Banff to Vancouver is reeeeally flogging it That’s a 10 hour drive plus stops and includes 2 very risky mountain passes and sunrise doesnt happen til 8.30am in January
Same comment, Banff to Van is a big ask in a day. Can be done but the planets have to line up. The extra day is easy to find, only takes an hour from Nelson to Rossland so you do that after lifts close.
another option is, if the weather is great, drive Kamloops stright to Whistler via hwy 99 and completely miss Vanvouver. View are spectacult (provided the weather/roads are great)
Weekend crowds less an issue at Whitewater and Red because local population is small. Revy not too bad either. Banff area, KH, Pano and Fernie get slammed by Calgary people on weekends.
AH that makes more sense. Couldn't work out why you'd drive from Golden to Banff then backtrack to Van. Good luck with the trip!
Did it once cos Air Canada weren't very agreeable to us dropping a sector - Van to Kamloops as they would cancel the rest of the ticket as a no show. And me thinking it was an achievable drive and spending an extra day in Banff to maximise our time. So I did the drive from Banff to Sun Peaks, dropped our gear off at the accommodation as no one was there and the accommodation manager let us do it, continued on our drive to Vancouver. Got in extremely early the next day, slept for a couple of hours in a motel and then back at the airport to fly back to Sun Peaks. NEVER again in one hit. Saw a truck rollover minutes after it happened leaving Lake Louise. Passed the remnants of an accident between Revelstoke and Salmon Arm and later found out it had been a fatal and it was extreme stress on me and probably dangerous to drive that far in the conditions we had. I did take regular rest stops but still a very tough and ambitious drive that I know better not to do next time.
Or it might be a sunny day with dry roads at the end of a high pressure week and you get easy going summer-like conditions the whole way. Who knows in winter. The one certainty is that it is folly to make plans and schedules a long time out that depend on good roads in January.
^^ yup...I don't know how many times we've been lectured by our Canadian friends to take it easy and be flexible. we have never rushed nor made stupid decisions and always back up our plans with a quiet conversation with a local....us silly Aussies driving on Canadian roads in winter have no idea !!!. I thank my friends for constantly giving us those genteel lectures over a glass or 2, or 3 of wine
and yet that video posted recently of crashes on the main hwy near Lake Louise - I susoect there were more Canadians than Ausies in that carnage
yes certainly !!!!! but my point is...us Aussies are good drivers yes, we are responsible yes, we don't take unnecessary risks yes...... but we are not used to driving in conditions that mother Canada throws at us and we should never assume we are ready for it and underestimate her unpredictable power. We don't get anywhere near the conditions here in Aus
more specifically, Canadians are flawed, with their experience of local conditions, so aussies need to be more bigilant
Recommend an SUV, - they come with All mountain tires, but if you can get winter tires, its good to have them. Usually have to pay a bit extra per day.
The countdown is officially on for our trip and we've hit a decision making hurdle which I thought others may be able to shed some light on. After our 5 nights at Red Mountain resort, we're tossing up between Whitewater and Kicking Horse. What we cant decide on is whether Whitewater is a mountain very similar to Red , and whether Kicking Horse will be somewhat different. I know there is a significant amount of advanced terrain at KH, which we're ok with! We wanted to keep the plans fairly loose so we can be flexible and choose a mountain based on snow conditions, but all things being equal, are there opinions on Whitewater or KH as the better option, given our previous 5 days at RED?
Go to Whitewater. Cut your Whistler stay in half and add Kicking Horse in after Whitewater. Or better still forget Whistler altogether.
Really depends on what you are after. Whitewater and Kicking Horse are v different. Going to be a great trip either way. You’ve got some lower key regional resorts mixed in with the busier bigger Whistler. Lots of variety both on and off the slopes.
Red and WH2O are more similar than either is to KH. But as @DPS Driver says, worth doing both if you can. Glad to see you have a day set aside for the drive, it will be a good 5 hours from Rossland or Nelson to KH. But you could drive from KH to Banff after skiing because that's only 2 hours, pick up a day by doing that.
Am meeting my parents and daughter at Whistler for the back end of the trip, so that is locked in. May cut short a day at Red and try and squeeze both in !
