By mid-November, a week before we arrived, Alberta had been hit with multiple snow storms. It was not the plan when we booked the plane tickets, but we decided the powder would be too perfect to miss out. We reconfigured our itinerary and spent a day on the slopes!The best part of traveling to Alberta in November is that it’s technically off-season, i.e. cheaper flights, more lodging options, and less crowds. It’s cold but no one knows if there will be snow. Because of that, skiers tend to wait until winter hits before spending money, and time, traveling. Well, we got lucky and winter came early! After some searching, we found a resort offering weekend passes and, since the whole mountain couldn’t be groomed, at a discounted rate. Sunday morning, we packed up the Durango and headed the hour outside of Calgary to Nakiska Ski Resort. Oh, we did manage to grab a cup of joe for the road at Analog on 17th. Yum! We got there a bit before noon so we purchased a half-day ticket (they closed at 5pm) and it was the perfect amount of time for us on the mountain. If you look at the first picture with the Canadian flag (two pictures up), the sun was shining when we go there. By 5pm, a system had rolled in and brought some snow. The visibility was greatly reduced but it was beautiful boarding as huge snowflakes fell. Heading up for the first run of the day. The mountains were still visible at this point and oh, SO PRETTY!! Also, we didn't have our safety rail down... Not on purpose! Once we remembered, we pulled it down... It had been awhile, ok! We weren't having any fun at all! JK! A few of the runs had some dips in them... If you look behind me, most of those skiers and boarders had gotten stuck and were trying to power through the flat part of the run to get back to the hill. Other than those tricky dips, the runs were fantastic. We enjoyed the wide passes and the variety of blue circles they had open! Around 2pm we were getting hungry so we headed into the lodge for some poutine! U.S. ski resorts should offer poutine, it’s the best boarding food ever! After our snack break, we headed back out for a couple more runs before calling it a day around 4:30. After we returned our rental gear, we took off to a brewery that’s half way between the resort and Calgary... it’s like they knew what they were doing! We grabbed a couple of drinks and some soup to hold us over until our dinner reservations back in Calgary. For a couple of boarders who haven't gone in about 5 years, we thought Nakiska was the perfect place to shake the rust off. Plus, we knew we didn't want to get too far from Calgary so it ended up be a fantastic spot to spend the day.
Until Next Time, C + D
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorChase & Dani here, providing Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|