for a days skiing.

Fairmont Banff Springs

After an easy 50 minute drive, even in appalling conditions, and we’re at Lake Louise Ski Field.

The Highway to Lake Louise

We never thought it would be possible but, Lake Louise  has even better powder than Sunshine. With two guides to show us around, Phil heads off with one guide and Nicole and Steve head off with the other. Lots of product testing and snow pack testing occurs. The great thing about Lake Louise is the resort is lowish and stays under the cloud area. So visibility isn’t too bad and the wide open fall line runs cater for all abilities. To top it off the powder is awesome!!

Dinner at the stunning Chateau Lake Louise followed by a long hot tub soak is well received.

Day 6  Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Well Kicking Horse had to be included on the agenda. So Day six dawns clear blue with lots of powder and we finally get to see the amazing scenery surrounding Lake Louise – truly spectacular! Take a look at this pic of the Ice Castle, one of the many amazing ice sculptures on and around the frozen Lake Louise.

Fairmont Lake Louise and Ice Castle

Fears about the roads are found to be untrue, and even though Kootenay pass is closed (Banff – Panorama) the road from Lake Louise to Golden is open. Kicking Horse here we come.

An hour and a half after leaving Lake Louise and we’re at the top of the gondola at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.

DFS Team about to hit the slopes at Kicking Horse

Yep Kicking Horse is steep and deep. Phil goes crazy trying to keep up with Jessica, the Kicking Horse rep and fails miserably, but really enjoys the fall line off piste powder runs off CPR Ridge and Redemption Ridge.

Dropping in at Kicking Horse

It's going to be a great day at Kicking Horse check out the New Snow ("ALOT")

However the discovery of the day is that Kicking Horse also has a reasonable amount of blue terrain to keep our intermediate people happy.

We leave at the end of the day feeling like we made the best of 4100 vertical feet of resort, or did Kicking Horse make the best of us?

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Days 7 and 8 -  Panorama

Panorama  has to be the dark horse on this trip. We were expecting a smallish resort and small village. What we found was a pretty big resort with 4000 vertical feet and 2850 acres of patrolled terrain. Wow that’s the same size as Kicking Horse.

Panorama Ski In Ski Out

Panorama  also has a really neat ski in, ski out village and there is a really friendly feel about the place.

Nicole discovers the joy of boots that fit and ski instructors that care. Steve learns that pole plants really matter and Phil finally learns to ski bumps.

Panorama  has a medley of blue and green cruisers and then from a 5 minute hike off the summit, you can access the double black diamond Taynton bowl area.

Skiing Taynton Panorama

Admittedly there was a metre of powder in there and exceptional conditions but wow what an area!!

Panorama - look at all the people

In addition to all the local terrain, there is a heliski operation based at Panorama  and if you want some challenges, you can do day trips to Kicking Horse for skiing as well.

Something for everybody at Panorama , what a great resort.

Day 9 Kimberley

Nice town, nice little field with three chairlifts and only a short drive from Fernie. Kimberley had some nice black terrain out the back and the Blue front face was lots of fun. The greens were lovely and wide, open and perfectly groomed.

A great day trip and yummy lunch. Again, everyone was really friendly and the snow team there are justifiably really passionate about their mountain.

Days 10 and 11 -  Fernie

The legendary Fernie , town of a hundred ski shops, really lives up to its reputation. Great coffee and great bagels at Big Bang bagels. Make sure you try the local beer from Fernie brewing company, with names like First Trax Ale, Buck Wild Ale and Big Caboose Wild Ale, how can you go wrong.

Back to the skiing, what Fernie  does best is offer a huge amount of terrain in a compact package. Steep groomed blues, epic black runs, beautiful off piste glades and yes even a bunch is cruisy green runs with perfect grooming and corduroy.

A Blue run at Fernie

The ski in ski out accommodation is excellent with a really good range of options to suit all budgets and there are plenty of eateries and drinkeries on mountain.

Alternatively, town is only 15 minutes away by shuttle.

Fernie Township looking at the resort

Yes Fernie  was a great way to end our trip, and we even got to meet our past client, Jess the mad scientist, she was pretty awesome and looked after us really well as our waitress.

A DFST client - our waitress Jess the scientist

The drive back to Calgary was easier than expected, only 3 hours. The trick is to use local knowledge and take highway 22 rather than the route on the GPS.

Day 12 Vancouver

Big City time. Vancouver is a big beautiful cosmopolitan city and was a sea of blue hockey shirts – yes their local team had a big match on that night!.

After arriving we found a great wee Japanese place for dinner, and then we watched the hockey game in the local pub.

The next day, it was off early to Granville Island for breakfast – highly recommended with options of nice cafes or a Market place with all sorts of local fare.

We all bought hockey shirts, maple syrup and peanut butter m&m’s for the folks back home – yes everything in Canada is either maple syrup or peanut butter flavoured! We even got to meet the elusive Steam Clock Man who came to reset the time for Daylight saving – apparently this was a rare chance meeting.

The elusive steam clock man

After breakfast we joined the Vancouver Trolley bus tour – well worth the 2 hours cruising around listing to the history and highlights of the city. If you want to get off at any of the stops – we do suggest allowing at least 5 hours for 2 – 3 stop offs.

Trolley bus tour

Time to go home 7 resorts in 12 days- Thanks Canada

Thank you Canada!!

We have had some fantastic feedback from clients who have just returned from their dream skiing holidays. Luckily, most of us are off on our educationals soon to Canada and USA – so we will have our own exciting stories to tell you all about, including first hand info on all the great snow, accommodations, blue sky days and crowd free slopes, as well as the many activities on offer.

There are a few last minute deals on offer, as well as the latest airfare specials for travel this season to USA, Canada and Japan, which all end 27 February. So if you are still thinking about it – act now!

In the meantime, here’s a taste of what’s happening as at 16th Feb 2012

[TBS_ALERT class="warning"]Here is Griz on days without new snow[/TBS_ALERT]

[TBS_ALERT class="warning"]Here is Griz after 75 cm of fresh snow[/TBS_ALERT]

Griz buried here

Snowmass by Jeremy Swanson

Plus More Snow is expected in Colorado later this week along with bluebird skies & Deep powder conditions.

Long range forecast predicts some significant snow on Friday, but mainly in the weekend of 20-22 Jan. This storm could be big and may affect all of Colorado with heavy snow as it passes slowly through (mainly Sunday/Monday).

Good morning.

Well I was lucky enough that my wife woke me up early yesterday and told me, “It’s still snowing, you better get out there!”. I quickly dressed and headed out the door, my neighbour was digging her car out of the snow and I told her, “There’s no friends on a powder day!” and left her behind. I started on Mt. Morrisey expecting to be alone as it’s generally the quieter of the three mountains however word had spread about the 30+ cm overnight so unfortunately for a spoiled local, there were others on my mountain.

I jumped over to Tod Mountain to get up into the Alpine and was greeted as a thin layer of cloud burnt off revealing a COMPLETELY blue bird day. I’ve lived in Sun Peaks for 4 years now and this was arguably the best day skiing I have ever had…ever. I’m not joking when I tell you I was screamin’ like a school girl as dry powder was literally choking me as if flew over my head.

For the lucky ones that were in Sun Peaks Resort, we share a special day and memory. For those that are coming soon, I look forward to hopefully experiencing it again with you. For those that are heading somewhere else…”You have no idea! But we can take care of that.”

Here is a video of one of the best ski days I’ve ever had…anywhere….ever. We have snow, deep, white, dry, fluffy snow!