Sunny day in Lake Louise

This morning we finally woke up to a sky with sunny patches, so we decided to make the trip to Lake Louise to ride today.

The same drive that we took yesterday was completely different today, as after we were on the road for 5 minutes the clouds all cleared up and we had a beautiful blue sky and sunshine, lighting up all the mountains and scenery that surrounded us. We had no idea what was behind all that cloud and fog the first time we came through!

We arrived at the Lake Louise Ski Resort and took the first chair we came across up to mid-mountain. We could only do our best to try and pick where to go from the trail map, and also we discovered the trail numbers on the map in my pocket didn't actually match the trail markers on the hill, it was all very confusing.

Our first run was obviously one of the crowd favourites, as there were skiiers and boarders everywhere trying to negotiate the best way down.... What made this so difficult was the sheet ice covering most of the run, which we were definitely not expecting!

We agreed to head over to one of the other faces to check the conditions, so we headed up the gondola and down another scenic run. Jase looked over the edge of the cat track to some of the black runs... they mostly consisted of icy moguls of death, so we stuck to the safer groomed green & blue runs.

A few more runs on one of the other peaks, where they were still snowmaking, which was providing a sparse covering to the ice underneath. Despite the sunshine and clear skies, it was still a very cold day, by the top of the chairlift our hands were numb and you could feel the breath catching in your throat.

The run back to the bottom of the gondola was absolutely amazing, photos and descriptions cannot capture the feeling of being on the edge of one of these gigantic mountains, 360 degrees of incredible sights.

We are about to go out to get some dinner now, there's no new snow forecast for tomorrow so we'll probably take a day off and see some more local sights around Banff.

Hope everyone had a fantastic start to 2009 :)

love Neri.xx


P.S. we need more snow! -jase

First day of 2009

We did ok to wake up at around 9:30am after a big night.

Neri got up and checked the snow report... only 2cm of new snow over night.

Given how late we were we decided to try out Norquay... the smallest of the "Big 3" mountains around Banff but also the closest...

This turned out to be a big mistake. It's not often that i can say i am not having fun snowboarding, but we only lasted 3 runs on this tiny mountain before we couldn't handle any more.

Snow was very hard packed and icy on the steep sections (reminded me of home) with exposed hazards everywhere. Riding lifts that were slow and built in the 1950s. The only thing going for it was the spectacular scenery but that wasn't enough to keep us there for more than an hour.

Maybe we were just unlucky and experienced abnormally bad snow conditions, but there was not much to like about it.

We left Norquay and spent the rest of the afternoon driving up to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. The drive was difficult at times with a lot of ice and snow on the road, especially the last few km, but we arrived without any issues.

The view of the lake was awe inspiring... we really felt tiny with these huge mountains towering around us.

People were ice skating on the lake, playing ice hockey, and kids were playing in an ice castle which was built on the lake for tourists.

If the weather had been better we could have seen more of the view, but it was still great to see.

Took photos and checked out the Chateau then headed back to our lodge.





Had Indian for dinner tonight which was really nice (although I am definitely sick of eating out every night) and looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

Hopefully we get some more snow.

-J

NYE in Banff

It was bizarre watching the news and seeing that Sydney had already welcomed in the new year while we were still stuck in 2008.

The fireworks on the bridge looked awesome... Banff would have a lot to live up to.

We didn't really have a plan for new years but we knew we had to eat, and then we wanted to see the fireworks.

Ended up having dinner at a place close by our lodge but not without an hour or so wait for a table. It was a mexican bar / restaurant so we sat at the bar and waited until a table became available.

We noticed that there was a small band set up and a poster saying that we'd have to pay $25 each if we wanted to stay after nine to see the band "Swanee and friends".

Now the only Swanee that i know of is Jimmy Barnes's washed up brother, and the 80 year old guy that was tuning his harmonica on stage didn't look a thing like him. Needless to say we had our dinner, a few drinks and made a hasty exit.

It was snowing lightly in the streets and there were heaps of people around trying to figure out what they were going to do, including lots of girls in skirts and guys in t-shirts... which we found unbelievable considering how cold it was.

By this stage it was about 9:15pm still some time to kill before the fireworks at midnight so we set out to try and find a pub which had free entry. We couldn't, so we ended up paying $20 at a pub called "Tommy's".

