 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Time to chill
By YVETTE CARDOZO and BILL HIRSCH
JASPER, Alberta -- Charlie's Bowl was full of fresh snow, 2 feet of it at least. And nobody else was in sight, though this was turning into the busiest ski day of the season at Marmot Basin, a resort outside Jasper, which is about 170 miles west of Edmonton. "Busy" is a relative term at Marmot Basin. A light day at, say, the acclaimed resorts at Whistler, British Columbia, means you don't get squished flat in the gondola that goes to the top of the mountains. The heaviest day in years at Marmot Basin means you've got a five-minute wait at the base of the mountain and you might actually have to look for an empty table in the lodge at lunchtime. There are advantages to skiing the little guys, especially when the backwater resorts are renovating as fast as they can and the amenities are just fine, thank you. We remember the Marmot Basin of 10 years ago and the Panorama of even five years ago. Those were the days of rundown base lodges, slow chair lifts and little, if anything, in the way of luxury touches. That was then. . . . Marmot has spent several million dollars the past 10 years on access to new terrain, installation of high-speed lifts and an upscale base lodge that looks like something from Deer Valley. Panorama, now owned by skiing giant Intrawest, is pouring an estimated $250-million into a place where the powder snow is legendary. There are new lifts, new lodges, new hotels. Though most people think of Marmot and Panorama as small ski hills, neither is: Marmot, with 1,500 skiable acres and a 3,000-foot vertical, is about the size of Colorado's Crested Butte resort. Panorama, with 2,800 acres and a 4,000-foot vertical, ranks with Snowmass and Steamboat Springs. Here is a closer look at these lesser-known ski resorts. MARMOT BASIN
Marmot is much more than skiing. Jasper is unique because of its location in the Canadian national park of the same name. It is also remote, though just a one-hour flight from Calgary or a five-hour drive up the scenic Icefields Parkway from Calgary. But because Jasper is so far north in Alberta, people tend to think it is half a step from igloos. The region offers a buffet of outdoor winter experiences. In addition to the usual nonski stuff -- dogsled rides, snowmobile treks, snowshoe hikes -- it has a couple of things you won't find anywhere else: Maligne Canyon -- In the summer, this is a raging river. In the winter, the river drains underground, and water seepage forms walls of ice. In places, the canyon is 150 feet deep, with undulating ribbons of what is called dagger ice. But you don't have to be an athlete to see this: If you can walk a mile over uneven surfaces, you can do Maligne Canyon. Free guided hikes -- A volunteer organization called Friends of Jasper National Park regularly leads hikes that focus more on education and ecology than fitness. Animal watching -- Bighorn sheep lick salt off the roads. Elk wander through town, and in the spring, you might spot a newly awake black bear just about anywhere. Remember, this is a national park, and you are the visitor.
Icefields Parkway -- Half the fun of skiing this part of the world is the drive to get here. The scenery in winter along the 142-mile road from Lake Louise to Jasper is beyond breathtaking. Mountains rise 6,000 feet, leaning in crazy angles with rock layers frosted in snow. Ribbons of ice dribble down granite faces. Yet there are easy hikes to reach frozen waterfalls. Eventually you will get to the skiing. The deal is that you stay either at the Jasper Park Lodge (upscale cabins, upscale lodge) or in a motel in town. Some of these motel units come with separate bedrooms, fireplaces and more special touches. And the town runs free shuttle buses to the ski hill. At the hill, you will find a new lodge, eight lifts including two quads, and wide-open spaces. The mountain is split into upper and lower sections for skiing. As you face the mountain, the lower half gets harder from right to left, and the upper half gets harder from left to right. The runs in the middle of the lower mountain are world-class wide, smooth cruisers, fine for intermediate skiers. And there are Jasper's escape routes: At the side of each run, orange ribbons tied to tree branches lead to connecting trails, which serve as handy bail outs should skiers decide a run is too hard. Every trail has a way out to an easier run. And the Rock Garden on Eagle Ridge is quite the snowboard park, with dips and gullies and cliff bands. PANORAMA
