NORQUAY CONDITIONS MAKE FOR HAPPY TIMES
Awash in powder, Banff resort aims to get skiers on hills at affordable price
Andre Quenneville has seen a lot of winters at Mount Norquay.
He’s not sure he’s ever witnessed a start to a season quite like this year, though.
The Banff resort has been getting hit with big snowfall after big snowfall and is enjoying one of its best starts to a season in terms of powder.
In fact, with 218 centimetres of snow falling this season, Norquay is already approaching the total they hit for the entirety of the 2018-19 season.
So yeah, they’re sort of loving life and feeling awfully grateful to the snow gods at Norquay right about now.
When you get (this much) snow before Christmas, it’s a perfect gift. The conditions are stunning.
“When you get (this much) snow before Christmas, it’s a perfect gift,” said Quenneville, the general manager at Mount Norquay. “The conditions are stunning, it’s the best I’ve seen since I’ve been out here. It’s ideal right now for skiing and tubing and outdoor recreation.”
While Norquay isn’t the biggest resort in the Canadian Rockies, it’s famous for the variety of its terrain. There’s a challenge for everybody, whether you’re an experienced thrill-seeker or just getting introduced to alpine sports.
Its proximity to Calgary has also made it a favourite for generations of families in the city, and over the past decade Norquay has committed again and again to ensuring that even families where not everyone skis can still enjoy a day in the mountains.
All the snow definitely helps. “When the conditions are good, everything’s just a lot smoother and more fun and just a better experience for people who come out. It’s a fun time of the year to have lots of snow,” Quenneville said. “What we don’t have in size, we make up for in quality and by having a great ski school. It’s a perfect place for people who are thinking of trying to get into skiing. We’re easy to get to and we have other activities like snow-tubing and snowshoeing.
“For anyone who’s not quite sure, Norquay is the best stop.”
The tubing park, in particular, seems to have really taken off at Norquay. Visit on any weekend and you’ll see all eight lanes packed with kids having what appears to be the time of their lives.
With eight lanes to glide or slide — or spin — down and a magic carpet to bring guests back to the top of the hill, the tubing park has become a destination in and of itself for Albertans who might not know how to ski or snowboard but still want to spend some time outside and in the mountains during the winter.
Norquay is also making real efforts to make it affordable to get on the mountain, especially with their Cool2carpool promotion that allows skiers and snowboarders who travel together in a vehicle to split the $89 cost of getting each of them lift tickets. That means if five people drive up together, they’re paying less than $20 each for a lift ticket.
It’s one of the best values you’ll find for lift tickets anywhere in the mountain and, again, it’s all about making it easier and more affordable to enjoy all the snow that has fallen on the slopes this season. The next Cool2carpool Day goes Jan. 8.