We arrived at Lake Louise in the rain on February 6. We picked up our free tickets using our Mountain Collective Passes. It was still snowing at 2pm at the upper lifts but not at the base. The forecast was for cooling at night and snow at the base. We found a place in the village to park overnight and went to sleep with it raining. When we got up around 2am the rain had stopped. At 6am there was 2'' of fresh on the van, and we saw more as we drove to the ski area. We got to the parking area early (around 7am) and were directed to a lot where we parked about 50 feet from the lodge. Not bad.
At 9am the lifts started loading, and it was a Singles Line day for us because of the crowds. We rode Glacier Express and noticed the Grizzly Express gondola was running but with no riders. The base had 3” and the top had 6” of new. The top was a bit foggy so we skied the groomers with the 3-6”. The gondola was still running without riders. The line was long but the folks at the start would not give up their spot; after 90 minutes they finally started loading folks. We skied 2 runs low and then went up on Top of the World Express 6 pack. When we got to the top the Ski Patrol had the access to Back Bowls steep terrain closed. There were was a group waiting for the opening. Jill started taking photos and then the rope went down. The Back Bowls were steep powder, BUT it was foggy. We let the young folks go hit the steep and deep. The masses got to the base of the bowls and went to the Paradise lift for some more foggy runs in the powder with rocky lines. We went to the Larch Express and it was deserted for 2 runs, then the crowds arrived and it was big lift lines with the single line getting more crowded. We rode the Ptarmigan lift as singles; I rode with some women who waited 30 minutes for the lift ride. After 3 hours of powder lines, we went back to the van. The parking lot was gigantic and people parked along the road for 1 plus miles. The Crystal parking lots are small compared with Lake Louise.
