Northern Rockies/Alberta Powder Highway Advice - So Many Options, So Little Time

[GregK]

@msutherland In case you didn’t know, there are bus shuttles almost daily to Kicking Horse too from Banff hotels for only $129 CAN including lift tickets. Think a Panorama shuttle will be going as well from Banff this year for 2 days a week and it’s now on the ikon Pass. Heard it doesn’t get the snowfall the nearby resorts get but might check for a day or two when I go.

This Feb-March will be my third trip to Banff area and 2nd to Revelstoke. I take shuttles as well from Calgary Airport to Banff and then another bus from Banff Bus Depot to Revelstoke. Doing late February to March in Revelstoke and then 2.5 more weeks back in Banff. Passed by Kicking Horse in Golden but never skied there so I’m excited to try it out.

Tough to get to Red without a rental car it seems, so I’m sticking with easier shuttle options.

 

[ilovepugs]

@msutherland In case you didn’t know, there are bus shuttles almost daily to Kicking Horse too from Banff hotels for only $129 CAN including lift tickets. Think a Panorama shuttle will be going as well from Banff this year for 2 days a week and it’s now on the ikon Pass. Heard it doesn’t get the snowfall the nearby resorts get but might check for a day or two when I go.

This Feb-March will be my third trip to Banff area and 2nd to Revelstoke. I take shuttles as well from Calgary Airport to Banff and then another bus from Banff Bus Depot to Revelstoke. Doing late February to March in Revelstoke and then 2.5 more weeks back in Banff. Passed by Kicking Horse in Golden but never skied there so I’m excited to try it out.

Tough to get to Red without a rental car it seems, so I’m sticking with easier shuttle options.

@GregK I’m gonna have to hit you up for some Revelstoke advice or maybe grab a beverage - we’ll be there the last week of February!

 

[GregK]

@GregK I’m gonna have to hit you up for some Revelstoke advice or maybe grab a beverage - we’ll be there the last week of February!

For Sure! I’m there Feb 19th to March 1st so we’ll definitely have to get together for some Candide ski turns. Haha
Really liked Revelstoke!
March 1-18th in Banff so I’m sure we’ll cross paths in LL too. Temps and conditions were nice there and LL/Sunshine late February-early March last year. Went late Jan/early Feb the first time and there was some COLD days then.

 

[msutherland]

@msutherland In case you didn’t know, there are bus shuttles almost daily to Kicking Horse too from Banff hotels for only $129 CAN including lift tickets. Think a Panorama shuttle will be going as well from Banff this year for 2 days a week and it’s now on the ikon Pass. Heard it doesn’t get the snowfall the nearby resorts get but might check for a day or two when I go.

This Feb-March will be my third trip to Banff area and 2nd to Revelstoke. I take shuttles as well from Calgary Airport to Banff and then another bus from Banff Bus Depot to Revelstoke. Doing late February to March in Revelstoke and then 2.5 more weeks back in Banff. Passed by Kicking Horse in Golden but never skied there so I’m excited to try it out.

Tough to get to Red without a rental car it seems, so I’m sticking with easier shuttle options.

I wasnt aware of the Revy and Kicking Horse Shuttles from Banff. Great info. I will probably extend my trip and hit those for a couple of days. Thank you

 

[GregK]

I wasnt aware of the Revy and Kicking Horse Shuttles from Banff. Great info. I will probably extend my trip and hit those for a couple of days. Thank you

Kicking Horse has shuttles leaving and returning to Banff the same day. About 2 hours each way. The Panorama one is also a daily return shuttle and about 2 hours away from Banff as well.

The bus that travels from Calgary(not the airport though) all the way to Vancouver(14 hours) has stops at Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, Golden, Revelstoke etc along the way. So I just use take this bus between the Banff and Revelstoke stops which is a bit over 5 hours each way.

So extending days at the Banff stay, you’d be able to access to Kicking Horse and Panorama but a Revelstoke trip would involve 2 “travelling only” days from Banff.

 

[Nathanvg]

Kicking Horse has shuttles leaving and returning to Banff the same day. About 2 hours each way. The Panorama one is also a daily return shuttle and about 2 hours away from Banff as well.

Will highway 1 be closed between banff and golden this winter? The detour adds an hour which makes kicking horse day trips impractical bit does not impact panorama. They have a calendar showing road closed until Dec, then a tentative opening over the holidays, unclear after that. Hopefully someone knows more specifics.

 

[GregK]

Will highway 1 be closed between banff and golden this winter? The detour adds an hour which makes kicking horse day trips impractical bit does not impact panorama. They have a calendar showing road closed until Dec, then a tentative opening over the holidays, unclear after that. Hopefully someone knows more specifics.

Don’t know either but would assume(hope) they would do overnight closures or lane closures if still needed late December?

 

[DanoT]

Don’t know either but would assume(hope) they would do overnight closures or lane closures if still needed late December?

They expect to be finished by Dec 1.

