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Canadian Rockies Condition reports

39K views 459 replies 38 participants last post by  ryannorthcott 
#1 ·
Thought I'd make a thread for sharing the local conditions similar to the Vancouver thread here.

Dec. 14th - Castle Opening Day. This is my first time here and the hill has a very laid back vibe to it. Conditions were decent for early season. Huckleberry and sundance had mixtures on powder, chuky powder, crust thru out the run. Lots of little branches sticking out.

Red chair didn't open until afternoon and it was very rocky in places. had to stick around trees for best conditions.

The bad: chairs are sloooooow, and they sway a lot.
The Ugly: T-bar pub run out of draft and pizza before noon. My food never came :blowup:

Dec.15th - Fernie

Great conditions - untouched powder can be found in currie/cedar/siberia. Epic conditions up on top of mountain. untouched pow and sparse trees.

Good mixture of soft snow and groomers across the board. Many tree areas in lower elevations are closed off to conserve base. Tons of branches are sticking out. The last sections of groomers before base is riddled with tiny rocks. Slightly annoying.

I think it definitely has the best conditions compared to (LL, SSV, KH, Castle) can't comment on Revy but I'll be there next weekend.
 
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#155 ·
I'm still heading to the Lake Friday and Saturday for this competition. Supposed to be flurries until then, brief break in the sky on Friday, then snow again for the foreseeable future after that!!! :yahoo:

Gotta love our winters. January was warm and dry, but the groomers were still in good shape, Feb came in quiet then had good snow, now it's snow snow snow in the forecasts!
 
#158 ·
I'm still heading to the Lake Friday and Saturday for this competition. Supposed to be flurries until then, brief break in the sky on Friday, then snow again for the foreseeable future after that!!! :yahoo:
In LL at the moment - there was decent snow last night and first tracks this morning were great but it got tracked out pretty quick. Though to be fair we were keeping it simple and staying in bounds and not hiking anything (I'm still getting over a bout of flu). Incidentally, the Great Divide Lodge deal is fantastic, it's cheaper to get there stay-and-ski then to just buy a day pass! :laugh:

Gotta love our winters. January was warm and dry, but the groomers were still in good shape, Feb came in quiet then had good snow, now it's snow snow snow in the forecasts!
I know, just as we're leaving... luck bastards! :eusa_clap:
 
#165 ·
Sunshine was epic today, best powder day I've ever had there (it actually beat the 39cm day from a couple weeks ago, the snow lasted longer and wasn't as wet and heavy). The top was wind blown a bit, but the rest of the hill was amazing. Awesome pillow lines and hits everywhere, even broke off a mini avi on Headwall in the AM, just awesome!

And I went and left the Hovercraft at home :(
 
#168 ·
Lol yup! I told my buddies to look for a white storm trooper but no luck! :)

Some GREAT lines over the last two days (don't want to talk about the big mountain bullcrap lol). The ultimate steeps were in the best shape I've seen them in for the top half, a little choppy at the bottom.

Fernie says 24 cm last night?!? :blink:
 
#170 ·
Goat's eye was incredible today despite getting there close to noon. Definitely a top 3 day season for me. Redeemed sunshine in my eyes. The main mountains are still blah.
 
#172 ·
I have to get a SSV seasons pass again next year. I found a place in LL that is pretty awesome (out of bounds) but it is tearing up my board. I almost never wreak boards at ssv but LL is claiming alot of my base and i broke my machete there this year. Its getting pricy...
 
#175 ·
The park at LL is sooooo much better than ssv. If you know where to go there is pretty unreal stuff at LL. The out of bounds section i have been riding gets 0 traffic. On 2 weekend days there is no one tracking it out, it has cliff drops, pillows, trees, knee to waist deep pow.

However, if ssv would just put their park on a tree'd run, i don't know if i would ever go to LL. I bought a LL seasons pass last year but i think that next year i will be back at SSV now that more of my friends have avy gear.
 
#177 ·
The park at LL is sooooo much better than ssv. If you know where to go there is pretty unreal stuff at LL. The out of bounds section i have been riding gets 0 traffic. On 2 weekend days there is no one tracking it out, it has cliff drops, pillows, trees, knee to waist deep pow.
There are some great in bounds stuff too that almost never gets touched. Took Arsenal fan in there last weekend so he can vouch for the area! Yesterday we made it in there by about noon and were the first people in. Small cliffs/drops up to about 10 feet, tons of powder, a couple trees. It's heaven in there!!!

The LL park is fantastic, I'm a park wuss but I'll do the M and L stuff at LL.
 
#188 ·
Yeah I was looking for a number on it the other day, didn't see one. Anyway I'm sure it's not a secret or anything. You can see the whole damn area if you stand on top of ptarmigan and look at the larch area! :laugh: I guess most people don't go in there because you have to either cut through the trees or take the lift line down to get in there. It's worth it for me cause those drops are exactly the size I need to work on. And the fresh snow doesn't hurt either. :D
 
#191 ·
Fernie Kimberley early this week

Was at Kimberley Monday, Fernie Tuesday... Kim was crusty/hardpack. Some of the groomers weren't bad but it that was a day at Nakiska I would have gone home. Luckily the hill was empty to what boarding we did do was very relaxed.

Fernie had reports of almost two feet of powder, and blue skies on Tuesday. I went expecting to have my best day of the year, and it was damn good but it wasn't "epic" (I hate that word anyway). There was real good fresh snow in most of the bowls, but the high alpine stuff was windblown and crusty. We went up polar peak a few times, and the bowl on the left (facing up) had tons of pretty good snow, but the chutes on the right were the worst I've ever seen.

I also hiked out off the whitepass quad onto the knot chutes, and they were crusty with about 4" of fresh on them. Spotted a little rock ollie/cliff drop on one of the chutes, tried to hit it only to realize it was just windblown ice above it. Nearly tumbled over the rocks at one point! :blink:

Here's the GF working on her carving skills at Kimberley... glad I brought the DSLR out!

 
#193 ·
Yeah Kimberley feels like it was done a month ago, or never started. Fernie could be good as they've got a really good base and it's continuing to snow there, but the long term looks like plus temps. I may try to get there sooner than later for one last 2012/2013 hurrah.

Banff area hills seem to be the safe bet the last couple years. Apart from LL chewing though my boards, I've had great snow there almost every day I've been...
 
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