Back in Banff in the Canadian Rockies.

I first came here 15 years ago. Temperatures were typically between -25^oC overnight and -10 mid-afternoon. Snow was piled high in the streets, a solid wall 2-3 feet high up the centre of Banff Avenue.  Since then, it has become slowly but noticeably warmer due to climate change. Just like at home in the Wales.  

The last few years there has been little snow in town. Less ice on the river. See

This winter we flew on Boxing Day and arrived to temperatures about -15^oC mid-afternoon, -25 overnight, and more snow than for a number of years. Again a 2-foot barrier of snow up the centre of Banff Avenue. The town has had more snow already than the whole of the previous winter. Snow clearing from pavements was prioritised, after two weeks moving on to clearing parking lots.

In the back-country, trees were heavily laden with snow, branches bowing down. Shaped by the wind, curving mounds covered fallen trunks and new growth.  Away from the trails where the snow had compacted, snowshoes were essential to avoid sinking in halfway up your calves.

Idyllic. Then I guess I’m a Chionophile. (neologism: from the Greek  Χιόνι – Chioni, snow). Trecking up the Bow and Spray Rivers and on Vermillion Lakes has been a real joy.

Something which struck me last winter was the incredible ‘art’ created by the ice on rivers and lakes. This year the same.  When flowing water freezes it makes unexpected shapes, sometimes long tendrils, sometimes swirls, emphasised by the fresh snow. Gases bubbling up from the riverbed create frozen ‘mushrooms’.

Sadly, it is now warming up again.  I guess that is the inevitable way the world is going given the power, myopia and intransigence of global economic interests. Kill, baby, kill.