Been to Panorama today - it looks like an excellent mountain, although right now, the snow is really bad. Rock solid ice this morning, slush this afternoon, and patches of rocks and grass. It's beyond marginal.

That said, if you're "local" you can get from Banff to Panorama for the day (including lift ticket) for just $42 (that's cheaper than the $60 + bus at Sunshine!).

Yeah baby, that's me!

(now the learning really starts)

Done Delerium Dive - twice.

F*ckin' eh!
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Oh wow - done it. I'm absolutely exhausted now, mind you. I couldn't manage a thrid go on it (I was already doing some pretty poor turns on visit number 2).

Sorry the photos arn't better - it wasn't too sunny, and frankly, I had other things on my mind!

Delerium Dive (Side)The Dive is an awesome bit of mountain. The hike up is (thankfully) easy(ish). Ski Patrol keep an eye out to make sure you've at least got a pack on (and so assume you have probe and shovel). No pack - no ski (as one of our number found out). You also have to use an avanlance beeper to open the gate to get up. (The picture is me looking across at the bowl - there are entry points along there - if you're insane. You get an idea of the gradient we're talking about)

Anyway, once you're up, it's a pretty awesome thing to look at. It's pretty scary - I was nervous as hell. It's also difficult to get into. There's a sort of track along the top, which is fine. However, you have to drop off a sheer ledge for about two feet before hitting a pretty steep bit of slope that's less than 178cms wide. You've then got about 10 feet to travel before you can pull a turn. Scary as hell. Many people, myself included, sat down on the ledge and lowered myself onto the slope bit. I know it's less than 178cms, because my skis didn't fit. However, a bit of a side slip, and it's all good.

Looking Up Delerium DiveThe actual slope is not really that hard. For Sunshine veterans, if you can ski The Shoulder and Hell's Kitchen, you've done more than enough preparation to do the Dive. I got fresh tracks all over the place - yep, me - I left my mark on Delerium Dive. Trust me, that feels good. (The picture is from me looking up at the top section of the dive - you can't see the entry point I used though).

Inside Delerium DiveThe Dive is a huge ski area - you can go anywhere, do anything. Today (and I suspect most days) it's just covered in lovely powder. Of course, I stacked it big style on a relatively flat bit trying to do a gentle turn, but you can't have everything (!). Tested out the helmet nicely, and got snow just about everywhere. Fortunately, not too much walking to retrieve my skis.

I feel great - I've had an excellent day. Thanks the the chaps and the Danes for getting me up there. Much appreciated.

Delerium DiveHaving spent a day with some crazy snowboarders (and some crazy Danes), I've now skied every run on the trail map (and a couple besides) at Sunshine, except one. It's double black diamond, requires that you carry an avalanche beeper, probe and shovel, and have a buddy with the same.

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The Goats Eye hike is pretty insane - it's up, up, and more up, followed by down, up, down and more up. It nearly killed me, and I'm probably the most (altitude) fit I've ever been in my life.

Goats Eye SignGoats Eye PathTop of Goats Eye: Sign

First you go past the sign and up the path...

Then, you go down...

And finally you arrive. You can see the crazy snowboarders (all from the UK, I might add) and also a couple of crazy Danes. The view from there is spectacular, and we had great weather for it. The ski down wasn't life changing, but it was good - it'd be really excellent with new snow. There was no new snow, but still plenty of powder to play in. It's a really long run too, although much of it not at much gradient.

Sunshine mountain was closed for most of Sunday and Monday because the gondola computer got fried. Apparently they ran lifts on the mountain for the 40 people staying at the Sunshine Inn (nice - a whole mountain for just 40 people!). Today, rain at the base - not good - the ski out is badly screwed. Still, there's been new snow all over the place, so I (finally) skied Hells Kitchen and Super Model.

