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Lake Louise Opens Saturday

J Dogg — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:16:45 -0500

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In a secretive effort to make us Whistlerites jealous and incredibly anxious for winter, our neighbours at Lake Louise are opening this weekend! Here's what they have to say...

Lake Louise Mountain Resort will kick off the 2007/08 ski season on Saturday November 10th when the resort opens for skiers and riders. As is traditionally the case, Lake Louise will be among the first ski resorts in North America to open. The Resort is also preparing to host the world for the Annual Winterstart World Cup races scheduled for November 24-25 (Men) December 1-2 (Ladies).

This season will start on Saturday, November 10th with the opening of the Glacier Express Quad Chair, scheduled to open at 9am, and tentatively, the Magic Carpet/Learning Area. Terrain access will be limited to the main Wiwaxy run from the top of the Glacier Chair, and beginner terrain at the base of the Resort. As of opening day, the Resort is scheduled to be operating 7 days a week for the balance of the ski season.

Says Matt Mosteller, Senior Director of Business Development for the Resort, “Our crews have been working extremely hard to get the mountain in shape for ski season. We’re looking forward to being among the first to kick off the ski season in Canada!”

Snow is in the forecast this week for the Lake Louise area, which will add to the 20+ centimetres that have already settled on the upper mountain. Snow fencing/farming efforts and ongoing snowmaking are providing a positive outlook for additional terrain openings in the near future. Skiers and riders are advised that early season conditions do exist, and to ski and ride with care.

The adult lift ticket price on Saturday will be $36+GST. All facilities, including the Lodge of the Ten Peaks Café, Powderkeg Lounge, Slopeside Café, Daycare, Ski School, Rentals and Retail Shop will be open.

For more information about Lake Louise Mountain Resort, please call 1-800-258-7669 (SNOW). For up to date information, please visit www.skilouise.com or call the RCR Snow Phone at 244-6665.

Now is the time to purchase your Canadian Rockies Louise Card. For $79.95, the Canadian Rockies Louise Card offers 3 free ski days, as well as daily discounts off lift ticket purchases up to $26. Visit www.3freedays.com for more details.

Lake Louise Mountain Resort is getting ready to host the world with the Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup, presented by Bombardier. The Men’s Events will take place on November 24 and 25, and the Women’s Races will take place December 1 and 2. Come out and cheer on the world!

RCR JUNIOR FREESKI SERIES A SUCCESS

J Dogg — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:39:37 -0400

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The first Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) Junior Freeski Series was a huge success this season. Here's the lowdown and results.

Kimberley Alpine Resort Junior Freeski Results

The series kicked off with 59 eager competitors between the ages of 7 and 18 at Kimberley Alpine Resort on January 27 and 28. The results were as follows:

Category: Girls 7-11

1st Place – Shannon Gunning

2nd Place – Sabine Kendall

3rd Place – Julia Keller

Category: Girls 12-15

1st Place – Megan Gunning

2nd Place – Tamara Stefaroi

3rd Place – Hannah Kendall

Category: Boys 7-11

1st Place – Jack Iles

2nd Place (Tie) – Aaron Mackay and Finn Iles

3rd Place – Brendan Mackay

Category: Boys 12-15

1st Place – North Parker

2nd Place – Dylan Siggers

3rd Place (Tie) – Noah Maisonet and Keegan Capel

Category: Boys 16 – 18

1st Place - Michael Saunders

2nd Place – Carter McMillan

3rd Place – Bobby Gunning

Thank you to TELUS for the great Prizing

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Lake Louise Junior Big Mountain Challenge Results

The Lake Louise Junior Big Mountain Challenge took place February 17 and 18, and attracted 93 competitors, who were challenged by the steeps of ER-3 and ER-6 in the famous Powder Bowls. The results were as follows:

Category: Girls 7-11

1st Place – Shannon Gunning

2nd Place – Meagan Fiselier

3rd Place – Robyn Sansom

Category: Girls 12-15

1st Place – Karly Sansom

2nd Place – Tamara Stefaroi

3rd Place – Megan Gunning

Category: Girls 16-17

1st Place – Ariana Stufano

2nd Place – Brenna Donaldson

3rd Place – Lonnie Wake

Category: Boys 7-11

1st Place – Jack Iles

2nd Place – Aaron Mackay

3rd Place – Finn Iles

Category: Boys 12-15

1st Place – Brodie Evans

2nd Place – Colston Beatson

3rd Place – Jordan Ling

Category: Boys 16 – 18

1st Place – Dane Tudor

2nd Place – Phil Hudec

3rd Place – Ryan Sullivan

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Fernie Junior Freeski Competition Results

Finally, the Fernie Junior Freeski Competition brought together 100 competitors on March 17 and 18. The qualifying round took place on Concussion, while the finals were on Big Bang, prompting many cheers and spectators from the Timber Chair above the course.

Category: Girls 7-11

1st Place – Cleodie Collison

2nd Place – Meagan Fiselier

3rd Place – Shannon Gunning

Category: Girls 12-15

1st Place – Chloe Williams

2nd Place – Tamara Stefaroi

3rd Place – Hannah Kendall

Category: Girls 16-17

1st Place – Brenna Donaldson

2nd Place – Brittney Dumanowski

3rd Place – Riann Riedel

Category: Boys 7-11

1st Place – Brenden Mackay

2nd Place – Logan Winters

3rd Place – Finn Iles

Category: Boys 12-15

1st Place – Colston Beatson

2nd Place – Brodie Evans

3rd Place – Dylan Siggers

Category: Boys 16 – 18

1st Place – Dane Tudor

2nd Place – Tyler Ceccanti

3rd Place – Carter McMillan

Says Jeff Holden, the head judge of all three competitions, “The camaraderie amongst these young freeskiers was inspiring. It was awesome to observe the juniors deepening their relationship with themselves the mountain and each other. The level of skiing was incredible, even more impressive was there ability to ski within their limits, a beautiful celebration of mountain culture. The future of freeskiing is in good hands.”

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Combined Tri-Competition Results

There was a combined category open for athletes who competed in all three of the RCR Junior Freeski events. The top three combined winners for each category were:

Category: Girls 7-11

1st Place – Shannon Gunning

2nd Place – Meagan Fiselier

3rd Place – Sabine Kendall

Category: Girls 12-15

1st Place – Tamara Stefaroi

2nd Place – Hannah Kendall

3rd Place – Brittany Stefaroi

Category: Boys 7-11

1st Place – Aaron Mackay

2nd Place – Finn Iles

3rd Place – Garrett Capel

Category: Boys 12-15

1st Place – Dylan Siggers

2nd Place – Noah Maisonet

3rd Place – Brent Callow

Category: Boys 16 – 18

1st Place – Carter McMillan

2nd Place – Michael Saunders

3rd Place – Bobby Gunning

The event series gave families the chance to share in the excitement of the sport of freeskiing, while providing a fun and encouraging environment for kids to compete. The event organizers would like to thank all the participants, parents (also fondly known as athlete sponsors), coaches, clubs, judges, staff, volunteers and the hosting resorts for a great junior freeski season.

The RCR Junior Freeski Series was sponsored by: Roxy, Helly Hansen, Smith Optics, Dakine, The Lake Louise Inn, The Trickle Creek Residence Inn by Marriott, Fernie Lodging Company, Old Dutch Foods, Overwaitea Kimberley, Poser Sports, Fresh Sports, Ski Base Fernie, Coca Cola, TELUS, Husky and Volkswagen.

Early Snow in Lake Louise

J Dogg — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:05:27 -0400

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Ski season is just around the corner - Mother Nature made her appearance at Lake Louise Mountain Resort yesterday, with snow blanketing the peaks at the alpine level, marking the onset of another ski season.

The Resorts of the Canadian Rockies Early Bird Season’s Pass Sale is now on until September 30th. Save on your skiing all season long, with Lake Louise Mountain Resort Adult Season’s Passes priced from $639 (Midweek Monday to Thursday).

