Lake Louise - November 26, 2011

Lake Louise has received over 64cm of snow in the past week, with lots of snow falling Wednesday & Thursday this past week. There's nothing like hosting a world-cup downhill to make the snow fall!

We took our first runs of the season off of Top of the World. With the runs to skiers right of Top of the World closed due to the World Cup Downhill start, everyone has to funnel through a few traverses toward skiers left to access the runs. The trail crew was working away to shovel snow onto the traverse to keep the rocks covered. The lower traverse was certainly in better shape than the upper traverse. 

The snow in skiers left toward the permanent avalanche closure: Upshoots, Overshoot, etc. was great, with boot-deep fresh powder - although still thin on the steeper pitches. For early season conditions, the snow is excellent. 

We also made it to Top of the World just after the Back Bowls opened for the season, and it made the entire day worthwhile! The saddleback had plenty of wind-drifts where the cat track will eventually be set, but once we made it around to the North Face it was nearly untracked. We made a few laps of this, and there were fresh turns to be had each time. The snow was great, but use caution since drifting snow can hide gulleys / compressions that your skis will find... Whitehorn 1 was also open this weekend, and it's still November.

Even the run under Ptarmigan chair is looking like mid-season conditions! (Of course, I suppose that's not saying much...)

There's not many photos since we'd have to stop skiing to take them, but you can check out a few in our photo gallery.

If this snow keeps up, it's shaping up to be a great season at Louise.