Barry's Ramblings

Monday was the second of our days off skiing over Christmas.  The thinking was that the ski hill would be very busy.  Despite the apparent marked fall in numbers of visitors from the UK, it was indeed very busy.  We monitored the bottom lift area from time to time on the live on-line webcam and the queues for the both the gondola and chair lift were long all day.  A good part of this was probably accounted for by the fact that with Christmas and Boxing Day falling on a weekend both Monday and Tuesday were Public Holidays so Canadians would have come from a good distance to Lake Louise, “Canada’s Favourite”.

We mooched around in the morning and then Ruth and I went for a walk down to the Bow River Falls.  The river was still frozen but the stretches of  flowing water were more extensive than they had been a week ago.  I guess this is because the temperatures had been reaching highs of around -10^oC rather than hovering between -25 and -30 ^oC.

Snow cover gone, thew fragility of the ice exposed below Bow River Falls

River flow drops below the original level at which it froze

Increased surface water flow through the ice on Bow River Falls

Having an inactive morning and then ambling through the main street of the ‘Downtown Banff’ gave time to reflect.  Certain things strike you over and again and yet seem a pleasant surprise each time.

Youngsters can be boisterous and inconsiderate wherever they are, that’s just part of growing up and eventually realising that they aren’t the only ones on the planet.  But it does seem that as a rule Canadians are an order of magnitude more polite and considerate than Brits.  Many Canadian men are very big.  I mean very big. I’m 6 foot and am frequently towered over here.  And you get the impression it’s hard muscle.  Yet get in the way of one of these big guys in the street and he apologises even if it’s your fault.  Come to a street corner without traffic lights and the cars stop to let you cross. Including 4x4s.  That’s a real contrast with the UK where the attitude of 4×4 drivers seems to be: “there’s no possibility I’m giving way and if I didn’t get you first time I’ll come back for another pop”.  And people seem so quietly spoken.  It is so refreshing.

One aside here about these big Canadian blokes.  One of the passions in Canada is ice-hockey and it is on TV screens in all the bars (well, in all 3 that I’ve been in).  The blokes who play it are massive, they move at very fast speed and the aim seems to be to take out as many of the opponents as possible by ramming the stick into them and smashing them into the barriers around the side.  It seems very reminiscent of Rollerball (the film) which I dare to surmise may have been inspired by ice-hockey.  The principle and underlying philosophy of Rollerball is that the violence is confined to the arena and peace and calm reign outside.   Could this be what accounts for the general politeness and, if it isn’t a contradiction in terms, the rugged gentleness, of Canadians. But then the USA is passionate about ice-hockey too.  Hmmmmm!  May need to rethink that one.

Another contrast with the UK is the news items covered in the local newspapers.  A few headlines from one issue of the ‘Rocky Mountain Outlook’: “Public supports return of Bison”;   “Rabbits attract predators” (cougars in this case); “Bystanders save man who fell through ice”; “Casey (Mayor of Canmore) takes 10% pay cut (voluntarily!!)”.  These are local papers and so focus on local not national or international issues and some articles inevitably cover local trivia but I’ve scanned through 3 local papers now and only picked up one  case of crime, a guy who had a stash of cannabis hidden under his stairs.  What a contrast with local papers at home which are full of little else but crime and bad behaviour.

Wandering along the main street it is obvious that visitor numbers have picked up dramatically in the last few days.  There may be fewer Brits but it is clear that there is a very cosmopolitan mix with many from China.  Another of the local papers records in its Review of 2010 that “Approved Destination Status was granted by China paving the way for Chinese tourists to visit the Rocky Mountains”.  It does indeed seem to be a very cosmopolitan community with many of Japanese extraction, Japan not being that far distant across the Pacific.  The local Presbyterian Church also houses the ‘Korean Presbyterian Church of Banff’. And there are at least 2 Greek eating places, one offering ‘chicken souvlaki pita’.  Have to try that one. Other eating places include a number of Japanese, Chinese, Italian places, and even a couple of Irish pubs. It could be that traditionally ethnic minorities have integrated into the community over here rather than remaining in ethnic groups.  But it seems good.

Enough reflecting for now.

After wandering along the river to the Falls we came to the confluence with the River Spray and the ice hockey rink I mentioned a while ago.  This being a bank holiday the place was humming.  Must have been over a hundred people in all, skating, playing ice-hockey, tobogganing, standing or sitting around a fire chatting.  I guess it’s quality of the background created by the snow which makes it look so very much like a Lowry painting.  In fact I seem to remember he did one painting of Peel Park which was very similar.

