Since Fernie's conditions weren't stellar and the Montreal group thought Richard would like Panorama's long groomers, we decided to break up the drive to Banff and ski here Friday. It also allowed me to claim my 105th ski area, leaving Sun Peaks (which I will visit next season) as the last major B.C resort I have not yet skied.
We're back to interior weather again with temps around 10F and heavy overcast. Panorama has a rather unique layout by which most runs go for 3000+ vertical, but it is difficult to link shorter sections. The central section along the Champagne Express chair has the long groomers.
The expert terrain is in two long terrain pods flowing from the top of the mountain. Late in the day I skied Gunbarrel/Fat Chance direct from the top. Just before lunch I took the short hike and traverse into the new Taynton Bowl. Taynton is about 1,600 vertical dropping east, followed by what must be at least a 2 mile grade cat road back into the base area.
Panorama doesn't get a lot of snow, so the the expert terrain lines are quite constrained, and thus mogulled with quite a few obstacles. There are some trees to the top and no true alpine. Sometimes route finding makes steep terrain more interesting to ski, as at Crested Butte's North Face. Here it seemed too confining, needing to check the backside of most moguls for wood or rocks.
I never saw another skier on either expert run, as nearly everyone at Panorama stays on the groomed. There is some interesting ungroomed intermediate terrain like Schober's Dream/Sun Bowl and the numerous runs that open up below Messerill's Mile.
We're back to interior weather again with temps around 10F and heavy overcast. Panorama has a rather unique layout by which most runs go for 3000+ vertical, but it is difficult to link shorter sections. The central section along the Champagne Express chair has the long groomers.
The expert terrain is in two long terrain pods flowing from the top of the mountain. Late in the day I skied Gunbarrel/Fat Chance direct from the top. Just before lunch I took the short hike and traverse into the new Taynton Bowl. Taynton is about 1,600 vertical dropping east, followed by what must be at least a 2 mile grade cat road back into the base area.
Panorama doesn't get a lot of snow, so the the expert terrain lines are quite constrained, and thus mogulled with quite a few obstacles. There are some trees to the top and no true alpine. Sometimes route finding makes steep terrain more interesting to ski, as at Crested Butte's North Face. Here it seemed too confining, needing to check the backside of most moguls for wood or rocks.
I never saw another skier on either expert run, as nearly everyone at Panorama stays on the groomed. There is some interesting ungroomed intermediate terrain like Schober's Dream/Sun Bowl and the numerous runs that open up below Messerill's Mile.
