The Lake Louise ski hill can be overwhelming as it’s an immense hill. How do you know where to go and what runs are the best for you? I’m here to help you figure that out and have the best downhill ski day in Lake Louise. For a single day lift ticket, purchased online a day before on the Lake Louise site, it costs $139 to $155 for an adult (18 to 64), $95 to $119 for youth (13 to 17) and $45 to $59 for a child (6 to12). The prices vary depending on the day you choose to go ski. If you’re looking to save money, you can buy two adult tickets for $224.99 at Costco, which will save you from $54 to $86. That money can go towards lunch on the ski hill.
If you’ve never gone downhill skiing before, they have a rating system to establish which runs are easy and those that are more difficult. Greens are for beginners and are easier runs. Blues indicate a moderate level of difficulty, followed by blacks that are for advanced skiers. Double blacks indicate that you need to be at a very advanced level of skiing to succeed on these runs.
Table of Contents
Map of Lake Louise for the Best Downhill Ski Day
Back Bowls
The back bowls are dedicated to advanced skiers who have experience with more difficult black or double-black terrain. There are a few blue runs and one green run, if you dare take the risk. I’ve thought in the past, I’ll take that run; it will work out just fine.
More often than not, once in a while, you might miss a blue or green sign and end up down a black run, which can be scary. It’s a quick way to lose your self confidence that you worked so hard to get in the first place. You’ll hopefully have a partner or a family member to offer positive encouragement to help you get all the way down. Black and especially double-black runs are extremely steep and often have protruding rocks that you need to maneuver around to get to the bottom. Keep that in mind when making your decision of which chair lift to take and what coloured runs you can take from the top.
Tip : Avoid that section of the Back Bowls unless you are confident in your green-run or blue-run finding skills, or that are satisfied by taking a black run down, if you miss the signs.
I find the horizontal green runs in between the vertical blue and black ones, on the back side, tend to be narrow and can be nerve-wracking. They do not allow a lot of space to turn, and consequently causing you to snowplow the entire way down. This is not ideal, nor fun. If you want to work on gaining confidence, avoid those and stay on the front side.
Front Side
The west bowl on the front side, offers black runs if you’re looking for more adventurous ski runs as well.
The front side has a variety of runs from beginner to advanced. If you’re a beginner or working on gaining your confidence, the greens runs that run down vertically parallel to the black and blue ones, are the easiest ones to practice turning, with lots of space around you.
The front side does offer varying levels of difficulty which is great if you want to stick to one side. Just note that if the runs on the front side are exposed to the sun all day, they can get icy by the afternoon, making it more challenging if you’re learning how to ski. A lot of the runs require the gondola to get to the top of the mountain. By mid-morning, the line to get up the gondola can be very long and you’ll spend a long amount of time waiting in line instead of skiing.
Tip: Work on gaining your confidence on the front side for the first part of your day and then when it starts to ice up, I suggest heading over to the Larch side which also offers beginner level runs to accommodate learners.
Larch
The back side of the mountain is called Larch; this is my preferred skiing area. It has many doable blue runs for a moderate level skier like myself. It ensures the best downhill ski day in Lake Louise.
If you choose to hangout on that side of the hill, note that you’ll need to take the Ptarmigan chair back up by 3:30 at the latest, to get to the front side, as the chair closes at that time. You’ll be able to get in multiple runs though, as the line-ups tend to be shorter on that side.
Gorgeous Views for The Best Downhill Ski Day in Lake Louise
This is a stunning view after dismounting from the Larch chair. It ensures you that you’ll have the best downhill ski day. You are given many options once at the top. You can do greens, blues and even blacks, if that is what you prefer.
Dress in layers when downhill skiing. It can get windy and cold on the chair lift. You can wear different coloured goggles, depending on the weather. Wear a specific kind of goggles if it’s sunny, or change them out if it’s cloudy that day. Changing them when necessary can help you see the runs more easily. Otherwise, if you can’t see where you’re going, it could throw you off balance.
