BC/Alberta hills

[jackstraw]

Before we get blocked from entering Canada, what hills would you guys rate as the must ski?

I'm limited as I've only skied Revy, Whitewater, and Red.

[XXX-er]

ones with snow

[BCMtnHound]

ones with snow

This.
From my experience: WH2O, Fernie, Kimberly, Kicking Horse, Mt Cain, Revy, Hudson Bay Mtn, Powder King, Murray Ridge, Troll, Marmot, and Sun Peaks have all provided days of blower pow from first to last chair. A couple were first visits that were made possible by locals showing the goods. Some were on storm cycles or big snow years that only occur once in a decade.

[TAFKALVS]

I thought panorama was pretty cool if you like long groomers, big big big vert top to bottom.

[tang]

Kicking horse - endless sidecountry, fave mtn anywhere, be prepared to hike
Shames - combine it with a hut in the area ideally, and also vast area to explore from the resort, super cool vibe

[paulster2626]

All of them. Each offers its own fun and drawbacks, which is why it's important to know what you're looking for, who you're going with etc. Can't really go wrong in Western Canada, which is why it's time for me to give the USA a nice middle finger for tourism for the next 4 years.

[TAFKALVS]

“My favorite ski area is the one with a foot of fresh pow” -mofro261

[jackstraw]

Kicking horse - endless sidecountry, fave mtn anywhere, be prepared to hike
Shames - combine it with a hut in the area ideally, and also vast area to explore from the resort, super cool vibe

Yeah, Kicking horse is on my list.
Shames is way up there!

It would be cool to tie in a couple or few on one trip. Kicking Horse is close to Banff which seems like a cool spot to check out with a couple hills.

And yeah....the one with fresh snow.

[toast2266]

Of the ones I've skied:

Top tier: Revy, WH2O, Kicking Horse.

Mid tier (still better than most US areas): Lake Louise, Sunshine, Red, Fernie

Lower tier: Panorama

The one I still haven't skied but really want to: Castle

*I'm not including stuff further west. Whistler, etc.

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[Harry]

Castle.

/thread

[tang]

Castle is great, also great vibes.
Norquay is a fun throwback place.
LL and sunshine have some fun serious terrain.
Banff a good stop for sure

[waxman]

A little (or long) story about Castle. It can be awesome.
A long time ago I worked for Rossi doing demo days/race support etc. The big Rossi dealer in Lethbridge mandated as part of their booking that all the suppliers had to do a "super" demo day there and then they could write or take orders for their customers.
If you hit a pow day it was all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. If it hadn't snowed or the hill had been wind scoured it was pure misery. I probably did 300 odd demo days during my time with Rossi. Castle was the only place where the entire fleet was unskiable by the end of Saturday due to damage to edge or bases. Twice.
It's also the only place I ever had a ski broken during a demo but that is a pilot error.
tl:dr just go to Fernie

[apex dave]

A little (or long) story about Castle. It can be awesome.A long time ago I worked for Rossi doing demo days/race support etc. The big Rossi dealer in Lethbridge mandated as part of their booking that all the suppliers had to do a "super" demo day there and then they could write or take orders for their customers. If you hit a pow day it was all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. If it hadn't snowed or the hill had been wind scoured it was pure misery. I probably did 300 odd demo days during my time with Rossi. Castle was the only place where the entire fleet was unskiable by the end of Saturday due to damage to edge or bases. Twice.It's also the only place I ever had a ski broken during a demo but that is a pilot error.tl:dr just go to Fernie

I wrote this blurb and love Castle BUT this year it's not looking so good.https://www.skitalk.com/threads/unof...esort-ab.4764/

[jackstraw]

A little (or long) story about Castle. It can be awesome.
A long time ago I worked for Rossi doing demo days/race support etc. The big Rossi dealer in Lethbridge mandated as part of their booking that all the suppliers had to do a "super" demo day there and then they could write or take orders for their customers.
If you hit a pow day it was all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. If it hadn't snowed or the hill had been wind scoured it was pure misery. I probably did 300 odd demo days during my time with Rossi. Castle was the only place where the entire fleet was unskiable by the end of Saturday due to damage to edge or bases. Twice.
It's also the only place I ever had a ski broken during a demo but that is a pilot error.
tl:dr just go to Fernie

So you're saying it's "sharky"? Sounds like my kind of place.

