We approached Paradise Valley from the Fairview Loop, which starts at Chateau Lake Louise. For the standard route, see note 1 at the end of this text.
The Fairview loop starts at the east end of the Lake Louise parking lot (the furthest end away from the hotel). The Fairview loop is a popular trail and is groomed.
After about an hour of skiing, we reached a snowy meadow where the main trail meanders to the left. Instead of following the main trail, we headed into the trees and found a narrow path that ascends to the right. There is some signage on the narrow trail about 'no mountain biking' and a sign about backcountry skiing only (the trail is not groomed).
[My GPS was not getting a sattelite signal for some reason and I could not get a waypoint here, sorry! This junction is not signed on the main (Fairview) trail and the signposts on the other trail are hidden by trees from the main path, so this junction could be easily missed. So... Pay attention at snowy meadows between the 30 minute to 1 hour mark!]
We started skiing at 9:30 and by noon we reached the side trail to Lake Annette in Paradise Valley.
Paradise Valley lives up to its name, with close up views of Mount Temple towering overhead. Often people continue further down towards Giant Steps, but due to avalanche danger, after lunch we decided instead to check out Lake Annette. It is a steep climb to ascend to the lake and takes about 20-30 minutes.
To return, we deviated again and instead of returning via the Fairview trail, we found a connection to the saddleback trail and followed that back to Lake Louise (not reccommended!) The saddleback trail was somewhat treacherous; tight for cross country skiing, with some deadfall to climb over or under, and a bit of avalanche danger as well) It would have been much faster and more enjoyable to have returned via the Fairview loop.
In winter please check the Avaluator
(Online Trip Planner) rating is: Challenging.
See more trip planner route details here.
Directions:
The Fairview loop starts at the east end of the Lake Louise parking lot (the furthest end away from the hotel). The Fairview loop is a popular trail and is groomed.
Note 1: The standard route described in Chic Scott's 'Ski Trails in the Canadian Rockies' starts from Moraine Lake. Given that it might be easy to miss the junction at the first meadow, I would reccommend the standard route to people who don't want to mess around with route finding (although that said, be sure to check out Scott's book. It is really not as straigtforward as to say 'just go to Moraine Lake', there are also a couple of intersections).