Not the best location, but it was somewhere to hang out before the fireworks.

A few drinks and before we knew it, midnight was approaching. The bar staff handed out noise makers, necklaces, various hats and a glass of champagne. We headed outside and were shocked to find a sea of people in the streets, all crammed together in the main drag on Banff waiting for midnight.

Somehow we got a decent position for the fireworks and the crowd went nuts when they started firing. It was an electric atmosphere, the fireworks were good, and overall it was better than i expected!

We hung around in the street for a while dancing and making the appropriate noises with our party devices, watching people stumble and slip on the snow... just soaking up the scenes.

I made a few new friends, including a guy with a cut-out of Jim Carey. I tried to give him a high five (see picture attached) only to find out he only had one arm!

We got home around 1:30am, so tired from the day of snowboarding but glad that we made the effort to head out... it was a fun night.

-J

Sunshine village new years eve (day)

Had a fun day today snowboarding at Sunshine Village...

Woke up to find it was snowing again... jumped in the car and drove 15mins to Sunshine.

Some awesome scenery on the way, the drive was easy in our little Toyota Yaris... they do a good job of clearing the roads.

We arrived to find that the car park was full so we ended up having to park a fair way out and get the bus into the village.

Hopped on the bus and we were at the base of the gondola in no time.

The gondola ride was about 20 minutes all the way to the top (well the top of the gondola is actually the base of the village) and by the time we got there, the weather had really closed in. It was -16 degrees with a freezing wind... and to make matters worse we had forgotten our bandanas (for our faces) in the hotel.

Most of the good runs here are steep open bowls at the top of the mountain but on our way up our first lift the cold was almost unbearable and the visibility was horrible (neri said the tip of my nose turned white and she thought i had frostbite).

On our first run down from the top we couldn't see further than about 2 metres in front of us which is always scary when you are on a steep, windblown run and don't know where you are going.

As we got lower the visibility improved but the crowds got worse. I was riding in straight line and a decent speed when some other guy came flying into me sending me rolling down the hill right under the chair lift! The runs were so crowded in places that it was dangerous.

Bottom of the first run our faces were so cold that we had to go in and buy some new face masks. Words can't explain how relieving it was to put them on. It made the long lift rides a little bit more bearable.

One thing we noticed here is that the black runs vary a lot in difficulty. Lots of challenging terrain which is good, but one black run will be an open bowl which feels like an easy blue run, and then the next black will be a shear cliff face.

We found this out the hard way as i lead neri down what i thought would be an easy black.

With the poor visibility i totally missed the sign that said "warning avalanche danger" and "warning cliff face" and rode straight down a short and extremely steep cliff, having to drop off a decent sized rock or two on my way down.

I got to the bottom and looked up to find neri edging across the top of the cliff trying to find a better route. Full credit to her because she found a much better way down avoiding any rocks or near death experiences.

This made us realise that given the conditions we had to find some tree runs for protection from the weather, so after quick lunch we made our way down the mountain to some of the mellower runs through the trees, which were much better.

We spent the rest of the arvo, until lifts closed, riding through the trees on a fresh layer of about 5-10cm of powder mixed in with some moguls.

Rode the whole way down to the car park amongst some stunning scenery (would be more stunning if it was clear!) negotiating the hordes of people who had the same idea.

Back to the car and a short drive home through the blizzard and now we are getting ready to head out for New Years eve. A lot of places are asking $100 for tickets, and we are fast running out of money so we are just going to try and find somewhere where we can have dinner, then find a free pub or something and watch the fireworks show they fire from the mountains.

Saw some more wild deer roaming around out the front of our lodge on the way in which was also cool.

Overall we both loved Sunshine Village, in comparison to Sun Peaks there is a lot more challenging terrain, but also a lot more crowds. Hopefully we can get back there soon when the weather clears up.

-J

Sun Peaks to Banff on the eve of NYE

Our last night in Sun Peaks was a quiet one, dinner at the local's hang-out, Bottoms, and then back home for a relatively early one. Waking up this morning I was not in the mood to pack, but we sucked it up and did the job, hoping our luggage would come in under the weight limit for our flight.

After checking out of our lodge we wandered around the village, filling in time until our shuttle arrived to take us to Kamloops Airport.

