(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

I wasn’t able to cross the Atlantic for skiing this year…but when one door closes, another one opens.  I am now in the Canadian Rockies for a week of skiing in and around Banff and Lake Louise!

It is a trip of “firsts”.  I have never been to Calgary, Banff, or Lake Louise.  I have never been skiing in Alberta.  And I have a feeling that I am also going attain some other “firsts” on the slopes…at least from a ski conditions perspective!

I believe that Alberta is currently in the midst of a “Polar Vortex” weather system.  Whatever the reason, it is VERY cold here for late February.  We actually decided not to ski today, as the overnight low was -28’C and the windchill this morning was a nippy -30’C.  However, I still had the chance to explore this spectacular setting, in preparation for our debut on the slopes tomorrow.  

 We started off by visiting some hot springs and then the famous Banff Springs Hotel (see photo at the top of this post):  another one of the iconic Canadian Pacific hotels that sprang up across Canada approximately 100 years ago. I’ve been to a few of these recently: you may recall my posts on the Manoir Richelieu and the Chateau Montebello in Quebec. 

The Banff Springs setting is amazing, but so is the interior.  The architect must have had a great time designing the hotel, given the disorienting maze of hallways and rooms.   The exterior also lives up to the castle motif shared by many other CP hotels.  After our dizzying self-guided tour, we came across some very unconcerned deer on our way to the Bow River waterfalls.

For lunch, we agreed that a huge bowl of Thai soup would be an appropriate way to recuperate from the cold.  We then visited a famous destination that will eventually get its own post, and finished up our non-skiing day by exploring some of the sights around Canmore. 

Canmore is a former mining town that has made the transition to a sport and resort centre.  Our first stop was the Canmore Nordic Centre, home of the cross-country skiing and biathlon events at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.  It looked much hillier than it does on TV, and the hardy warriors on the trails were emerging with incredible icicle formations on their faces. And yet, they seemed happy enough to be there.

We finished by exploring a little bit of the hinterland that was apparently the preferred site of the Canmore Nordic Centre, but building an Olympic-standard road to that location would simply have been too difficult and expensive.  Believe me, it was quite an experience being in such rugged terrain only a few kilometres outside of Canmore.

I’m now fully acclimatized and ready to hit the slopes. Stay tuned for our Polar Vortex skiing debut!