Tip: If your hands tend to get cold, wear an additional layer under your big mitts to keep your hands warm. You can also bring hand warmers to put into your mitts. It’s nice to feel heat against your hands. Toe warmers can also be used to keep your toes cozy.
Varieties of Difficulties on Larch
The map above shows green circles, blue squares and black diamonds that correspond to the vertical runs. The varying levels of difficulty are indicated on the sign as you can see above, with a corresponding shape beside each run name. The sign also indicates the direction to access each run.
These are short runs on this side of the hill. You can try and see if you’re comfortable with a green or a blue run and re-evaluate once you reach the bottom. If you like the run you chose, enjoy doing it over and over again or pick a different run of the same colour. Another option is to change up the run difficulty. The choice is yours. It depends on what you’re interested in doing and how you feel at that time.
You’ll notice on the sign that the Bobcat run was turned to black because the current conditions at that time suggested that the run was more difficult.
Best Downhill Ski Day While Enjoying the Terrain
Blue Runs
On this specific day, the blue runs were in excellent condition with lots of snow that had showed up the week prior. Make sure to check the weather report before heading out to see if you’ll have good conditions for downhill skiing. There was a lot of snow to carve into and it wasn’t too icy. Sometimes, if it is icy, you might feel like you’ll slip if you cross some icy patches on the hill. Make sure to keep going so you don’t freeze on the hill and stop skiing.
Frozen in Time
If there isn’t enough snow or if many people have taken a certain run, it might end up being a steep icy hill. In the past, I have frozen on a spot, unable to move down the hill. Make sure to keep skiing and don’t stop until you are on a flatter part. The worse thing is to to be frozen like an ice cube afraid of continuing down the hill because you lost your self confidence, psyching yourself out standing in one spot for too long. Keep going and turning. Don’t think too much regarding the steepness of the hill!
Appropriate Clothing
To make my day more comfortable for skiing, I’m using a Chaos Multi Tubular Headwear – Unisex around my neck to keep me warm. If there’s a wind gust, I can easily move it onto my face so that my face doesn’t freeze. I also wear my merino top base layer as my first layer underneath my coat to help keep the top of my body full of warmth. Keeping warm throughout the day ensures the best downhill ski day.
Lunch Time
On this ski day, it was the perfect weather with a high of -6°C and cloudy. The cloudiness ensured that we weren’t sweating while skiing and having the right amount of layers protected us from being cold going up the chair lift.
Temple Lodge is a great place to eat lunch as it’s situated at the bottom of the hill. The nice thing about lodges is that you don’t need to pack a lunch in a backpack and carry it the entire day. Instead, you can eat in the restaurant. This one on the back side of the hill allows you to access food in the middle of the day without having to go back to the main chalet to grab a bite to eat. This helps to have the best downhill ski day.
Family Time
We had just finished eating lunch at Temple Lodge. It was time for a group shot! My parents, Kris and I skiing together made the best downhill ski day. We don’t get to spend an abundant amount of time together anymore as adults having our own lives, but when we do get a chance to downhill ski together, it’s awesome! We take turns going down different runs to please everyone. It’s easier with a group of people to split off and take different blue or black runs. We then meet at the bottom, a short time later after skiing relatively short runs on the Larch side. It’s a good chance to catch up, spend quality time together and exercise!
Rock Garden
Open Space for Wide Turns on my Best Downhill Ski Day
Many black runs have lots of space to ski as do the blue runs, allowing skiers to turn in the snow quite easily. On black runs, you can find more powder and typically fewer people as many skiers feel less confident to experience them. Even if you need to take wide turns on a black run, you’ll tend to have fewer people zip by with a smaller percentage of skiers on that part of the hill. If there are quite a few people on the black runs, they tend to be skilled and will pass by you with control and distance.
Challenging Ski
Run number one hundred and forty-two, the rock garden, was identified as a blue run. However, it was definitely more of a black run the day we experienced it. If the terrain gets worse because of a lack of snow, sometimes they update the sign to indicate a temporary black run, like the sign showed for the Bobcat run. However, that didn’t happen this time, unfortunately. We had to figure that out for ourselves once we were on that part of the hill. There weren’t many places to ski. It felt more like moguls with a specific path required to take to get to the bottom.
