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Last month, sixty centimeters of blower dropped on Lake
Louise' closing weekend with a solid base and cold temperatures. There, I rendezvoused
with three friends from Telluride, Colorado, to catch a legendary spring storm and see what this Canadian Rockies resort had to offer.
The day before, May 4th, I was enjoying sunny
skies, eighty-degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures and a solid swell on Vancouver
Island when I got the call from the Telluride crew with whispers of a late
season storm in the Canadian Rockies. Without hesitation, I packed up my
surfboards and jumped on the next ferry to the mainland, where I would drive to
Revelstoke for the night and then take off early the next morning for higher
ground and cooler temps.
Lake Louis and the Canadian Rockies had a banner season, especially in
March and April, which provided us with enough of a base to huck and send some
fun pillows. Garret weaves his way through a double stage pillow line.
The Telluride crew was in top form and it showed in their ability to
point it through technical features. Most of Cinco De Mayo would be spent
in-bounds, where no lines or crowds led to blank canvases of snow beckoned to
be slain. Paul points it through the narrows with ease.
Face shots, shit-eating grins and high fives were the main
theme for the weekend where it felt like we were in the DEEP thralls of winter
rather then May. Garret pauses for a mug shot after an incredible 1,500’
descent.
We found shelter at a nearby hostel while we explored the Canadian
Rockies and the nearby Kananaskis Range. Our crew of dirtbags were all but
broke by this point in our adventures. Luckily, we were able to barter our
services and shoveled snow in exchange for room and board.
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Hostel life! The snow would not let up and the stoke was at an ALL TIME
high.
The snow continued to fall the next day and the word had
gotten out. With increasing crowds, lines and tracks, our group would push out
of the resort boundary to find more untracked lines. The snowpack would prove
to be touchy which kept us to low-angle, well-anchored terrain in the
side-country of the resort. Kyle finds some hang time in the pines.
The Telluride crew of dirtbags stomped everything they pointed. Kyle
making it look easy.
On the third and final day, we headed out for a tour in the Kananaskis
Range. Our friends from Calgary, The High Plains Drifters, would guide us deep
into a zone they call “Knowhwere Alberta.” Our goal was to have a look at a
visually aesthetic couloir, but with warming temperatures and rising winds increasing avalanche activity, we
made the executive call to pull out of the original objective and ski some safe
and mellow trees.
The Cinco De Mayo storm will not be forgotten by anyone who
graced it’s wonderful bounty of deep and light snow. I knew we were amongst a
truly legendary storm when I hit the base of the resort for après the first
day, where Scott Newsome, of Eagle Pass Heli, and other locals were calling
that day, “the best the Lake (Louise) had ever skied.”