Fall closures scheduled on Highway 1 for Kicking Horse Canyon construction | BC Gov News

Improvements to Highway 1 through the Kicking Horse Canyon near Golden are on schedule.

news.gov.bc.ca

Edit: I expect the Dec1 finish date estimate to be met, or close to it. There is a lot of road building expertise in B.C. and Alberta as the rugged mountainous terrain and extreme cold winter temps demands it.

 

[Mike Rogers]

Yeah, the (24hr) closure is only for shoulder season, and opens for long weekends. Kicking Horse opened for a sneak a peak one week early last year, and the road was opened for that weekend too.

I skied Rogers pass most November weekends last year, and needed to take the detour. It was a bit of a pain. Traffic came to a stop one Sunday night, and didn't get going again until 8AM. There's no cell service on the road either, so I needed to use my sat communicator to tell my boss I would be out of the office. After that, I skied Rogers pass on Saturdays only (until the road opened)....and louise on Sundays. Much safer!

 

[PlainsSkier]

Switched my trip to Banff to a trip to Revelstoke and Sun Peaks, never been to either but I have been wanting to go to Revelstoke for a long time. Going there in late February for 8 days, flying into Kelowna which looks like it will be a bit of adventure with multiple connections.

 

[charlier]

@PlainsSkier super fun trip to Revy and Sun Peaks

 

[geepers]

Switched my trip to Banff to a trip to Revelstoke and Sun Peaks, never been to either but I have been wanting to go to Revelstoke for a long time. Going there in late February for 8 days, flying into Kelowna which looks like it will be a bit of adventure with multiple connections.

Maybe a day at SilverStar? You gotta go right through Vernon.

 

[DanoT]

Maybe a day at SilverStar? You gotta go right through Vernon.

I suspect @PlainsSkier Skier has an Ikon Pass and Sun Peaks has just been added to Ikon, but not Siver Star.

 

[PlainsSkier]

Silverstar is tempting but I do want to keep things on Ikon, or at least try to. Although last year I went to Banff and somehow ended up at Kicking Horse, so anything is possible.

 

[DanoT]

Silverstar is tempting but I do want to keep things on Ikon, or at least try to. Although last year I went to Banff and somehow ended up at Kicking Horse, so anything is possible.

Silver Star and Sun Peaks are similar to each other in that they are both primarily family mountains. SS has more double black mogul skiing; they both have a similar amount of black diamond runs; SP has more long intermediate blue cruisers with a few that are the equivalent to Jackson Hole's double blue runs; SS has more flat green runs. Both get dry snow (drier than Revy and without Revy's extremely low elevation lower mountain) with SP getting slightly drier but slightly less snow volume.

 

[martyg]

We used to live in Glacier, WA (Mt Baker) and skied BC extensively. Enjoyed many, many multi-day cat and heli trips up there, with resort skiing mixed in.

The two places that I really loved, for different reasons, we’re Sunshine and Revy. Would love to auger into either location for an entire season to teach a few days and explore.

NOTE: Day cat and heli trips universally suck - unless your book a cat or heli for just your group. Selkirk Wilderness Cat Skiing is tops in my book.

Enjoy.

 

[charlier]

The two places that I really loved, for different reasons, we’re Sunshine and Revy. Would love to auger into either location for an entire season to teach a few days and explore.

NOTE: Day cat and heli trips universally suck - unless your book a cat or heli for just your group. Selkirk Wilderness Cat Skiing is tops in my book.

Enjoy.

Day heli-skiing puts a first-time group together without a thought to skill levels. There might be long downtime/waiting and terrain choices that fit the lowest denominator. Mostly expensive and disappointing. Same with cat trips. That said, a cat trip with locals is always enjoyable - locals from Revy, Vernon, or Rossland.

 

[DanoT]

The owner of Revelstoke Mountain Resort also owns Selkirk-Tangiers Heliskiing and they have a heli pad right at the resort for picking up day skiers. Not a bad deal for a last minute decision to heli ski or if other multi day heli operations are booked up as they often are years in advance.

 

[Kyle]

Disagree that day heliski and cat operations necessarily suck. For example, we did 3 days at Eagle Pass Heliskiing in Revelstoke (the day operation rather than the lodge) last year and it was terrific. I have heard similar reports from RK Heliski from people I trust.

Eagle Pass has a pretty thorough vetting process in an effort to make sure everyone can handle their terrain. I suppose people could lie or even unintentionally overstate their abilities but that was not a problem at all during our trip.

 

[charlier]

The owner of Revelstoke Mountain Resort also owns Selkirk-Tangiers Heliskiing and they have a heli pad right at the resort for picking up day skiers. Not a bad deal for a last minute decision to heli ski or if other multi day heli operations are booked up as they often are years in advance.

That is the problem with heli and cat day skiing. The guides privately advise good skiers to avoid cat or heli day skiing. Skiers with good skills rarely have a good experience. Many day skiers can not ski powder, so the ops find either low angle terrain at lower elevation or everyone waits for beginner skiers at the cat/heli.