Tricky Turns
I personally don’t like that feeling of having to follow a specific path, as I might get into trouble with it being more dangerous than expected or get myself in a bad situation. Rocks were poking out everywhere. I don’t have the confidence to jump over them and hitting a rock unexpectedly could hurt my skis or worse, myself. Thankfully my partner Kris, who has a lot more experience in difficult runs such as these, was able to direct me to make turns safely to get me out of that mess.
Proud to Make it Part of my Best Downhill Ski Day
I was extremely proud to have accomplished it after getting over the shock of terror having to convince myself that I could do it and gain my confidence to complete it. It was doable while focusing on small portions of the hill at a time.
Tip: Be cautious when going on blue runs that specifically state rock garden. There is a good chance you’ll find rocks!
Varying Difficulty on the Front Side
We finished with an easy blue run on the front side. We normally stay away from the front side, as it can get icy from the sun quickly but it was nice and snowy for the last run of the day! As you can see in this picture, we had many options going forward. Some were blue and others were green. It was nice to pick an easy blue for the end of the day as our legs were getting tired. You’ll also have to take one of these runs to reach your car, even if it does end up icy.
Accommodations
There are a variety of places to stay in Lake Louise and surroundings depending on your budget.
Hi Lake Louise Hostel
If you’re looking for cheaper accommodations, the Hi Lake Louise hostel offers dorms and rooms available for your convenience. Private rooms start at $145 and dorms start at $55. Some private rooms have a shared washroom and you can get a private room with an ensuite washroom if you book early enough. It’s $10 extra but well worth the extra cost. They have a kitchen with amenities making it easy in the morning before heading downhill skiing to grab a quick bit to eat before heading up the hill.
After the day is done, you can head to Bill Peyto’s Cafe, their on-site restaurant for a bite to eat. They have a wonderful lounging area with a fireplace if you want to chill after an awesome day of skiing. It’s a great place to meet travellers from around the world if you’re up for an excellent conversation. I’ve enjoyed my stay here in the past and would recommend it.
Hotels in Lake Louise
Hotels in and around Lake Louise offer a variety of prices with different amenities such as swimming pools. Depending on the one you choose, some have restaurants attached to them too. I like choosing one that has a kitchenette to save some money. The hotels offer a quiet spot to unwind with your partner after a long day of ski. There are nearby restaurants too if you want to head out for a fancier meal after a day outside. The Lake Louise Inn offers a wide variety of accommodations depending on what you’re looking for. I’ve stayed here quite a few times.
Baker Creek, just outside of Lake Louise is a lovely place to stay as well. They are nestled along Highway 1A in the middle of the mountains and forest. It’s a gorgeous site to see with the trees covered in snow in the winter. This accommodation is more pricey, starting at $400/night but if you’re lucky you’ll be able to pamper yourself like Kris and I did in a jacuzzi. It’s an awesome way to finish the day! These two accommodations are wonderful as well!
Final Thoughts
I hope this helps you figure out where you should start to have the best downhill ski day. There are many different options, depending on your skill level. The hill offers many different areas for you to ski. Most locations offer green, blue and black runs. Just keep in mind that the back bowl and west bowl are mostly dedicated to advanced skiers. Keep track of the weather, as this will drastically impact your day based on how much snow is on the hill. The more snow, the better! Grab money for ski-lift tickets and lunch at a restaurant and head out for the best downhill ski day!
Additional Links
- What are the Benefits of Skiing?
- Downhill Ski Sunshine or Lake Louise?
- 5 Awesome Outdoor Skating Rinks
- 9 Extraordinary Winter Wonderland Banff National Park Activities
- The Best Winter Activities Near Me for a Marvelous Season
Trip Ressources
- Book your flights with Expedia
- Book your hotel with Booking.com or Hotels.com
- Book your vacation rental with Vrbo
- Book your experiences through TripAdvisor or Manawa
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