Get your turns in on both sides of the Rockies with an RCR Super Pass, providing access to Lake Louise Mountain Resort, Fernie Alpine Resort, Kimberley Alpine Resort, and Nakiska, with Midweek Adult Season’s Passes early bird priced at $749.

Call 1-800-258-SNOW (7669) or buy your pass online at www.skircr.com/membership.

Lake Louise Mountain Resort’s sightseeing gondola is open daily until September 30th. The Resort’s winter season is scheduled to start on Friday, November 10th, 2006.

About Lake Louise Mountain Resort

Lake Louise Mountain Resort www.skilouise.com is part of the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies Inc. (RCR) family. RCR is the largest private ski resort owner/operator in North America, owning six ski resorts across Canada, including Lake Louise Mountain Resort and Nakiska in Alberta; and Fernie Alpine Resort and Kimberley Alpine Resort in British Columbia. RCR also owns and manages a number of hotels, backcountry lodges and golf courses, including Trickle Creek in Kimberley, and Wintergreen Golf and Country Club in Bragg Creek. RCR aims to provide each and every guest The Ultimate Experience.

Bougie Down at Lake Louise

J Dogg — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

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The 3rd Big Mountain Challenge at Lake Louise got rolling with the inspection day on Wednesday March 6th. Warm bluebird weather welcomed us competitors scattered around the hill to guess at venue choices for the days to come. All was revealed at the afternoon's meeting when we were told 'ER 7' was the qualifier venue. Captain Jack Carey introduced head judge Jeff Holden and his team; Robin Corcelles, Dan Slater, Jen Ashton and Colin Puskas as well as Patrol's representative 'Rocket'. Every hill has its characters on patrol.

At Red we met 'Sparky,' in Lake 'Disease' (as Rocket calls it) we met Rocket. He gave us the low down on Rocky mountain snow pack, skiing PC (or not, which he was encouraging!) and some questionable advice on finding love & disease with his hometown girls! The judges and patrol had been spotted skiing a permanent closure and had gained 3 uninvited 'tag-alongs' who figured they could come too, prompting a minor lecture and excited rumours of the opening of PC areas for the finals. Only time would tell.

Day 1 of competition was held on ER7. A good-sized area of rocky, rotten spring snow offered a good selection of lines for an opening day venue. Above and below this section, hard chalky snow allowed good edging and fast skiing. The start sheet was showing a lot of new and unknown names to competitive freeskiing. With no pre-qualified athletes and scores being cumulative over 3 days each run really mattered. The ladies ran first with the run of the day going to Lindsay Forbes of Canmore for quick and powerful skiing.

For the men's run of the day Ryan Bougie picked a line nobody else skied. Skiing a fast top section into the rocks, Ryan hit a cliff landing on a tiny patch of snow, stomping it cleanly and flying through the rest of the course. A crowd pleasing 360 off a small air at the bottom completed the run. Special mention must go to Frenchman Jerome Baud who's back flip off a 5 foot rock booter was the only invert of the entire comp. While the crowd loved it his MCL wasn't so impressed with the crash landing! Have a quick recovery Jerome.

The second day saw the field cut to 8 women and 30 men with scores among the top competitors very close. Naming area's of the mountain is perhaps not Lake Louise's strongest asset ,as the day 2 venue was 'ER 3'. The course was basically split in two with the skiers left half being fast and smooth with several small cliffs, while the right side was heavily peppered rocks with some hollow, rotten snow to test skiers ablities. Simon Grafton of Whistler moved to the top of the leader board by skiing through the rocks and straight-lining out for the 3rd place run of the day. High score of 33.6 on day 2 though went to Stephan Brosseau who made his technical line look fast and smooth. The lady of the day was Karolina Ekman who also took over top spot going into the final day. Tim Haggerty defiantly takes the crash award for going huge over a rock gap at the bottom of the course. Unfortunately the explosion was instant and spectacular upon impact!