I like that idea - finish up mid arvo at KH and drive straight to Banff or Lake Louise...thanks for the tip.
@Scot_e17 do you hike or tour? If not I would keep some flexibility around WH20. If there’s no fresh and you don’t want to earn the turns it very small. If the snow is on it’s unbelievable. We missed the snow and with none predicted we did 1 day and then moved onto Revie and then KH early. I loved KH and rated it as probably my favourite on the powder highway. If you can do both do both or be flexible accomodation is easy to book on the powder highway so you can change plans
Our plan has always been around keeping flexibility, however we have found a great little accommodation option which we'd love to stay in called Logden Lodge. https://www.logdenlodge.com/ We would love to do 2 nights at Logden Lodge and then head to kicking horse for 3 nights, which will give us 2 full days at KH.
Love love love the look of that place...Okay so I have never been, found it last season and now trying to work out a group and logistics to stay. Great price, nice location amazing.
The big question, do we visit Silver Star or Apex for 2 days around 20 Jan?? Don't think we can fit in both after a visit to BW. Driving back to Vancouver when finished. Thoughts??
I'm biased... Apex. Provided you like steep bumps and trees. Yes they have groomers but barely a third of the selection there is at SS or BW.
Beerman may also have to consider significant others in the family. Take it from me, not too many brownie points in starting at the top of a run that your wife/kids can't get down and end up walking. Makes for an uncomfortable evening. Its a mistake I only made once.
Not a big fan of bumps, i.e. I try to avoid them but can do them if I have to. How bad do they get at Apex?? Steep is ok, other 3 family members are green - blue groomers only.
Apex not for you. If you like the steeps and bumps yourself, there are ways to have the green/blue skiers meet you at one of a few key meeting spots. But if that isnt your thing either, then there's not a lot of point. You'll get bored with the Chute pretty fast, that's the only black that gets groomed regularly. The bumps are mostly steep and long, only one run I would consider to be blue bumps. Ill put it this way: Apex freestyle club sends athletes to national team, World Cup and Olympics on a regular basis, and the national team has Apex as its training and selection centre. Probably says all you need to know about bumps at Apex.
If there are a few of you and you want Big Red Cats on a certain date, book well ahead. They are popular. Especially since you are doing Red over New Year. Unfortunately booking well ahead means you take a gamble on snow and weather conditions on that day. All available now, but once the snow hits.... https://www.bigredcatskiing.com/book-a-trip/availability
I had Apex on my radar for a short visit but I fear my wife may dislike it from the above description. She can handle steepish terrain but doesn’t enjoy steep bumps. Oh well. We might go the other way to Revelstoke.
We'll be at Apex until the 23rd maybe the triple at Apex may be enough to keep others in group happy for 2 days...blue green cruiser runs I am sure my kids could give you a tour. Some of the blacks over the back are lovely...yes bumpy but not out of control, get them on a new snow day and they are perfection...definitely not groomer blacks though. If you want superb groomed blacks that are steep...head to Silverstar over the back...fav spot for little miss and I when we want some steeps and to really let go.
Its been 8 months in the making, and finally we're close to departure for our trip, with just one small issue - NO SNOW at Red Mountain. Thanks to the advice of forum members we have left most of our trip and bookings fluid, with the exception of our booking at The Josie at Red Mountain across the NYE period. Our only anchor for the entire trip is 5 nights at RED from 30th Dec, and only 10 days out the mountain isnt open. Our current thinking is this - Whitewater is only a 1 hr drive and havinga great start to the season, so we can do a day trip there, and given we will be in Fernie (also having a good start) prior to Red, we could extend an extra night and just forego one nights accommodation. Any suggestions for us gien the lack of early season snow at Red?
Be patient and positive. WH20 is a great option. Don't move anything until you need to. Accom is easy to grab on the day, so relax, have a good Chrissy and play it by ear.
The system is in full cry now. Roads be closed all over the southern interior due to accidents up in the mountain passes. Anywhere from 40 to 75 cm has fallen on the highways, and those are only at mid elevation - the highest passes in the province top out at just 1700 m, and the Coq is only 1244 at the summit.