Yep, another Mountain Park Adventures trip away. This time to Castle Mountain and then on to Fernie (overnight in Fernie). I didn't do piccies at Castle because I've been there before and well, Fernie looked pretty much like this.
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Castle was it's usual excellent self - althought the T-bar was out, so the lines elsewhere were a bit long. However, the slopes were empty. There was plenty of new powder, so got knee deep in it here and there. I did some spectacular falling too - at one point, both skis, despite ski brakes, went shooting down the mountain. Fortunately, Martin was there to catch them (both) otherwise I'd probably still be chasing them now.

Once out of Castle, we headed over to Fernie (past "the largest dump truck in the world" - sorry, my camera was on the roof of the van, so I didn't get any piccies). Fernie's a pretty small place - all the directions we got were "just go two blocks down there". We had an evening of problems though - crap service in the restaurant, no bars that would let us in, etc etc. I'm not sure how long I could stay in Fernie before it sent me mad (too much the city boy, I think).

Fernie mountain was incredible - they were reporting 4cms of new snow, but it was more like 10-15cms. It snowed just about all day, although it rained at the bottom in the afternoon (which meant we all got absolutely soaked). The powder was great though - really special. Well worth a visit, but don't stay too long ;-)

While we were there, they were doing their annual Dummy Downhill. Essentially, people put skis on a box, stick a dummy to it and push it down hill. They get judged on how well it slides and makes a jump at the bottom (of the half pipe). In genius style, Wylie Coyote, on a rocket, zipped down the slope, over the jump, landed very well, but also hopped over the snow-wall at the bottom (designed to stop runaways). He went on to knock some guy over (who's day abruptly ended there, I would imagine). Nice.

Oh, on the way home we nipped past Radium Hot Springs - nice, although the hot spring is actually a swimming pool. It's kind of a shame they didn't just leave it as rock pools.

Yep, Bingo - at the Royal Canadian Legion (Banff Ave. guests now welcome). A suprisingly good evening, and not nearly as elderly as you might think. I won $20 - considerably more excisiting than you might imagine, and pays for two and a half jugs of beer. Marvellous. Went on to a few places afterwards, and got a bollocking from the police for drinking beer on the street. Whoops.

Imagine living in a place where you stumble out of your house and wander down the main street of your town to go get a coffee, breakfast, or go to work, and it looked like this. Amazing. Do I really have to leave?

(It's not looking quite like that any more - we've had a few centimeters of snow more or less every day this week. Hopefully more tomorrow, but I might be late up - it's Bingo night (I kid you not). Oh man, these Candians know how to rock ;-)

I (finally) got my arse into gear and got to Kicking Horse. It's a fantastic mountain, and incredibly big (although doesn't look it on the trail map). It's got the highest vertical drop anywhere, and has a single green run than is 10km long (and quite boring). There's bumps (moguls, to Europeans) all over the place, and some extremely extreme skiing, if you're that way inclined. Awesome. (now with pictures)
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Incidentally, if you're in Banff and want to go to Kicking Horse (which I'd recommend you do), then go to Rude Girls (opposite Coyotes) and go to Adventures Unlimited. If you're "local" (like me!) then you get it for $60 (otherwise $75) - that's return bus and a day lift pass. Incredibly cheap.

The mountain is huge, it has three skiable bowls, Bowl Over, Crystal and Fuez (which is newly opened). There's also Super Bowl, but you have a pretty hefty hike to get there, and it's outside the ski area.
BowloverCrystal BowlFuez BowlEagles Eye

The Crystal Bowl was the first I skied - take the gondola to the Eagles Eye Restaurant (which you can see on the left) and then find your way down, and then up the lift. There's a fairly gnarly track, but once you get down it, you get to see the bowl (above) which is huge. Again, if you fancy a hike, there's all sorts of rewards for doing so. The route back to the gondola is incredibly long:

CPR Ridge RoadFuez Bowl Exit

The track along CPR ridge (the pic on the left) is pretty mental. It's the start of the only green on the mountain. Those little vertical drops on the right have ski tracks all over them. Some people are clearly insane. Mind you, there are some much more mental looking slopes that have tracks all over them, so I guess this is pretty tame.

It's not an easy mountain. Blue upwards, and moguls all over the place. That said, it's awsome, you have to go.