2011/12 Opening Day at Lake Louise

Lake Louise is now officially open for the 2011-12 season, nearly two full days sooner than last year - and it's looking great! The Lake has had 15cm of fresh snow over the past two days, which helps to keep Wiwaxy soft for the ol' Wiwaxy 500, and it's helping to start a base to get the rest of the mountain open sooner. 

With cooler temperatures over the past week, Louise has been able to crank up the snow-making and they've been doing a great job. When we arrived this morning, the Bow Valley was bluebird until we got up to Louise where the snow-making cloud was hovering. You can see the nice base & bluebird skies, a great start to the season:

There were tons of people out on the slopes today, which kept the Glacier chair quite busy - a line-up isn't something we usually see on opening weekend (at least after the first chair ride), but it's great to see so many people stoked and itching to get out riding! 

The top part of the mountain is also starting to look quite good, and with a little snow-making to help out the high-traffic areas, it should be ready in the next few weeks if Mother Nature cooperates. Here are a couple shots of Top of the World & the Summit:

All in all, a great day riding Wiwaxy. It feels great to get back on the skis & enjoy a beautiful day in Banff National Park.

Check out a few more photos in our photo gallery.

Cheers!