Snowboarding Zone - Alberta Canada - Banff / Lake Louise:

Riders Guide – Alberta is a province where you can experience every possible geographical wonder from prairie to alpine, and features several world-class resorts. The most famous three are in a triangle of just a few miles from each other: Sunshine Village Resort has a total of 12 lifts, comprising of 1 high speed 8 passenger gondola, 5 high speed quad chairs, 2 quad chairs, 1 triple chair, 1 double chair and 2 magic carpets that take you up to 107 trails where you can snowboard in two provinces in just one day atop 400 inches of powder. Their trails are rated 20% for Beginners, 55% for Intermediates, and 25% for Advanced. The Ski Banff at Norquay Resort has a total of 5 lifts, comprising of 1 High speed Quad Chairlift, 2 Quad Chairlifts, 1 Double Chairlift, and 1 Surface lift that take you up to 28 trails where you can snowboard their longest run of almost 4,000 feet atop 120 inches of powder. Their trails are rated 20% for Beginners, 36% for Intermediates, 28% for Advanced and a lip-smacking 16% for Experts. The Lake Louise Resort has a total of 9 lifts, comprising of 1 High speed 6 Passenger Chairlift, 1 High Speed 6 Passenger Gondola, 2 High speed Quads, 1 Quad, 1 Triple, 2 T-Bars and 1 Magic Carpet that take you up to 138 trails where you can snowboard their longest run of over 26,000 feet atop 180 inches of powder. Their trails are rated 25% for Beginners, 45% for Intermediates, and 30% for Advanced.

Parks and Pipes - Sunshine Village's Dell Valley serves up a natural halfpipe, and then if you head to the area between Wawa quad and the Standish Express you'll find a natural terrain park with lots of natural features such as a quarterpipe, lips and drops. That will whet your appetite for the fabulous terrain park, which features kickers, ramps and rails. The terrain park at Ski Banff at Norquay is set up to offer features for all ability levels and has a halfpipe, tabletops, rails, jib boxes and gap jumps. For natural features, the local snowboarders' favorite is Bruno's Gully. Lake Louise has one of the largest terrain parks in North America. The Showtime terrain park features tabletop jumps ranging up to 75 feet, more than 25 rails and funboxes, and two enormous quarterpipes. The behemoth superpipe has 15ft walls and a 17ft transition.

Out of Bounds – Alberta has more petroleum than Saudi Arabia so it's booming. Calgary is about an hour and a half's drive east and is an amazing western party city linked by a super clean light rail system that takes you everywhere. Check out the world-class Olympic Park to experience the best of everything in winter competitive sports. If you think that Calgary is booming with housing prices that double every two years, fly to Fort McMurray, an isolated northern oil town where an apartment costs more than in Manhattan! Closer to the resorts, the Banff area is home to every imaginable winter activity, so all you need to do is check with one of the many Adventure Centers to book.

Hangout & Hookup – For Banff Apres-ski, check out Magpie & Stump, The Paddock, Tommy's Neighbourhood Pub, The Rose and Crown, or the St. James Gate Olde Irish Pub, built in Dublin and assembled in Banff. The hot dance action is found at Barbary Coast and at The Aurora.