Anyone been to Banff BC?

t0pc4t

In a move that I'm still stunned from a week later, wifey has decided that a holiday to Banff in British Columbia would be rather good.

So we're going out in June, hopefully.

Has anyone ridden out there, it's in the Canadian rockies so I know there is riding to be had, Can anyone recommend any guides / companies?

I'll be trying to hire a bike out there so any tips on that front would also be good.

Finally suggestions on what gear to take, I'll be taking a lid and probably some flat shoes, is it worth taking SPDs? What else?

Thanks!

Big Bloke

Hi,been to Banff back in the 80's,whilst serving in the Army,we spent 10 days R&R there.Don't know what the riding will be like but it is a top class ski resort during the winter,so BIG ascents/ descents I would imagine.It's probably the most scenic place I've been in my life.We went in July,it was really warm.
Places to visit...Sulphur mountain (hot mountain spring spa),Lake Louise and Jasper.
Whilst there we hired out Canadian canoes (end of the town) and explored the lakes.If i remember correctly the whole town is part of a Native Indian reserve.
Enjoy!!!

tHIS iSLAND eARTH

If you're there on June 11th you can go see the grand depart, the start of this years Tour Divide. http://tourdivide.org/

aaronmroach

Went with the RAF and took a trip there a few years back, didnt ride but scoped it out.

As stated earlier the skiing is mint.

Banf Buffalo Vodka is mint.

Youve got to go visit the town of Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.

Lake Louise is Awesome

Fort Macleod was ok, canadian version of beamish!!

Theres the Winter Olympics stadium to go see at Calgary. Include the Calgary tower for lunch the views are amazing

Radion Hot springs is cool up the rockies.

Jedi

email bushpilotbiking.com johnny smoke

Smoke

Banff itself is in the park, so riding is limited. There's some excellent XC stuff nearby in the Kananaskis region.

Also, Jumping Pound/Cox Hill isn't too far away, and that's a must do. For more FR stuff, check out Moose Mtn (it's a bit further), or just go to Golden (over on the BC side about 2 hours, maybe a touch less).

Jedi

high5 johnny smoke!

godihatehills

its a funny old place - best place for mtbing (to my limited knowledge having been there inn summer and winter) is to go to Canmore down the road - some dedicated bike shops - used to have world cup xc and 24 hour world champs there.... think there is also some dh stuff at mount norquay whihc is just out of banff... banff itself has a couple of decent shops but they are mainly outdoor stores or ski stores moonlighting for the summer months.
because canmore is that bit further from the ski fields youre more likely to get the real deal.

make sue to get some bear spray and bells- they close trails in winter due to mtn lions and avlanches and they close them in summer for mtn lions and bears.... check with the local stores and visitor centres to see what trails are shut and warnings etc....

you'll be flying into calgary- theres a shedload of decent stores there... fill your boots!

godihatehills

oh yes take spds ! there are some decent rentals tho.

Smoke

Bells, yes.

Bear spray, dumb.

Your chances of being attacked by a bear are statistically zero, but your chances of spraying yourself in the face with pepper are actually pretty high.

t0pc4t

thanks everyone!

chrisga

Went to Banff in the winter last year, so not 100% sure on riding but can help out with location.

Check out pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98882529@N00/sets/72157623003695308/

There are some pics of in and around Banff (just ignore the skiing ones). Banff is a truly beautiful place with amazing scenery as other have said. We stayed in the Brewsters Mountain Lodge which was very central and really nice. There was a shop selling bikes over the road from the hotel, and bear in mind we were mid winter.
We also went to Jasper, which as a town we really didnt rate. We went because a lot of people rated it higher than Banff, but to us Banff was everything we expected of a Canadian Rockies town and Jasper, well, wasnt. Banff was very welcoming, the locals were friendly and were happy chatting to us all day long. In Jasper all we saw were signs everywhere saying dont do this, dont do that and felt like we were treading on peoples toes just being there.
Having said that the drive from Banff to Jasper is amazing along the ice fields parkway. See stuff like this:



So, if you do hire a car head out past Lake Louise up the road to Jasper and check out some of the glaciers. Very cool. Also if you go to Lake Louise dont just go on the motorway, take the back route. Also very, very scenic.

All in all a great place, drive is a couple of hours from Calgary in a hire car and very easy to do. Just remember to stop at every junction with a stop sign and go if you get there first (no overall priority just first come first sserved) and give way to pedestrians!

Hope that helps (a bit).

scale20

I'm planning on going out in september with the other half.

I posted the question on the Wester Canada forum on MTBR forum.

Have a read through some of this, It helped me out a bit.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=672662

My trip is still in the planning.

Subscribe to Canadian Affair, we have just had an email through with cheap prices for June/July. Well worth a look.

scale20

http://www.canadianaffair.com/en/media/ ... 20111.html

t0pc4t

thanks scale, I will do that for sure

marika

I live in Calgary, what do you want to know, around Banff is pretty rubbish for biking really, theres a couple of rides out of Canmore{benchlands is short but fun} and good shops

Kananaskis is great theres loads of rides around station flats and powderface but its a capark on a highway so you need to be pretty self sufficient

what type of riding do you do now? we are talking big climbs here that start higher than the UK so unless pretty fit don't be thinking your going to blast sweet singletrack with ease, also I don't find the xc trails very technical tbh but the climbs are BIG{especially when comparing to the UK}

if it was me I would hire a car and drive to Golden BC and go to Kicking Horse to sample the lift assisted goodness on hire bike straight from the hill

but when you say June what dates exactly as opening day at Kicking Horse was towards the middle of June last year and the top half of the hill still had 4 feet of snow on it so you could only use the bottom half, we didn't get much biking in untill July this year as it was crappy weather up untill then

by the way Banff is in Alberta

let me know if you want to know anything else, make sure you visit Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise and Lake Minnewanka{Lake Minnewanka is a good ride but seems gets closed because of bears}

Anonymous

Cracking place for skiing and some excellent scenery. Don't know what it's like for bikes in the summer though. The landscape would lead me to expect tonnes of stuff about, but then big countries with relatively small population could mean actual cleared trails are few and far between, unlike in a densely populated place like the UK where just about any wood has trails of some sort.

However I was told when I was there that summer rather than winter is their peak season, so expect it to be more expensive (hence it's a great place to ski because it's fairly cheap).

marika

the Banff National Park isn't particularly mtb friendly at all{they are doing a survey at the moment to see if they want to embrace mtbism which hopefully mean they will open a ski hill closer to Calgary}, you will have to leave it to get plenty of good biking, not really any old tracks used for biking its more someone built a trail for biking hence you can look at vast areas that look prime and there's not a thing there

Kannanaskis is the main area for Calgarians, and the bike parks are huge fun as all you do all day is blast downhill and go back up the ski lift