Winter has officially arrived at Lake Louise
Resort hosts Women’s World Cup race this weekend on the heels of men’s race
Every year, it’s like clockwork.
Yes, Lake Louise typically opens earlier in November, but it’s not until the world’s best skiers descend on the vibrant mountain resort that you really feel like winter has truly, genuinely arrived.
Last weekend, that’s exactly what happened when the best male athletes on the international alpine circuit arrived at the Banff National Park ski area for two days of racing in the Lake Louise World Cup.
On Friday, the world’s best get going again and this time it will be the women who rip down the mountains at unfathomable speeds en route to the Lake Louise base area.
“All the top women in the world are going to be there, we’re excited,” said Dan Markham, director of brand and communications at Lake Louise.
The weekend of racing gets going Friday with the first of two days of downhill racing, and on Sunday they’ll finish things off with a superG race.
American Lindsey Vonn is unfortunately unable to make the trip to Alberta due to an injured knee, although she’s rumoured to be calling in via video this weekend to say her farewell to a mountain where she has dominated for the better part of a decade.
Other than Vonn, it will be a who’s who of female alpine skiing stars vying for gold, including American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who happens to be the defending World Cup overall champion.
In celebration of the big weekend of racing, Lake Louise will be sweetening the deal for families who make the drive out.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, kids 12 and under can get a free lift ticket if they’re with an adult who buys a lift ticket as well — the kids have to say Go Canada Go, that’s the only stipulation — and newcomers to the sport can sign up for a free beginner’s lesson, too.
And while Lake Louise doesn’t quite feel like it has mid-season conditions just yet, there are plenty of runs open so skiers and snowboarders can get their legs ready for the months of ripping down mountains that lie ahead.
“It looks like we’re going to get a few more centimetres before the weekend,” Markham said. “We’ve got all the lifts open except for one of the magic carpets and 74 runs. About half the major runs are open at the resort already, so we’re doing pretty well.
“It’s just a lot of the black and double-black terrain, those kinds of things, that are going to take some time and need a couple more major storms, but all the major grooming stuff is open and now that the men’s World Cup races are over all the snow-making guns that were on the World Cup course are now being moved over to the (groomed runs) so they’ll be in tip-top shape before the holidays.
“We’re open top to bottom. You can go top to bottom on the mountain totally groomed, so if you can’t get your legs in shape doing that, I don’t know what you’re doing.”
And while there are no new runs or restaurants opening this year at Lake Louise, the resort has again invested in improving its snow-making and grooming infrastructure while continuing to boast world famous terrain that regularly has it ranked on international lists of the best ski resorts in the world.
The resort is also pushing the fact that even for people who don’t ski, there’s a lot to do.
“We don’t just have skiing at the resort, we’ve got snowshoeing programs and sightseeing programs,” Markham said. “All day long, it’s a great opportunity if people don’t ski. Rather than just sitting in the lodge all day, you might as well have one of our interpretive guides take you up on the gondola and do some snowshoeing.”