Lake Louise

This spectacularly rugged resort has North America’s most beautiful scenery and awesome backdrops (including the Victoria Glacier and the frozen Lake Louise itself). Louise is a 40-minute drive from the ski town of Banff, and Big 3 neighbours Sunshine Village and Mount Norquay. The ski area, starts from the Grizzly Express gondola, and is a combination of fast pistes, challenging off-piste powder and wonderful scenery. It’s a mammoth place with great runs down the front, dizzying bowls at the back and the Larch area’s steep glades. Louise, which is the biggest resort in the Big 3, boasts it has a run for every grade of skier from every lift! And it has, so Louise is a great favourite for families and the resort and village staff are the friendliest we have encountered anywhere.

One of the great virtues of skiing Lake Louis is the total freedom from crowds (apart from holidays) and last year our reporter skid from top to bottom of the mountain and the first people he passed were a group of visitors from Croydon, who had been going to Louis every year for the past 15 years, since reading about it in the Good ski Guide. The Millar family said: “We come here because there’s unlimited skiing, no crowds, low prices and enough après-ski for us at night and we’ll be back this year too.” As a resort Louise is a small enclave of hotels dominated by the castle-like Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise with frozen lake and glacier out the back door. The skiing is a short hop compared to the 20-minute bus from Banff to Sunshine.

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