[garyfromterrace]

Firstly let me just say to those that replied to the OP that the hill to go to is the: one that has the snow, the one that just got nuked with 40 centons of fluff, the one that is getting hit by a storm. My hats off to you for such a very witty retort. Let me also just say - no fucking shit sherlock. Thanks for posting (my hand is firmly planted on my forehead). So let us say all things being fucking equal (they all just got 40cms) perhaps now we can compare. No? Full disclosure - I have not skied kicking horse or apex. 1) Red Mountain. 2) Lake Louise. 3) Castle. 4) Shames (with touring gear assuming that you have enough avi and topo map knowledge you are not going to kill yourself). 5) Revi. 6) Sunpeaks. 7) Whistler/Blackcomb. 8) Sunshine. Now off you go.

[Shredhead]

And I thought Whistler was the best resort in Canada, by a large margin.

[garyfromterrace]

^ ^ ^ Yes Shredhead, you would think that, however my highly scientific study takes into account a number of factors. 1. the OP will not have a season's pass and may possibly not get a "good deal" on a lift ticket therefore WB lift ticket price of $374 per day (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha) moves it down the list of desirability a number of spots. Any number of the hills ranked higher will get you a lift ticket significantly cheaper and the skiing will be just as good. 2. another factor in my rankings is how long does the pow last, WB the low hanging fruit is gone by 11 and the last stash has been mined by 2:47pm, at Tod mtn (er, I mean sunpeaks) if you know where to look or have eyes that can follow a local, you could be finding fresh stashes days after a dump, same with LL or Red. 3. Friendly locals willing to show you their stash - I firmly believe my top 4 spots can provide this in spades. Revi may be tougher, but shit damn Grinch sure showed me the love for a few runs when I was there and I bet if you weren't a dick someone would show you around. 4. Cool throwback on hill bars (Red, Castle - fuck yeah). 5. Snow quality (WB and Shames = crap shoot), LL Castle not so much but we are talking about a 40cm day here so if it's the Lake or Castle dude.... it would be blower fo sho.

[XXX-er]

I've spent a total of 6 weeks in whis ( 08 world cup & 2010 Olympics ) and both times I couldn't wait to get out of the place in 08




I gave my free ticket to a guy at the base and headed to vangroovy, it was 2 pm and he was drunk



between free accomadation/ free beer and shitty appies at the weasel tent was doing whistler on about 75$ a week




olympic week was pretty awesume if you weren't working cuz there was like 500 skiers on the whole mtn but we were ranching snow,




if you didnt show up for weasel work no free pass, no free lunch, no free acomandaition, no free beer/ appies might as well head for Vangroovy

[jackstraw]

Yeah, haven't skied Whistler and kind of want to and not want to at the same time. Back in the day with all the shots of eric pehota and trevor petersen made me and my friends want to go. Of course that was then when JH, Squaw, etc weren't such epic shitshows either. Part of me just wants to ski it to ski it, but I'm fairly confident I'd hate the scene today.

[toast2266]

I haven't skied Whistler in ~15 years, but that place is awesome. Tons of great terrain, good snow, lots of good sidecountry access, etc.

I'm sure the high prices and crowds have substantially diminished that experience. There's not many places where that's not the case, but it seems like it might be worse in Whistler than most.

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[XXX-er]

well IME if you went and skied with garyfromterrace you would be a celebraty and some guy would hand you a beer in the p-lot from a stash he had stacked like cord wood in an f-150

[apex dave]

Follow up on Castle. This fellow did Castle last year which also sucked so it gives you an idea of low tide conditions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4U6Kcn6hVU

[garyfromterrace]

Apexdave, that was possibly the worst ski video I've had the displeasure to view in my life. What was the point? I have to say I did not view the entirety of that crap but certainly the 35 seconds of video I did see (perhaps 6 little snippets) I am sad I cannot get back. So anyways yeah, skiing can suck there if there isn't much snow. But actually if you know where to look if the wind is blowing (and there is not much snow) it can be amazing. And, there are easily 6 amazing/legit coolies you can get to with a 10 - 20 minute boot pack or skin that are totally do-able in a low snow year so there's that.