Banff Trip Report
by Joe Moreau
The Nashville Ski Club continued our “International” tradition by going north of the border this year! We returned to Banff and the “Big 3” for the first time since 2001 and it was a rousing success!
Two weeks before we arrived Banff was experiencing unusually cold weather. It was so cold in fact that the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures were almost the same. FYI, they are exactly the same at -40 degrees! Luckily by the time we arrived the temperatures had become much more moderate, but that also meant cloudy skies were forecast.
We flew out on Sunday, so not quite as hectic as our normal Saturday starts, but overall everything went smooth getting to Banff.
For our first ski day on Monday, we had the choice of three mountains to ski, Norquay, Lake Louise, and Sunshine. A large part of the group chose to start out at Lake Louise. The clouds were whipping in and out of the peaks making for very dramatic photos. We also learned that while Canadians may be the most polite people in the world, they sure don’t know how to grade their slopes! Our first run was supposed to be an easy green, but could have easily been rated double blue! The sun did try to peek out a few times, so was overall a successful day on the slopes.
Our fist group dinner was that night and Bob Beranek hit the jackpot for the group. We all met at Brazen for a very interesting menu served family style. Each of the main courses had an interesting twist but the surprise of the night was the Eggplant! Even non-believers had to say it was actually pretty good!
Tuesday started off with a beautiful sunrise though the broken clouds, but also had some wind. Some highly motivated members headed out on the first bus to Sunshine, while most of the group chose to take the later bus. Unfortunately the early birds were left waiting at the bottom as the gondola was on a hold for the high winds. They were good sports and let the late risers know about it, so some decided to hit Lake Louise again, while others stayed closer by going to Norquay. The sun did make it our for most of the day, so visibility was pretty good. The Norquay group worked hard to find anything that wasn’t icy, but were not successful. The Lake Louise group also found bad ice, but luckily it was on only one slope, so were able to enjoy the much brighter day. So what about those early birds at Sunshine? Well, the gondola did actually open earlier than expected, but that was still late morning! They did have a great day and enjoyed the sun at Sunshine!
Wednesday saw the rest of the group get to enjoy Sunshine. The shorter bus ride was definitely a plus! It did start out a bit cloudy but then cleared out as the day went on to reveal the spectacular above treelike views that Sunshine is famous for. Several members took the complimentary mountain tour and had a fabulous host. When we started off at noon, she asked if we had a time limit, because she was planning on a three hour tour! Of course the Gilligan’s Island theme immediately played in our heads, and several started signing it as well. We did learn a lot about the mountain and used that information wisely for the rest of the week.
The day ended with our second group dinner and definitely a major highlight for the trip. Bob was able to set us up with dinner at the Northern Lights Alpine Kitchen, which is located at the top of a gondola overlooking the town of Banff! Some went a little early to enjoy happy hour at the Sky Bistro and with the views we see why it’s one of the most popular hot spots in town! We were also able to enjoy the outdoor viewing deck, boardwalk and other interactive displays inside and out making the whole experience one we would highly recommend to anyone going to visit Banff.
Thursday was an off day for many of the trip goers and several took advantage of the local offerings such as Johnson Canyon Icewalk, Lake Louise Winter Tour, Banff Upper Hot Springs, and even some dog sledding! There were many stories of the adventures from the day and all sounded wonderful!
Friday gave us another surprise sunshine day for the first half, then clouds moved in with some much needed snow for the afternoon and evening. The flat light did shorten some of our skiers days by a little bit, but that just let us rest up for the final day!
Saturday started us off with a mix of snow and rain in town, but that meant good freshies on the mountains! The group split between Sunshine and Lake Louise, and both groups had a great day. Getting up to Sunshine was a bit hairy with the traffic and new snow, the busses could not make it up the hill. We had to wait for the sand trucks to get us enough traction and it did delay arrival by about an hour and a half. The good news was that there were still stashes of powder throughout the hill, so we were rewarded for our patience!
We were able to have a nice farewell pizza dinner for everyone and recount many stories from the week as we celebrated our last night together. However there were a few people distracted by the UT/Kentucky game going on at the same time! Fun fact, ESPN is not broadcast in Canada, so instead of watching on the sports bar big screens, they had to illegally hack into their US streaming account to see the game on their phones or I-pads! Shhhh, we won’t tell!
We got some more snow Saturday night, so Sunday was a winter wonderland in town and for the trip back to the airport. All went smoothly, even though we couldn’t check in at the kiosks. United had plenty of desk agents to help us and it went really smooth. As we got to the gate, our plane was already there and we were scheduled to leave on time, but flight info was saying that we would be arriving a half hour late into Chicago. Since our connecting flight was originally scheduled to start loading as we landed, things were now looking really tight. Then after de-icing, we didn’t actually get airborne until over an hour after our scheduled departure time, things did not look good.
As we were flying our way across the country, Lea was looking at options, along with several others using their resources to see what we might have to do to try and get home that day if we missed our flight. Just as we all had really resigned ourselves to being in Chicago overnight, United sent a text letting us know that they were “holding the flight due to large number of transfers arriving late, sorry for the inconvenience”. Woo hoo! We were going to make it home!
After all was said and done, we arrived home about an hour and a half later than scheduled, and everyone had all their bags!
I want to first thank Bob Beranek for being the Assistant Trip Leader, and really taking the dinner arrangements to a whole new level. He also went above and beyond providing great information on the other activities available for the members.
Next, I want to thank the participants on the trip. Everyone worked together well, helped work through the little hiccups we did have so that everyone was able to have a great time.
Banff was a great trip and we’ll definitely be going back before another 23 years passes!