One Canadian standing next to us looking down on the scene said with great pride and enthusiasm  “Isn’t that just so Canadian!” In truth it was really heart-warming.

The Waldhaus ice rink at Banff: locals out enjoying themselves

Gathering around the fire for a chat

Back to skiing at Lake Louise on Tuesday and 3 major changes.

First major change, the bus to the ski resort has changed timetables and is not only more frequent but stops outside the hotel our apartment is attached to so we only have to walk across the car park with our clobber not to the middle of town.  There has been a bit of a local protest about the limited number of ski bus pick-up points.  Not only were the bus companies owned by the same people who owned the hotels chosen as the ski-bus ‘hubs’ which then advertised themselves as the only hotels in Banff with a bus shuttle from the door, but senior managers of the companies also sat on the governing body of the Lake Louise resort.  All a bit of a scandal really.  On a personal level, the new arrangement is much to be preferred.

Second major change, the temperature has increased.  When we went out this morning it was a mild -15 ^oC in Banff.  It was colder on the mountain but once again it was clear blue sky and sunshine.  That makes it 6 consecutive days of sunshine which apparently is rare in these parts.

But that has its adverse side-effects.  It has not snowed at Lake Louise now for a week (despite what it says on their website). The snow-making machines have been working overtime.  There are large mounds of artificial snow waiting to be spread out over the pistes in time for the Christmas rush.

Which had consequences for the third major change which is that I have started skiing Blue runs.  In the Alps runs are divided into Green (easiest), Blue, Red and Black (most difficult).  Here in Canada there are just 3 categories, Green, Blue and Black.  From what I remember of the Alps 20 years ago, some of the Greens here are comparable with the Blues there and the Blues here are comparable with the easier Reds there.  In any case it was a significant step up in difficulty which I was reluctant to take until I felt I had honed my skills sufficiently to come down runs under control without taking undue advantage of the force of gravity.

Yesterday I skied my first Blue run at Sunshine Village.  Very good snow, fairly short run, very enjoyable.  Today was quite a different kettle of fish.  The runs are much longer and more sustained at Lake Louise and because of the artificial snow have a tendency to become icy.  I warmed up on a Green run delighting in the name of ‘Wiwaxy’ and then met up with Ruth and Tim to ski a Blue run called ‘Juniper’.  It was steep, it was sustained, and it was icy.  But I both managed it and enjoyed it.

Then after dinner we went up on the gondola to ski runs on the other side of the mountain. As a warm-up after stopping to eat we first did a Green run called ‘Pika’ (named after a small mountain mammal also known as a rock rabbit) which we had done several times.  But today it was appalling.  It is basically a very narrow trail and snow cannon’s were operating over it so that it was covered in mounds of ice/snow.  I had planned to do a couple of laps on that but it wa so bad I decided to knock it on the head and went up another mountain with Ruth and Tim to do a Blue run which has a good reputation.  That was very icy.  There were steep slopes of sheet ice so it was a matter of sliding down sideways in some places.  Again I survived which was satisfying but it apart from achieving that it wasn’t fun.  No incentive to do it again today.

So we took the chair lift back up to the top of the main mountain to do a series of Green runs back to the main lodge.  I was running the Greens while Ruth and Tim went off to do a Black run.  The top Green run, delighting in the name of  ‘Eagle Meadows’ despite the steep slopes it entails, was very icy too and the long steep bits were physically taxing.  So was the lower Green run, Wiwaxy.  All the way down, about 2.500 feet of descent, was strewn with ‘cool dude’ snowboarders lying or sitting in the middle of the piste, as is their wont, and with quite a few injured people waiting rescue by the ski patrol. Meeting up with Ruth and Tim at the bottom I found out that the Green runs had been reclassified for the day as Blue because of the adverse conditions.

All in all I found my introduction to Rocky Mountain Blues quite challenging but ultimately very satisfying.  I completed them all without falling over or crashing.

Back at the ranch, or in this case the ‘Lodge of the Ten Peaks’ I took a couple of photos across to the ‘Bunny Hill’, the shallow slope where novices are introduced to skiing or boarding and up the main piste down to ‘base’ which is the run-out for many of the main runs.

Looking across form the Lodge to the 'Bunny Hill'. The white trees in the middle ground are covered in 'snow' from the snow blowing machines

Looking up the main piste to the Lodge, the run-out from many of the pistes back to base

It led me to reflect.  The lower part of the ‘Wiwaxy’ Green run is marked for ‘Beginners and learners only’.  I had seen injured people in various parts of this run and at the pinch point at the bottom, where it is narrow, curving, icy and steep, the piste had been almost completely blocked by recumbent snowboarders.  I couldn’t help wonder at how people who had only done introductory runs on the ‘Bunny Hill’ could possibly cope with this, the next step in their learning process.

