EDMONTON – After a fantastic start to the ski and snowboarding season, Alberta mountain resorts saw little new snow through this past weekend and work week.
But blue skies and warmer-than-average temperatures resulted in fairly good conditions this week, with many resorts seeing soft machine-groomed runs.
Global Edmonton’s Chief Meteorologist Jesse Beyer watches the mountain conditions closely this time of year and knows that “even a little bit of snow is welcomed by winter sports enthusiasts,” especially right before the weekend.
Mother Nature delivered Thursday night, and all of the major resorts reported new snowfall for Friday and there’s more in the forecast.
A few cm’s of snow is expected for the mountain parks this weekend. Higher totals possible for upper elevations. pic.twitter.com/LdEvlJ3ujN
Beyer thinks that Sunday and Monday will be especially good, as “some moisture will stream into the Rockies overnight Saturday and snowfall is expected through upper elevations throughout most of Sunday for the mountain parks.”
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He predicts that skiers and snowboarders could be treated to four to eight centimetres of new snow.
The following ski and snowboarding conditions were reported as of Friday evening by onthesnow.ca.
Brad Tucker says that he experienced “fantastic” conditions at Marmot Basin on Friday where he rode his telemark skis and his snowboard. He says that while “the base still needs more snow,” there was a “beautiful blanket of fresh snow on the top.”
By Friday morning, the resort picked up four centimetres of new snow, but they’ll need quite a bit more to see the rest of their runs open for the season. Currently 54 out of 86 of their runs are open to the public.
@MargeauxMorin @GlobalEdmonton @MarmotBasin pic.twitter.com/oc5GHErRar— Brad Tucker (@rad_buddha) December 5, 2015 Lake Louise Ski ResortLast weekend was an exciting one for the Lake Louise Ski Resort as they hosted the Men’s Alpine Ski World Cup. This weekend, the fastest women in the world compete and all of the race-day activations are free. The new Kuma Yama Ramen & Sushi Bar also opens in the main lodge this weekend as well.The start line.Ladies World Cup begins tomorrow.Come cheer on your national team for free. Kids ski free this weekend…Posted by The Lake Louise Ski Resort on Thursday, December 3, 2015.
Mike Hall made a mid-week trip to Lake Louise, and said that the non-groomed areas had a variety of conditions, including some harder, chunkier passes. Hall advised that “the best skiing right now is probably the ‘groomers’ – firm and fast, but easy to get an edge in and carve.”
Lake Louise welcomed five centimetres of new snow on Friday.
Dan Evans spent Wednesday and Thursday at Sunshine Village this week. He says that while some of the runs were getting a bit bare with the sunny conditions, the groomed runs were soft and fun to cruise on.
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After much anticipation, the heated Teepee Town Luxury Express is now open.
“The new bubble chair is great as it cuts the prevailing winds which were howling with a storm coming in,” Evans explained.
“A bit strange living inside an orange glow though!”
That storm delivered 11 centimetres of snow by Friday morning, which means they’re getting closer to opening of the Goat’s Eye portion of the mountain.
Hey Goats Eye… we’re looking forward to skiing you on Sunday.
Vince Goyette got to sample several of the resorts in Banff this week, including the Norquay Ski Area, and says that “conditions are good all over the bow valley, and the [snow] coverage is awesome even though it’s only early December.”
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The resort saw the least amount of new snow from Thursday night’s event, picking up two more centimetres to add to their 65 centimetre-deep mid-mountain base. They now have 45 of 74 runs open to guests, three more than on Thursday.
“Now that the Mystic and the North American chairs are open, there’s lots of untracked powder to be found,” Goyette continued.
After opening only on weekends in November, the Nakiska Ski Resort will now be open seven days a week for the remainder of the season. It’s a smaller mountain resort for the Alberta Rockies, but has a reputation for delivering mighty conditions.
Powering out of the start gate – some race training at Nakiska! #canada #gocanada
Nakiska boasts an impressive 80 centimetre mid-mountain now depth, but currently only has 21 of 71 of their runs open to guests.
Castle Mountain
Opening weekend is drawing nearer for Castle Mountain. Their expected opening day is on Dec. 11. The current upper mountain snow depth is 110 centimetres, the mid-mountain snow depth is 65 centimetres, and the base level snow depth is just 15 centimetres. Unusually warm temperatures have been seen through that area for most of this week.
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