Sunny day in Lake Louise

This morning we finally woke up to a sky with sunny patches, so we decided to make the trip to Lake Louise to ride today.

The same drive that we took yesterday was completely different today, as after we were on the road for 5 minutes the clouds all cleared up and we had a beautiful blue sky and sunshine, lighting up all the mountains and scenery that surrounded us. We had no idea what was behind all that cloud and fog the first time we came through!

We arrived at the Lake Louise Ski Resort and took the first chair we came across up to mid-mountain. We could only do our best to try and pick where to go from the trail map, and also we discovered the trail numbers on the map in my pocket didn't actually match the trail markers on the hill, it was all very confusing.

Our first run was obviously one of the crowd favourites, as there were skiiers and boarders everywhere trying to negotiate the best way down.... What made this so difficult was the sheet ice covering most of the run, which we were definitely not expecting!

We agreed to head over to one of the other faces to check the conditions, so we headed up the gondola and down another scenic run. Jase looked over the edge of the cat track to some of the black runs... they mostly consisted of icy moguls of death, so we stuck to the safer groomed green & blue runs.

A few more runs on one of the other peaks, where they were still snowmaking, which was providing a sparse covering to the ice underneath. Despite the sunshine and clear skies, it was still a very cold day, by the top of the chairlift our hands were numb and you could feel the breath catching in your throat.

The run back to the bottom of the gondola was absolutely amazing, photos and descriptions cannot capture the feeling of being on the edge of one of these gigantic mountains, 360 degrees of incredible sights.

We are about to go out to get some dinner now, there's no new snow forecast for tomorrow so we'll probably take a day off and see some more local sights around Banff.

Hope everyone had a fantastic start to 2009 :)

love Neri.xx


P.S. we need more snow! -jase