Ski Lake Louise

This would be our last trip to Lake Louise (180 km west of Calgary) for skiing before our move to Kuwait. The air temperature was perfectly set at -3 degree for two days. The second night had 5 cm new snow. The boys and I have decided to ski together, and I have tried to avoid double black diamond successfully. In my opinion, Lake Louise Ski resort is the best among the North America, except Whistler, as I've never been there, if the snow condition is great. The beauty of the Rocky Mountains has never bored our eyes.

As usual, we took the two express chairs and flip over to the back side of the mountain, where there are fewer people and lighter line ups. There is a long green run in the valley that makes me always feel like a deer jumping in the woods.

You can see Lake Louise and Chatea Lake Lousise in the far.  There are several rivers of clouds in the air like ribbons around the mountains.

We are on the chair lift to the Larch hill.

To make my younger son happy (he begged me several times with his evil "follow me, you are in good hands"), I agreed to follow him to the Rock Garden - you ski literally among the rocks. I hate to hear the scratching sound when my skis touch the rocks; and I also hate to fall forward. Luckily neither has happened this season so far.

The valley on the left side is the Larch Valley.

Every year there are different kinds of ice carving.

Winter Olympic 2010 will start soon in two weeks in Vancouver.

After taking two chairs, we took a T-bar (some people called it poma lift) to the Summit, where there are no easy runs.  Snow here is always better than other areas and the black runs are much longer and challenging.  Even the T-bar is quite long and steep.  If you are not careful, you may fall off and you will find you have to ski down on the black runs.

The boys planned ski to the cliff on the right. Then they would take off their skis and climb to the cliff as there are no lifts at all there, but they wanted to experience the straight free fall. This was the first time for my younger son, as my elder son challenged him. I prayed a little and agreed with their plan. This requires a lot on leg muscle strength.

Before we set to leave, we took the last pictures of the view on the summit.

Now we set to go.

My two brave sons! 

I've offered to take video and photos for them when they ski from the cliff, and this means I have to ski on a long double black run.  I really enjoyed everything!

There they are!  Whenever I see my elder son coming from the cliff or I cruise on a power run, the song "Walking in the Air" from the "SKI to the MAX" movie rings in my ears.  ("Walking in the Air" is a YouTube hyper-link.)  Unlike the IMAX movie, the ski patrols here always ensure the avalanche is under control before the runs are open to the skiers though.

This was not that easy, eh?  He is worn out. 

Baby Polar Panda baby and mommy.  We love skiing in Canadian Rockies!  We stayed at Lake Louise Inn where we found that 70% of the tenants are from Europe.