Crash7

I am in Calgary in January and want to take a few days out Snowboarding, I dont really want to do Banff, as great as it is, as I have been before, my original thinking was Fernie BC but now I am thinking Jasper.

Has anyone been to Jasper? How does the town compare to Banff?

How does the hill compare to Sunshine and Lake Louise?

And In January how long would it take me to drive there from Calgary to Jasper?

Thanks :-)

RANDW

Hi Crash,
Can't answer all your questions but if you go to http://ca.maps.yahoo.com, you will be able to get directions, Highway 1 out of Calgary, then 93 all the way, I have only done the trip in Summer, depending on conditions, should take 5-6 hrs.

gryphea

I think you may be better off for a few days going somewhere nearer as Jasper in winter in quite a drive and susceptible to road closures, its not really a major route and so can be harsh in winter. We skied Jasper around 5 years ago and really liked it. I think the transfer we took was aaround 5 hours. It was in a poor early season year and the conditions weren't great, half the area was shut (as it was at Whistler the follwoing week (8th-24th Jan were our dates) . The ski hill is some distance from the town, like 25 mins I think. I like the town. We had a fab time there- but I think you could geta fab time somewhere a bit nearer with technically better boarding and with a bigger area .

Why don't you consider:

Castle mountain (nver been here and is quite small too)
Panorama
Kicking Horse
Kimberly
Reconsider Fernie

I don't know what kind of a boarder you are and at what level, but I would consider Kicking Horse with maybe a day at Louise on the way. If you have time from KH you could pop to revelstoke to see what the talk is all about.

Ask this question on snowheads and see what people think

Gryph

gibsonslanding

sunshine is lovely to ski......v near calgary

ditto on the travel to jasper at that time of year but any other time of year go along the icefield......what can i say, amazing!!!! jasper, personally, is way nicer than banff.....more 'canadian' feeling and not too 'touristy'....

i'm not jealous......really i'm not......aaarrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!