Friday and Saturday and two long days’ skiing.  Two phenomenal days’ skiing.

One major difference between the Alps where my skiing experience, albeit 20 years ago, has been limited to and Canada is that in the Alps the ‘resorts’ are almost entirely ‘ski-in, ski-out’.  You either ski or walk to the ski-lifts which take you up to the pistes.  In Banff you first catch a bus.  In the case of Lake Louise the bus ride is 45 minutes from Banff.  And it is a 10-15 minute walk to the bus.

Both Friday and Saturday we caught the early bus which meant being up at 07.00 and leaving the apartment before 08.30 to walk to the middle of town.  In temperatures of -25^oC !!!  Have you ever had the tips of your ears become painful with cold within 2 minutes because you thought you were hard enough to not bother with a hat?    Or had your hair nostrils develop hoarfrost?  Believe me, that is how cold -25^oC feels.  I had experienced that depth of cold a number of times before in Wales.  Like the time four of us climbed Snowdon when it was so cold that the waterfalls were frozen solid.  Or when I climbed Cadair Idris when my sandwiches froze before I could finish them.  But that was when we had real winters!

Most of the bus journey is along the Trans-Canada Highway.  Very impressive.  I mean very impressive!!! Cloudless blue sky.  Amazing views of various peaks in the Rockies.  Low-level temperature-inversion cloud striking across the massive snow-etched mountains.  But the highlight of Friday’s bus trip was spotting wolf tracks crossing the frozen, snow-covered river and then seeing the wolf pack which made them.  No pics I’m very sorry to say.  But a real Wow! moment.

Then arrive at the Lake Louise Ski Resort. Because of the expected increase in numbers over the weekend and the very heavy visitor numbers expected over the Christmas period, the snow making equipment was working full blast.

Looking up the main piste-approach to the Lake Louise Ski Lodge

Snow blowing equipment operating along the edge of the main piste

The ski-lift took us through the temperature inversion cloud which was very, very cold and out into the sunshine above.  I had decided to try to improve my lamentable technique by skiing the same run a number of times so I did that.  The final section affords good views down to the main ski lodge which was particularly dramatic in the sunshine.

Looking down the bottom part of the piste to the ski lodge

Zooming in on the ski lodge

After a couple of ‘warming-up’ runs on my own we all went up to a higher point on the mountain well  above the inversion cloud and skied down from there.  The views of the peaks were dramatic.  I know ‘dramatic’ is an overworked word but it really is an understating of the place.

On the edge of the piste

Father and daughter on the piste

Then Ruth and Tim went off to do some proper skiing while I pootled along with my own mediocre stuff.  And saw an amazing phenomenon in the afternoon sun.  The temperature was so low, a high of -15^oC in Banff so considerably colder up in the mountains, that the air was full of falling ice crystals. Every bit of water vapour in the atmosphere was freezing out with spectacular result when viewed at high altitude with a low-angled sun.

The sun striking through ice crystals

Saturday was a repeat performance. I wore my hat which reduced the ear pain but the nasal hairs still froze en route to the bus.  Major differences once at Lake Louise were that the ‘snow’ blowers were working overtime first half of the morning and there was a very marked increase in visitor numbers.  But the skiing was just as good.  And the views were even more breathtaking.

Then, as I started my second run of the afternoon, I eased round a curve in the piste and straight ahead was one of the most dramatic sights I have seen.  The air was again full of tiny ice crystals making the air sparkle with tiny flecks of reflected light.  But even more dramatic was what is known locally as a sun dog, ice halos around the sun when it is at low elevation.  The scientific name is  from the Greek parēlion, (παρήλιον), παρά(beside) + ήλιος(sun), “beside the sun”.  Not as dramatic as in some instances perhaps but still very impressive.  Photos cannot do justice to this, particularly taken by fingers which feel as if they going to drop off with cold when gloves are removed to operate the camera.

The sun strikes the ice crytals

Just mind-blowing phenomena

Despite this major distraction I got back down to the lodge fingers still attached even if screaming with pain and the rest of my body in one piece.  I made it down fairly quickly if not at all stylishly.   But the major attraction of skiing for me is being up in the high mountains in such fabulous and awe-inspiring conditions.  Thank you God for making it and letting me see it.