Work is underway to add 480 acres of new high alpine, advanced terrain at Lake Louise for next winter. West Bowl will be accessed by a Doppelmayr fixed grip quad replacing the old Summit Platter. This expansion will feature natural, side country-style terrain with gladed trees. The only groomed portion will be a new ski-out trail to the front side of the mountain.
The new Summit quad will be Lake Louise’s first Doppelmayr chairlift. It will run in a new alignment from Top of the World to Mt. Whitehorn. That means a lap will in West Bowl will require three lift rides: Glacier Express or Grizzly Express, Top of the World and Summit. Eventually, a new Upper Juniper lift will eliminate the need for West Bowl skiers to transit the base area and ride three lifts.
Lake Louise plans to replace and make more lift additions in future years as part of its new Long Range Plan in partnership with Parks Canada.
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While it will be 3 lifts to get back to the top on the front, much of the best and under skied is on the back side. For that, this will make it quicker (shorter lift very near top of Paradise) and easier compared to a longer, with a very steep section, on a Poma. I suspect backside is a main reason for this as the snow is better. While this is too short for a HSQ, the biggest problem at Louise is that Paradise and Ptarmigan are both FGQ. That is plain silly.
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So caveat, I have only spent a few days at Louise, all in warm spring conditions.
IMO, Ptarmigan is fine as is. There are barely any runs in the area, and they’re south facing anyway, so snow conditions were suspect. According to this site, it’s almost exactly 1000 meters, so only about a 7 minute ride, which is fine for a lift largely meant for transit away from Larch and the backside.
I’m 100% on board with Paradise going high speed, that’s a huge area for one lift to service, and there is some fantastic terrain on the backside. Couple that with the new Summit lift like yiou mentioned, and I’d put Louise up there regarding the expert terrain available. The issue is the cost. How many additional skiers will that large investment bring in, compared to adding additional lifts on the frontside to make intermediates life easier? Or even another below treeline lift for storm days. Maybe a used Glacier might make sense for Paradise, I know making it a six was on the LRP.
Long story short, I agree with you.
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Louise would be better off adding a lift up the back of Summit which would make the backside terrain more lapable and reduce dependence on Paradise. Such a lift had partial approval in the 80’s as I saw it on a government document along with the proposed Richardson Ridge lift. It was also in the original draft of Louise’s master plan from a few years ago. I have no idea what regulatory battles it would face. As it stands, Paradise rarely lines up and has a tolerable ride time. It’s biggest issues are wind and the challenge of lapping terrain in the Back Bowls.
While West Bowl is a great addition, it’s exposure is scour prone. I can’t see snow conditions being favourable until late season when the snow becomes stickier.
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