J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by steverandomno

Season over? Just finished a trip to kicking horse. They had 33cm overnight on wednesday and it snowed most of thursday. Best skiing of the season.

Snapzzz wrote:

Shaneoforpow wrote: live in a shithole with 20 other people cause thats what its all about!

And here's me looking for chocolate box chalets and charming company....

:lol:

I think we can put this down to youthfull exuberance on Shaneoforpow's part.

Shaneoforpow - It sounds like Banff or Fernie is ideal for what you want. There are loads of young people in Banff and it has a great nightlife. If that is what you want I would check it out. I'm told by a friend that the HI hostel is very good place to start, though it's a quality establishment rather than a shithole :) You could then find a room in a house (though you should be aware of the need to reside bylaws that exist in Banff - google them).

Trencher wrote:I am now at the stage where if someone collides with me from behind, unless I'm totally sure that both my gear and myself are unscathed, I want contact info. It's often not until later that you find your skis have been damaged, or worse that you have an injury that was not apparent in the adrenalin rush of the collision. It's hard to have your wits about in that situation, so you need to mentally rehearse your reaction beforehand.

Anyway, glad you are OK, and what a great addition to the J2ski lexicon "what in fluffy snow's sake".

I have some sympathy for this Trencher.

At the beginning of our recent holiday, my girlfriend and I were skiing down a wide blue run in Sunshine Village with a friend on a bluebird day with great snow conditions for carving. I was slightly ahead of her and we were all skiing at some pace. There was hardly anybody else on the run. As I made a turn to the left I could just make out the clattering of skis and some shouting uphill to my left. Knowing there was no one else on the run, I knew it had to be my GF or our friend and so I slammed on the breaks. By the time I had traversed to where my GF and friend had assembled everybody had a chance to dust themselves off. My GF said she was fine. It turned out that somebody from another group that had been following us had skied straight over theback of my girlfriends skis and into her. They must have been going incredibly fast given we were going at some speed, and were obviously out of control. The other party had stopped slightly uphill from us when the person responsible thought it would be a good move to ski down and offer his apology. This was given in a very matter of fact 'oh everybody is fine but sorry about that' matey sort of way. Once my GF and our friend had skied on, I had a few chillingly serious choice words with this guy, basically telling him that he needs to ski in control and that he is very, very lucky that she was not injured. 'I do normally' he says....

Well that's just fine then mate. You ski in control most of the time, but we'll just forgive you when you almost kill or seriously injure our loved ones on the odd occasion you forget or can't be bothered. Remember, anybody could have been skiing this run.

He skied off without the matey "oh don't wory about it mate" response he sought and under no illusions that I was anything but extremely angry. Hopefully he was a bit more careful.

As it turns out, she was mildly injured. The adrenaline had masked the fact that she had hurt her shoulder. It turned out that she was fine after a couple of days (just some bruising) but we were initially not sure whether she would need to get it checked out.

The bottom line is that some idiot who clearly poseses the ability to ski in control but couldn't be bothered, had injured and thus affected the enjoment of her holiday for at least two days. It could have been much worse. Now I wish I had taken this guy's details if only to make him realise the seriousnes of what he had done.

There is only one rule when it comes to responsibility on marked pistes. If you crash into somebody ahead of you it is your fault. Period. It does not matter if you are a beginner or a level 4 ski instructor, or whether the person you crash into is a beginner or a downhill champion. It does not matter if it's a green, blue, black, double or triple black diamond run. It is your responsibility to stay in control and leave plenty of room.

Being a good resort skier isn't about being able to ski a black mogle run at 50 mph. It is about being able to ski any run safely and in control no matter what speed you are travelling. To be aware of those around you and equally to ensure that you don't spook people out. That actually takes some skill.

PS - where are you from? Did you enjoy Niseko - what were the conditions like this year?

PPS - top tip - when you get to Canada 'Sick' = 'Gnarly' :)

(or so I'm reliably informed)

My thoghts would be to check out Canmore or Banff. Banff is a great town but it can feel like one big restaurant/hotel . Canmore sits just outside the national park and so has fewer restrictions on development and as such is more of a regular town. I suggest this for another reason - you mention that you are geologists. You might find that you want to stay in Canada and the best place for you to find work as geologists would be in Calgary, so why not combine getting to know a potential new home with some great skiing. As Pablo mentions, the 3 resorts (Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise) are all a 15 - 45 min drive away from Banff. If you want the small local ski town experience then there are plenty of places with great terrain to choose from such as Revelstoke, Golden (for Kicking Horse) or Fernie. You could always check out Smithers in Northern BC though I have never skied there.

You mention Rossland. Rossland would be a good choice if you want to live close to the ski resort and have a nice small town local vibe (though the hill is a fully fledged modern commercial resort). Not sure what the conditions are like in late March and April but the terrain is great. I skied with a couple of mates who spent a few days skiing Red and although they did not actually stay in Rossland, they ended up partying there most of the time. Note that most of the smaller resorts do not tend to have parks. I think Red does though.

Your best bet for good snow at that time is sunshine village so you are doing the right thing staying in banff as your main base. Banff gets very busy around christmas so dont even think of not booking for the weekend before and I would be very uneasy if i had not booked for the week before. You are probably safer playing it by ear when it comes to kicking horse and revelstoke, especially if you are ok with staying in town.

Hi - If this is a once in a lifetime trip I would consider postponing it to late Feb or early March. (probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth)

Kickinghorse and Revelstoke will have only just opened in mid Dec. If there is some decent early season snow, as there was this season, the coverage will be OK at best. December is always hit and miss throughout the rockies. Sunshine Village and Lake Louise will be open from late November but you could find that the full terrain is not open depending on early season snowfall.

I was in SSV during the beginning of Dec this season. The coverage was OK, but not that great considering they had an above average start to the season. Only about 40% of the skiable terrain was open and the skiing was mostly restricted to the pisted runs.

To get the most out of the Canadian skiing experience it would be best to wait until they open up all of the terrain as the resorts are best enjoyed when you are able to ski almost anywhere in-bounds, which is usually the case following the Christmas period. For those used to skiing mostly on marked pistes, this is one of the big attractions of the Canadian resorts. (all terrain in-bounds being avalanche controlled and monitored by ski patrol)

If you need to keep it to the off peak times, go for January, everything should be open by then.

Suggestions on where to go depend on what time of year you will be there. SSV, LL and Kicking Horse are the obvious choices. Also consider spending a couple of nights in Nelson, BC where you can ski Whitewater (Near Nelson) and Red (in Rossland, BC). They are fantastic resorts when there has been good snowfall (so probably not that great in early Dec). The terrain is very interesting and varied. Whitewater is a very nice local hill without the usual commercial guff that you find in most resorts.

What ever you do, make sure you take a day to drive the ice fields parkway (on a clear day). It is one of the most spectacular drives in the world.

According to Mayan prophecy. 2011/12 will be the last ski season. Therefore I would have likely made my last ever turns :-o

However, I doubt the validity of their prophecy. Such a significant event (my last ever turns) would surely be a key element of the warnings passed down through the ages. I'm sure there is no mention of skiing in the these accounts.

Therefore, I plan some epic lines!