Sunshine, Banff
After spending the afternoon strolling in Banff we drove to the bottom of Sunshine where we parked the car and slept. As I couldn’t find a quiet spot to pitch my tent we both slept in the car. Well, when I say slept, Adrian slept and snored while I tried to sleep. I could only stop him for a few seconds by making noise or kicking him but he started again almost immediately. The snow plow woke us up, and as it did, I noticed I couldn’t see outside. The windows were covered in snow. I had a bad feeling yesterday when Adrian left the car’s roof window opened to let some air in, so I wasn’t too surprised to see a few centimeters of snow in the car in the morning.
We quickly drove to the parking as it’s Saturday and people were already starting to arrive. After getting cleaned up we took the Gondola and started exploring the runs. We first took the Angel Express chair lift and the Continental Divide Express to get a view from the top. Once down we went on the opposite side, by the Wama Quad Chair where we met locals who noticed our back country gear and gave us some good tips to find powder. So we hiked for an hour to the top of the mountain and from there we had one of the best powder runs, no tracks and plenty of powder. That made our day.
That’s two sides explored, we then headed down to the Goat’s Eye Mountain. As we were ridding down we bumped into a ski patrol and once again, found some good powder with only a few tracks (and many rocks and trees) and I even managed to get some really deep fresh powder by going on the very side.
(Adrian arriving at the top)
It’s already 2pm and we both need a break so we head down to get some food and drinks and waitress tells us about her trip to Fernie and how much powder she had over there yesterday.
(coming back to the runs after our powder run)
I have to drive Adrian back to Calgary, but after that, I think I might change my plan and go to Fernie instead of Lake Louise. I’m also keeping an eye on the weather in Kicking Horse as this would be an awesome resort to ride if they get fresh snow.
(Adrian out of bounds)
(Three sisters, from the car window)