Brown Cow

A steep, snow-gathering couloir accessed from the Summit Chair; a classic expert run with a name that honours two threads of Lake Louise history.

The “Brown Shirt” era: For years the run was known as Brown Shirt, a tribute to the Park Wardens; the original backcountry rangers whose brown uniforms became a symbol of authority and care for the wilderness. Naming a signature run after them acknowledged that the ski hill exists within Banff National Park.

The shift to “Brown Cow”: The rename wasn’t just playful; it nodded to Sir Norman Watson, the British baronet who founded the Lake Louise ski area. In the 1930s Watson shipped a herd of Brown Swiss cows into the alpine, hoping they would groom the slopes and add Alps-like atmosphere with cowbells in the meadows. The experiment failed when local bears developed a taste for Swiss cattle; but the story became core Lake Louise folklore, as told in Rodney Touche’s Brown Cows, Sacred Cows.

By changing “Shirt” to “Cow,” the resort kept the colour Brown (honouring the wardens) while pivoting to the Cow (honouring the eccentric origins of the resort itself). Today, dropping into Brown Cow Main or Brown Cow 1st means sliding through history; both the guardians of the mountains and the dreamer who brought a taste of Switzerland to the Canadian wilderness.