March 2012 Canada mini road trip?

[Island Bay]

Your good advice is needed again, please.

The missus and I pulled the pin on a New Year North America ski trip, as it would have just been too ridiculously expensive (and crowded/risk of iffy snow). Now good deals on flights NZ-Can have come up, and we're looking at a little roady early March along the lines of:

Fly to Calgary, pick up rental car (2wd and chains ok?). Spend two weeks or so skiing Castle Mountain, Fernie, Whitewater, some cat skiing, some xc on crap snow/weather days, bit of gawking at the natural wonders.

How does that sound? Feasible/good idea/great idea? Places and things not to be missed/avoided?

It looks like school holidays start 9 or 16 March in BC, but not until mid April in Alberta. Are they to be avoided like the plague, or not a big deal?

We'd really appreciate your sage advice on this one.

[AKami]

If you're coming out to ski the Castle, then you may want to check into their Powder Stagecoach Cat. Think its like $275 for some decent cat skiing up their on Haig...Hopefully we get the same dump that we got last March 1st for you when you come.

From Castle you can head to Fernie, then up Highway 95 to Panorama, Kicking Horse and then through Banff/Lake Lousie ony your way back out to Calgary

[TeCeBe]

Its not called the Powder Highway for nothing.

http://www.powderhighway.com/index.php

[alive]

Like most road trips in the future, the key is to not lock down a schedual so you are able follow the best snow. I'd stick to highway 1 and aim for Revelstoke. Lots of options on the way if there is snow, The rockies, Kicking horse. Revelstoke mtn has some great terrain, and right close to town. Some great XC trails 5 minutes from town if the weather isn't great.
The ski hills are usually more crowded during spring break. Might want to plan some time cat skiing durring that time. 4 days at a remote lodge will add a bit of cost, but will be worth it and very memorable. Monashe Powder Cats is amazing and Mustang Cats gets great reveiws as well.
None of these plans mention touring... if that is an option, there is a whole other set of instructions....

[LeeLau]

Just because your nation's rugby antics are nothing short of splendid let me offer a serious answer. Yes - do try to avoid the school holidays if possible. They do jam up the smaller resorts.

[Island Bay]

Thanks for the replies.
Holy mackerel, just had a look at Mustang Cats' website! Sweet indeed.
I hear you re the schedule, Alive. The plan is to have only a very loose one, i.e. fly in on ??/??, ski 2 or 3 places, fly out ??/?? with silly grin.
Any feedback on the vehicle situation? Do we need a 4wd or just chains and common sense?
Thanks again guys

Thanks Lee. Sorry about the score line, but at least there were some fine tries to enjoy. Good to see Canada really come to play at this tournament. Won a lot of hearts with their gutsy performances.

[LeeLau]

You'll be driving a lot of smaller illkept roads. If you're experienced with snow driving then chains and common sense will work. If not, 4wd or awd and taking it easy is advised. Two weeks will be enough to get a good taste

[XXX-er]

How does that sound? Feasible/good idea/great idea? Places and things not to be missed/avoided?

It looks like school holidays start 9 or 16 March in BC, but not until mid April in Alberta. Are they to be avoided like the plague, or not a big deal?
.

Not bad but you need to wait and see what the weather brings of course

the School holiday question all depends on if the whole province or provinces take the same week or weeks or do different school districts stagger their holidays ... depending on the combinations of the 2 provinces it could be a very busy week

[gramboh]

If you can get a rental with winter tires (easier said than done, most stuff at YYC is all season) it will be all you need. Winter tires are far more useful than 4WD/AWD with all seasons.

I'd plan two possible routes: highway-1 tour (Sunshine/Louise/Kicking Horse/Revy then back to Calgary) and highway-3 (Castle, Fernie, then north to either Golden or Lake Louise back to Calgary) and choose the week before based on snow. Hotel vacancy shouldn't be a problem. If you can afford it, you will not regret cat skiing assuming decent conditions, especially coming from so far away. Would recommend a true cat skiing op versus resort based cat (e.g. Revy).

[sparkletarte.]

+1 on the winter tires. Tell them you are going to the mtns, you'll need them. check the tires, they'll have a snowflake on them. otherwise in some areas you'll possibly be screwed (2wd people flail on the ww access road after a good snow). chains only work when you are driving really slowly, not on the hwys.

at ww and red we don't notice the school holidays that much, especially at ww with the new chair (it used to be terrible but not anymore).

watch the snow but try to make it out to the koots if you can. we are small but good, our snow lasts a long time, and our trees are excellent. you can do one day cat trips at valhalla.

I would hit fernie, ww, red, revy, and golden, but it depends on the snow.

[Island Bay]

Thanks heaps for all the good advice and ideas!
Will make sure to get winter tires, and yes, cat skiing is definitely on. Valhalla looks very tempting indeed.......

[angrysasquatch]

Any feedback on the vehicle situation? Do we need a 4wd or just chains and common sense?

4wd and 2wd are pretty much identical past 50 kph unless you're hooning it. 4wd- helps you get going, once you're going, both give the same control (again, unless hooning). I drove a hyundai accent (a $700 hyundai accent) across canada (canadian side of the great lakes too), and a month in BC and never got stuck. Tires matter much more than the number of wheels spinning (studded snows in my case)

[DeathVan]

The lady and I did this same thing last march, skied Red Mt. not the best weather but the place has some good looking terrain -cats available, and Rossland was a cool fun town, ACzBC (an ACzDC coverband) rocked the Flying Steamshovel and playing Negeln (also known as Stump or Hammerschlagen) with locals was a blast.

Sparkletarte is right on and guided us to a great eat/drink joint in Nelson, I think it was the Hume Hotel bar, good food, local beers, ski movies and free music.

Whitewater was fantastic! no crowds, insane trees and deep snow that didn't stop, not to mention the bar food was the best I've ever had at any "resort" ohh poutine. We stayed in Nelson longer than planned, it is a fantastic spot with great people and there was an excellent ski and stay deal at the fancy-shmancy hotel on the water, it was pretty kush compared to our normal lives.

We ended the trip skiing at Schweitzer in Idaho, they had an end of season pass for $100, we got our use out of it, it dumped there too! The back side of the mountain had some nice (albeit short) terrain options and the front side has a section of dead trees that was a blast to arc through deep snow at speed.

We were planning on Revy > Kicking Horse but the snow was so good and the vibe was right so we just chilled and skied more where we were, no regrets, will hit those next time.

don't miss the Castlegar Cat Girl if you cruise through


re: a car: we had 2wd -front, but would pick up chains next time just in case, it can freakin' snow!

Have a great trip and plan to be flexible

[RIPITUP84]

Exactly as the last comment says. Plan to be flexible. Check the weather report days before you get here and be ready to spring into action. It may be better to go to in the Fernie direction first then north, por vice versa. But everything everyone here has said is true and proper.