Call this Intrawest Lite. When the ski industry's Big Dog, Intrawest, swallowed Panorama in 1993, the resort honchos told a group of planners to come up with a new theme for the place. "Every Intrawest resort has a theme," Panorama marketing director Chris Norton said. Mont Tremblant is "Intimate Quebecois." Whistler is "Expansive West." Panorama is "National Park." But though Panorama, just south of Lake Louise near Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia, is surrounded by three national parks, it isn't in a park. That meant that unlike Lake Louise and Jasper, Panorama could build hotels at the mountain base. "You want to know why someone should come here instead of elsewhere?" Norton said. "We've got ski-in/ski-out lodging like Whistler but with a much more mellow feel." In 1993, Panorama had an A-frame lodge and a trailer that was the ticket office. Today, it has 10 lodges with three more on the way, a golf course, a mini water park that operates year-round, a helicopter ski facility and the operational efficiency skiers have come to expect from Intrawest. All this for a hill almost as big as Blackcomb Mountain, with great powder and plans to keep further base expansion to a minimum. Hence the quips by locals about Intrawest Lite. But as for skiing, Panorama is more than it appears to be. The easiest runs are near the base of the mountain. Open cruising runs line the middle of the mountain. And then there is the top. One area used to be heli-ski terrain -- skiers lifted there by helicopter so they could ski down -- and another bowl where "extreme" means just that. Now, the only way up is via two heart-pounding T-bars. If you can't hack the T-bars, you have no business trying to ski there. Taynton Bowl is the former heli-ski slope, a series of Alpine and tree runs with waist-deep powder. On the other side of Taynton, the Extreme Dream Zone has the kind of runs that even instructors think twice about. There is one intermediate route down if you want to go up for the scenery. Panorama does three things that many U.S. resorts would not consider: A late afternoon fondue dinner in the hut on the mountaintop, followed by a patrol-led ski down at sunset. The price is $28 Canadian. A catered barbecue dinner at the mid-mountain Elkhorn Cabin, followed by an instructor-led torchlight ski down, for $39. Overnight in Elkhorn Cabin, leaving you to enjoy the mountain in solitude and catch sunrise over the facing Purcell Mountains, for $249 per couple, including dinner and breakfast. We ended our skiing in the Canadian Rockies the way we started it, down pristine powder in an empty bowl. Taynton has the kind of terrain that makes skiers at Vail and Whistler eager to make the day's first tracks. But on this day -- and it was well past morning -- we had the place to ourselves.
If you goGETTING THERE: Jasper, Alberta, is about 170 miles west of Edmonton, against Alberta's western border with British Columbia. Air Canada flies from Tampa International Airport to Toronto, with connecting service to Edmonton. Ski season in this part of the world traditionally runs from early December through mid April. STAYING THERE: All prices are in Canadian dollars; the exchange rate is about $1 U.S. equals $1.58 Canadian. A typical five-day package in Jasper, covering lifts and lodging in a hotel room, is about $350 to $450 per person, double occupancy. In a condo-style room with kitchen and separate bedroom, a five-day lift/lodging package runs about $550 per person, double occupancy. At Panorama, three nights' lodging with ski lifts starts at $179 to $239 per person, depending on accommodation, and five nights (Sunday arrival) in a midlevel condo with skiing starts at $299 per person. For more information, contact: Ski Marmot Basin: (780) 852-3816; Web sites www.skimarmot.com and www.skijaspercanada.com. Jasper Chamber of Commerce: (780) 852-3858; Web site www.skijaspercanada.com/winteract.html for information on winter activities such as hiking Maligne Canyon, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, Icefields Parkway, etc. Jasper National Park: (780) 852-6176; Web site www.parkscanada.gc.ca/jasper. Panorama: toll-free 1-800-663-2929; Web site www.skipanorama.com. - Yvette Cardozo and Bill Hirsch are freelance writers living in Issaquah, Wash.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times Travel page
From the AP |
