Lake Louise has a reputation as one of North America’s best ski resorts, is it worthy of it? Here’s what we thought of it in April 2008.
Lake Louise is located in Banff national park on Alberta’s side of the Rockies. There is easy regular access from Calgary airport with a transfer of less than 2 hours. You then have the option of staying in Banff or Lake Louise village. When we arrived at the start of April the resort still had another 3 weeks until closing, so we were expecting reasonable conditions. What we found when we got there was a very thin base with large areas of grass and rock showing through. Lake Louise is a well run resort so all the very thin and naked areas were closed off, while the rest was very well groomed and maintained. There were plenty of runs open on all 4 mountain faces allowing for a good week of riding. The 4 sides are serviced by a gondola and 7 other lifts consisting of both chairs and T-bars, opening up over 4000 acres of ridable terrain.
With the conditions being so crap while we were there we ended up spending most of our time on the groomies. The world cup men’s and women’s downhill provided us with a days entertainment the rest of the time we spent exploring the larch area and the south face. There were plenty of mogul runs for those of you that are into that and all the pistes are very well maintained. On the whole I think this is a good resort for everyone from beginners to advanced riders.
Over the last couple of years RCR (the company that run the resort) have done away with all the big jumps and the pipe. However they have kept the rock garden (accessed from the top of the Larch) and still have a large and extensive rail park. If you know where to look there are plenty of natural hits around the resort, so those of you who like riding freestyle will have to hunt them out. For the powder hounds the back bowls are supposed to be awesome after a fresh dump, although I can`t really comment as there were no fresh dumps while we were there, they were reasonably large and fairly steep bowls that I’m sure would be great on a powder day.
We found that the conditions can be unreliable so pray for powder and you should be able to keep yourselves entertained for a good week. Longer than a week beginner to intermediate should be OK but the more advanced of you will probably get bored with it, you may have to start putting some effort into hiking to find the new challenges. However if you chose to stay in Banff rather than Lake Louise village you do have the option of buying a lift pass that covers Lake Louise, Sunshine and Norquay. That may be worth considering if you are going for a couple of weeks or more.
We stayed in the Hillside Bungalows in Banff which was a self contained cabin only 10 mins from the centre of town and it’s night-life, and just across the road from the bus stop. It served us well although it did get a little cold at times and the bathroom was so tiny you could barely move. Lake Louise while much closer to the hill has very little to offer besides awesome views and the proximity to the resort. There are a couple of places to grab a drink and something to eat but you will find the prices here can be rather inflated. Saying that if you are completely minted consider staying at the château on the lake it has everything you are likely to need in a seriously posh setting. Staying in Banff will mean that you have to endure a 45 minute bus journey to and from the resort for your riding. It will however reduce your accommodation costs and give you access to a large number of bars and restaurants ranging in price from reasonable to extortionate.
So in summary, while Lake Louise has a lot to offer all levels of riders it can be an expensive place to stay or will leave you a 45 minute bus ride away. As with all resorts the weather and conditions can make or break your holiday, our experience was very icy with a ridiculously thin base so pray for a good season with plenty of powder and you should be OK.
For official information on the facilities and prices at Lake Louise check out. http://www.skilouise.com
What it looks like with a reasonable base