The gossip was confirmed by Captain Jack that 'ER 5' (yes you guessed it, the area between ER 3 & 7!), a permanently closed area, was to be the final venue. This was one of gnarliest looking spots on the hill and had the locals stoked to see lines being thrown down where they normally can't ski. Start gates were high on the skiers left ridge of the face. This gave competitors the option of a steep and narrow chute to start or a steep lower cliffed-out face. The rest of the face was covered with rocks poking though the shallow snow pack down to the central section which yielded cliffs and chutes to an open run out and finally the finish gates. This venue offered the additional challenge of unpredictability as it had not been skied by the public all season, leaving the snow sun affected and hollow in many spots.

Finals day got underway with the final 4 women running first in reverse order. Janina Kuzma from Fernie skied first and leap-frogged the field with the standout run for the women, becoming the overall women's winner. Her solid and speedy run had her shredding the top chute before heading to the skier's left of the course, and wrapping up by straightlining down to the cheering crowd below. With 32.4 points Kumzma scored 7.4 more than second place Ekman (25 pts) on the final day's run.

Some investigative journalism leads us to Bougie's winning secret. He's applying the doglotion minutes before his final day run!

Scores after day 2 had left the podium wide open for the top 5 men to fight it out. Only 2.2 points separated Grafton, Waring, Rubens, Bougie and Sedivy. However the crown was claimed emphatically by Bougie who left no need to guess at a winner. The 21 year old Blackcomb Patroller left everyone's jaws dropped as he double dropped out of the top diagonal chute to skiers left and charged the centre of the course. Yet another double drop led him down a sliver of snow before hitting the run out at high speed and slamming on the brakes for the finish gates. With the two main features of Ryan's line not hit by any other skier, his final day score was a well deserved 40.8... 11.6 points clear of Marcus Waring's second highest score of the day.

Day 2's leader Simon Grafton skied well, slid a place, but kept his podium spot to take second overall, 4th on the day. Scoring just 0.2 less than Grafton was Marcus Waring in 3rd overall. Rubens finished 4th and showed some of his park skills by taking a roll off a cliff and landing it switch where most of us would have stacked it! Rockies local Dave Yipp stole our attention with his crash of the day early in the running. Going for a double drop at the bottom Dave stopped to windup the crowd, then promptly hucked his first drop. Killing speed with his face and flips he then rolled off the second cliff... too bad because it would have been sweet! Whistler skiers can pat themselves on the back for a good showing.Joining Bougie and Grafton in the final 12 men were Micha Sedivy in 5th and Dom Melanson in 8th.

The skiers went as big at the party as they did on the hill, which led to all sorts of debauchery. One might say there was drinking, some breakages, sexual conquests, ejections from the bar and a certain running man incident culminating in the drunk tank. It might be rude to name names but don't worry, the Whistler crew held their own at night as they did by day! Hmmm, what do you do when the winnings are in cash! Overall it was a great week of skiing; the competitors were impressed with the venues, no bad injuries were incurred, and beer consumption was high. The events staff and volunteers did a great job, so I guess that's same time same place next season guys?

Until then maybe we'll see you all at Fernie's competition coming soon, March 16-20.

Judges Dan Slater and Jeff Holden with Captain Jack

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"We're feeling you, we want you to feel us too!"- Captain Jack, event director and Grand wizard of freeskiing addressing competitors at the opening meeting.

"About 3 weeks ago I took CSIA level 1, and failed! So to that I say, **** them, everyone should ski how they want to ski"- Lake Louise Big Mountain Champion Ryan Bougie during his winning speech.

"Watch this guy, he's gonna ski straight over to the rocks then fall right through them, I bet ya"- Cheddar calls it 10 seconds before said skier does exactly that.

"Ski, booze, jacuze, snooze"- Mickey Sedivy's daily life plan, we like it!

DETAILS

This was the 3rd Annual Lake Louise Big Mountain Challenge, keep an eye out for round 4 in March 2006, dates TBA.

For more info on upcoming events at Lake Louise and other RCR shred spots, visit http://www.skircr.com/evolution/.

To register for the upcoming Salomon Fernie Freeskiing Competition, visit http://www.skircr.com/evolution/registration.asp