A Taste of Spring

For those arriving at Lake Louise today for a day of skiing, you wouldn’t be blamed for wondering how good the day was going to be based on the socked-in clouds that hugged the mountain.

Until you rode the lift, that is. A thick valley cloud cut off any hint of what conditions awaited skiers – a beautiful, warm sunny day. In fact, some solar aspects even started getting a little slushy towards the end of the day, a fact difficult to fathom when the terrifyingly cold temperatures of December are probably still fresh in everyone’s mind!

If you’ve been to the Lake since last week’s storm, you’ll notice that the wind has once again drastically alterd the landscape by scraping every last flake from some spots and placing them in others. Places like the Headwall and Windy Gap, which is the narrow part en route to Boomerang, suffered visibly, as rocks that had been buried for weeks were back happily sunning themselves today. Other places, like Whitehorn I and other leeward slopes, had many of their features filled in, and new lines have appeared for those who like to hunt for them.

The wind also filled in many of the slopes that had avalanched last week, either naturally or by control work. If you were here last Thursday, you could easily see the results of that morning’s heli-bombing all around the resort, most obviously from the Saddle looking over towards Richardson’s Ridge. A few days later, and one must look hard to find any sign that avalanches happened at all.

Some photos from today…

Whitehorn I shines in the sunlight.

Ridge Run on Whitehorn I, with Mt. Hector in the background.

Skiers at the top of ER3.

Top of the World.

Grizzly Gully.

Juniper.

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