Hey guys, I’m Niamh, I’m spending the winter season out in Banff working as the Basecamp rep and I got the chance to help out on the NYE snow safari and WOW, what an incredible way to see the New Year in in style! A week filled with fresh turns, epic scenery and an amazing crew!
What an epic first day riding. We were lucky enough to be greeted by some fresh pow for our first day at Lake Louise. Its safe to say the snow was incredible and we had plenty of opportunity to throw down some awesome turns while being shown the best spots to ride by our guide Andrew. We started with some warm up laps on the Lake Louise groomers before being taken to ride some pretty gnarly back bowls. Andrew made sure we were all comfortable on each piece of terrain before upping the ante and pushing us to our limits.
The second day at the Lake was just as good. We were still able to find some awesome stashes of pow and ride some great terrain before heading into the town to bring in the new year. New Years Eve was epic. We started of with some tasty Mexican food before heading down to High Rollers to do some bowling and drink some delicious craft beers. Just before the clock struck twelve we headed up to the balcony of Athena’s to watch the fireworks. Banff Ave was crammed with hundreds of people all stoked to be bringing the new year in surrounded by mountains and good vibes.
New Years Day was a chilled out day filled with some sightseeing of Lake Minnewanka and Lake Louise followed by the scenic drive down to Golden. The next part is definitely one of the highlights of my trip. We pulled up to our accommodation which was in the middle of no where out in the countryside of Golden to a lovely wooden cabin with a wood fire hot tub placed right in the middle of a buffalo ranch! It was majestic to say the least.
The next morning we woke early and chowed down to scrambled eggs and bacon before heading out to check out kicking horse ski resort. Kicking horse was incredible; the terrain was steep and deep and the sun was shining which topped the day of perfectly. In the afternoon we headed out for a little 10 minute hike across the ridge to make our way to some awesome back bowls were the pow was soft and playful. As we headed back from a great ski day it was still light enough to see all the buffalo on the ranch. Buffalos are for sure up there for my new favourite animal.
The second day riding at kicking horse was just as good, Andrew showed us some more killer terrain and gave us some great coaching to insure we were improving while having a rad time.
After this we set off on the road again for another beautiful scenic drive to Revelstoke. We checked into a pretty swanky hotel which was right at the base of the gondola. It was great to have a good variety of accommodation. We spent the first night in revy drinking some iconic gin and tonic in the Rockford. It was an early morning wake up for the guys who went Cat Skiing with K3 in Revelstoke where they had an amazing day, unlike any riding experience they’d had before. Once they were back we chilled out in the hotel hot tub which was awesome, then it was an early night ready for our last day of the snow safari.
We woke up to be greeted with some more delicious eggs and bacon as per before heading out to hit Revelstoke. By far my favourite resort! By this time we’d had a great amount of training and were ready to shred some gnarly runs. We spent the morning in some of the back bowls and enjoying the warmer weather. The afternoon in Revelstoke has got to be a trip highlight for me, we spent the whole afternoon ripping through some super fun tree runs, there was still plenty of fresh turns to be had.
After an awesome week it was time to head back to Banff, not before stopping off at one of Andrew’s favourite Burger shacks in golden were everyone tucked into some delicious food. The drive back was cruisy in the massive truck we had been rolling around in all week, which was so cool.
Settled back in to Banff we all shared some hugs and high fives before going our separate ways.
So thanks again Ticket to Ride for an incredible week, I will definitely be back next year!
The 2017/18 NYE Snow Safari has already sold out but we are running the same trip a week later, for more info click here.