When we had almost arrived our driver mentioned that he had driven through the same road earlier this morning and had seen a herd of big-horned sheep on the side of the road.... I was very excited at the prospect of seeing some wildlife, and sure enough, we came to the next corner and there they were! Sadly I didn't get a chance to take a photo because this guy on our shuttle started complaining that he had a plane to catch in 30 minutes blah blah blah.... I was very happy to note that when we did arrive at the airport he was actually on the same flight as we were, and he also had to wait in the long check-in line as he didn't know how to use the internet and check-in the day before. We, on the other hand, were able to go straight to the express line and checked our bags in within 2 minutes. HA!!

The flight was short, around 45 mins, and before we knew it we had arrived in Calgary. The city has a different feel to any other we have been to so far, we could see some high-rise buildings in the distance, but mostly the land feels very open and flat, and cold... snow everywhere!! We picked up our hire car, a blue yaris sedan, and begun our 1 1/2 hour drive to Banff. As we drove further the night sky was amazing, the moon just a tiny slice in the twilight, with a pinkish haze on the horizon... very pretty.

We found our lodge with no trouble and checked into our room, which is bigger than any we've had yet. Took the short walk to the main drag and had a meal at Wild Bill's Steakhouse.... they love the wild west theme over here, but I have to admit we love it too.... Almost as much as mexican ;)

Looking forward to tomorrow, we don't yet have a plan for which mountain we'll hit, or what we're going to do for NYE, but stay tuned for the details soon.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope everyone is well and happy and has an awesome New Years celebration!! We are missing everyone lots but we also know that the next two weeks are going to fly and we'll be home before we know it!

Take care and be good...

love Neri.xx

Last day riding in sun peaks

Just came in after another day on the mountain, forgot the camera today so no pics.

Had a late start today as there was no new snow overnight. We had a quick breakfast in the cafe on the mountain and then went to join the lift lines which we pretty hectic today.

The main lift was at a complete stop, with people stranded on it for a few hours so everyone headed to the only working lift from the base. It started to snow heavily while we were in line and ended up taking about half an hour to get on.

We found out later that the reason the lift stopped was because a young girl broke her leg dismounting and they couldn't move her until the ambulance arrived.

With no new snow the runs were hard packed and again, visibility was an issue up high so we spent most of the day taking it easy on the groomers.

Tomorrow morning we check out and fly to Calgary where we pick up our car and drive to Banff.

Even though we loved Sun Peaks, we explored just about every run over the past 6 days and are ready to move on to somewhere new.

Had some days that we will never forget here – we were very lucky to get such good early season snow.

More updates from Banff tomorrow.

-J

Some sun in sun peaks

Last night we had pizza for dinner and headed out to "bottoms" bar for a few drinks. They have a bell at the bar there and whenever someone rings it they have to buy everyone sitting at the bar a shot. Neri and i were just having a quiet drink when this guy decided to ring it meaning that we had a shot of jager in front of us, free of charge.

It was a saturday night and the village was starting to fill up with more people meaning it was pretty rowdy at the bar.

The weather has also warmed up a little meaning more people are out and about in the village.

Woke up a little late this morning, looked out the window and there was some sunny skies, something we hadn't seen here yet.

It was nice to be able to see the whole mountain, although at times the clouds came right over again making it hard to see.
We made our way up to the "West bowl" tbar for the first time (all the other days visibility was too poor up there) only to have the tbar break down on us on the first run. We waited a while for them to fix it but eventually gave up and headed back to Crystal bowl, which surprisingly still had fresh snow in sections.

We did eventually get back up there but by then the visibility was terrible. We were better off on the lower half of the mountain or in the trees.

The rest of the day was spent cruising around the mountain... we did a run called "5 mile" a few times which as the name suggests is a 5 mile long groomed run. Heaps of fun cruising down this massive run at full speed.

We did a few of the black runs over the back side of Crystal bowl which was still deep powder in sections. I got caught up to my waist and had to hike out from the trees which was a good workout.

Came in around 3pm, had a mocha in the cafe and watched the sun set over the mountains.

In the hotel now and about to head out again for dinner... really missing home cooked meals but unfortunately we won't have a kitchen until we get to Mammoth in January.

-J