PISTE 3.09 BLACK DIAMOND

THIRD TRIP IN SEQUENCE WELL WORTH THE EFFORT

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The third mountain attempt had ever so minor benefits and then some nasty detrimental points.

Norquay is closer to the town of Banff than Sunshine and Lake Louise, offering a 7 minute hotel shuttle that leaves at 8:40 am, but then still gets you to the lifts early enough because of the close proximity.

I was well rested with the later start.

To say Norquay is big, though, would be incorrect, although the resort is big horizontally with four lifts in total and dozens of trails carved out of the tree line. The ‘big’ in ‘SkiBig3 seems more about being able to ski al three mountains during the same ski trip as being a big idea. At least that’s what the chatter in town was, that Norquay wasn’t as big as the other two.

The benefit was though, that after riding two days in a row, a third day seemed improbable unless it was going to be easier. I actually felt compromised in my decisions a bit because I have four day tickets for riding the Big 3. The ticket allows you to choose which mountain, and conceivably you could just go ahead and ride Lake Louise for 4 days on a 4 day SkiBig3 ticket.

Norquay does seem tucked away on the hillside as you arrive from the parkway, especially with the Tube Park, and the training hill in clear sight.

The bitter cold at about -12 Celsius during the day didn’t help matters, with the sun not shining all that brightly on the hills through a slight overcast. Technically the resort is set to face the sun all day long as the sun rises over the Rocky Mountains and continues on through the day. But on an overcast day, the lazy sun was hard to notice.

The challenge was clearly apparent from the lift, though. A heavily mogulled black diamond run at the top of the North American lift – hovering over skiers like fate, in terms of simultaneously offering life or death, in plane view of the lodge.

Maybe later in the day, as I justified my turn to the right and the more generous opportunities the other two lifts might offer.

Norquay was busy enough with training schools and younger skiers learning how to make bigger and better moves without face planting.

And there are plenty of runs to break away from that group hanging around the lodge. Much of the area was in the shade unfortunately, making the cold a bit sharper and the runs a bit harder. The topcoat on the runs did not last as long. And on some runs the topcoat was frozen hard like rocks because of the deep freeze.

I get it, though. The short runs gave my tired legs more time to recover. I was afterall hedging all of what is left of me on Lake Louise in the morning. So, I plugged away for a few hours before heading to the lodge for lunch and to warm up.

While eating lunch, I had promised myself that I would try the black diamond on the left and then head back to the hotel early – hopefully not in an ambulance.

When I got to the top of the North American lift, the conditions were much worse than I had expected, with a limited offload area and a start line that looked like a large pinecone stuck inside of a snow globe that you could not get into.

I asked the attended which one was easier. The response was unwelcomed, as he indicated that my best chances were on Lone Pine. It was also obvious that my chances were not that good, as he was not offering any guarantees, and then my stomach dropped into my boots, when he stated so matter-of-factly, “Good Luck.”

I realized something was amiss when the chairs on the lift came in flurries of four, with a long wait for the next 4 if you missed the 4 that just went by. I was too proud to turn around though.

The top quarter of Lone Pine was composed of heavily iced, medium to large moguls that forced me to skid down, rather precariously. But I did eventually find a run of more doable moguls that were more forgiving to the fact that I was trying to do moguls on a snowboard as opposed to trying to do moguls on skies.

I did not go back up, because I had already used my ticket to ride the iced pinecone inside the snow globe, for the day, but I did go back right to the other lifts until 2:30 pm.

Sitting in the hot tub with the jets working my back loose at the hotel, I though that perhaps the mission had been accomplished, after hitting all three in three days, and then seemingly having something left for a second day at Lake Louise tomorrow, which will make 4.

I had the advantage, all along, in that this particular trip not being my first rodeo.