Best skiing in Banff ?

J

justinm

Active member
Hey everyone, I'm going to Banff to ski for 4 days in February and I was wondering which mountain has the best terrain for powder skiing in-bounds ? I don't care about their park as that is all we have back east.Thanks
 
I was just going to post this!! Going up this weekend, and can't decide on 2 days at Lake Louise or 1 at Sunshine and 1 at Louise.
 
louise and sunshine are both fairly equal. I personally like louise but sunshine has back door which can be really good. Don't waste time at norquay.
 
Louise has easier access to the steeps, but Sunshine has better snow. Most the super challenging stuff at Sunshine requires a beacon, probe, shovel etc.

Louise much further from Banff than Sunshine so keep that in mind too.

I know you didn't ask about parks but Louise has been killing it the last few years, whereas Sunshines is pretty big but not as flowy.

Norquay doesn't get as much snow as Shine or Louise, but it has a few decent runs off of North American, but not enough to warrant an entire day. They have hourly skiing as well so it's nice for a morning or afternoon or something. It is very close to Banff. It is wayyyyyy smaller than either Louise or Sunshine.

I'd say go 1 day Louise, 1 day Shine.
 
Sorry for double post.

Don't assume powder conditions. If it doesn't snow, there won't be powder. It's suprising to find out how many east coasters think it doesn't stop snowing haha
 
For bang for your buck you can get more pow laps in at Louise then almost anywhere. Lifts are in the right places and you don't get lines besides at the base. Never skied sunshine, it has some goods from what I've heard but really short runs besides the dive and I think quite a few chairs to do laps. Personally a big fan of Louise but I'm sure either will be a great time if you hit them with pow. Also Louise is working on there park right now going to be banger.
 
Loiuse is good for some kinda laid back bowls, but i LOVE sunshine for snow, they also have more terrain so its easy to di same lift with multiple line combinations AAAALLLLL day, probs same with louise but sunshine is sweet on un popular days (weekdays, far away from breaks) but having 1 sunshine 1 louise will be good. Do sunshine first then see weather you want to go back
 
Sunshine is great , IF you know where to go , the park is number 3 in the big 3 , followed by norquay and louise at number 1 . Louise gets less snow than the shine but the terrain is a little more in your face and as said before , the lift system is very efficient. Norquay can be fun and if your staying in banff at night maybe save it for friday and saturday night to lap the full park at 20$ .
 
went there for a week a few years ago...

I personally loved sunshine and everything about it. We went there maybe 3 days out of 7. My buddy felt exactly the same about louise, where we spent the next 3 days.

If you have the time and the means, give them both a try. Guarantee you won't be disappointed by either, but you'll find the little differences that push one ahead.
 
i reccomend sunshine over louise because sunshine has fun cliffs. also about 1hr 30min further east at kicking horse is pretty dope, it has some really good big cliff lines
 
this! i wouldn't try to go without a 4 wheel drive car tho. But once you get there its worth it. We went there after it hadn't snowed for a week and still found pow and big lines, if you have the time you should definitely spend a day there, but i wouldn't stay there, Golden is pretty slow.
 
I spent the last 5 winters at sunshine and if you know where to go you can find powder any day from January through to April.

If you aren't interested in park I'd recommend taking some warm up laps on Standish through Virgin chutes then Garbage chutes. If Delerium Dive is open get some Avi gear and get a lap in there it has everything from mellow lines down the middle to some epic pillows off Hayes Hill. If the wild west is open get some laps in there too, it is possible to do laps of this on goatseye.

I don't know your skiing level but sunshine is also great for slack/backcountry access but you have to know what you are doing and where you are going.
 
Just got back from riding in Banff this weekend. We went to both Sunshine and Louise. In my own OPINION, I liked enjoyed Louise better. The gondola was more efficient in the terms that there are a lot more runs available on it. I liked the terrain better as well, and the park was a bit better. The rock gardens, although not HUGE amounts of snow, were so much fun. However, sunshine had better snow, and although we went on a friday instead of saturday to Louise, it was not very busy at all. There are more parks at sunshine, and they are all pretty good, except the placement of the largest park is stupid because it is out in the open and it gets really windy. Overall, sunshine has a larger variety of terrain too, and tons of lifts. Also, the staff is more friendly at sunshine. Both resorts were unreal, but I have to say I enjoyed Louise a little bit more. That being said, we didn't do much hiking at all, and that plays a big part too, so keep that in mind. If you are going to go for more than one day, I would definitely recommend going to both.
 
Shine has an on hill Salomon demo with all the Rocker series skis and Suspects and what not, don't think louise has anything
 
Lake Louise does high performance rental, so you pay like 45 bucks to rent the skis for the day. Not your typical demo style but a pretty sweet way to try some different skis.

Skis they carry in high performance

HEAD: Sacrifice, Oblivion, and Rock and Roll

Dynastar: Cham series they do have a pair of 127's a a couple of the 105's

Blizzard: Bodacious, Cochise, Bonafide, Gunsmoke

Lots of other skis but these are what would appeal to most people on NS.
 
Agreed. Definitely go to Golden if you can. I prefer Sunshine but you can't really go wrong whatever you choose.
 
Another vote for Golden here. Fully worth the drive. I don't know my way around Sunshine so I can't comment and Louise is fun but Kicking Horse kind of puts it to shame, even though it's not in Banff.
 
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keep your eye on who has the most new snow when you arrive, even though they are close they can get completely different conditions

as others have said, you can easily make the drive from banff to golden in 1.5-2 hours which would be well worth it to check out kicking horse for a day

if you only want to stick around banff though i would vote Louise but if you have 2 days why not check out both?
 
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