22nd Jan: A rather dull day on a Inghams coach, initially full of depressed people going back home to Blighty, followed by 2 hours at Calgary Airport and another 2 1/2 hours with knackered people who'd just arrived. Got to the Chateau Lake Louise and decided to book the day's heliboarding I'd been planning since about March the year before.

23rd Jan: Decide to go for the easy option and take the 5 minute ride to Lake Louise. We'd been to LL the previous year and pretty much knew what to expect, the only major changes were a vastly improved snowboard park and a little baby 1/2 pipe at the base of the hill.To be honest the snow wasn't the best, it was icy with bits of grass showing through in some places. Apparently they'd only had half the snowfall that they get in a normal year, although it was OK in the Backbowls and the Larch. Just before the end of the day, I was cruising back home on the 5 mile long Wiwaxy (excellent carving green run) and smashed the back of my head on a huge patch of ice. After lying on the snow for 5 minutes with a banging headache, I became v.grateful to my sister for buying me my helmet for Christmas. Never mind, by now I was looking forward to my Heliboarding tomorrow.

View from the frontside of Lake Louise hill

24th Jan: Heliboarding at R.K. Heli, Panorama, BC. Click on The Perfect Day for a more detailed review.

25th Jan: After the icy hell of Lake Louise, we decided to go to Sunshine Village for the rest of the week. Lake Louise, Sunshine Village and Banff Mt Norquay are all available on the Tri Area lift pass, along with all transportation between the different areas. We'd been to Mount Norquay the year before, it's got a good park, but that's about your lot, so we decided to give it a miss this year. After the powder heaven of the day before, cruising around on and between the pistes wasn't really getting the adrenaline going in quite the same way (if you're considering going heliboarding, make sure you go towards the end of the holiday, otherwise you'll ruin the rest of it!)

26th Jan: Met up with the group I'd been heliboarding with in Panorama, swapped pictures/addresses and decided to check out a kicker they'd made. We spent the next 2 or 3 hours flying around until I decided to perform my signature "Mute Grab to Face Plant" again, this time breaking my rib

27th Jan: A v.gentle day due to v.painful rib, did a couple of 1/2 pipe runs before videoing ourselves carving around in the afternoon.

Larch area and Elevator Chute viewed from the top of the Ptarmigan Chair

28th Jan: Last day. Decided to go back to LL as there had been 3 inches of snow according to the official snow report (3 millimeters more like). Hiked up the "Elevator Chute" and Rock Garden" runs, which are off piste areas at the top of the Larch Chair. Despite the shitty snowfall, the powder was still in pretty good condition. Most Enjoyable. Decided to finish early, due to the crappy pistes and broken rib.

Elevator Chute, halfway up and halfway down