Banff-ff-ff

R. and I spent the last week visiting friends and skiing in and around Banff-ff-ff. A great trip, with mostly amazing weather and great conditions, never mind what the locals think.


Driving Banff-ff-ff-wards.


The visitor of Banff-ff-ff.


Lake Louise, frozen.


R. wants you to notice the blue frozen waterfall. Shortly afterwards, she decided that the ice was getting thinner, and that we should turn back around.


Walking back towards the Fairmont Lake Louise... time to go ski.


Ski Lake Louise.


Look at that speed!


"Can we go now?"


XC at the Canmore Olympic Centre. There was also an international biathlon meet on this week, which resulted in us being lapped several times by some Baltic guy who was out training in the wee hours of the morning.


We didn't let him get us down though. It must have been all the extra wind-resistance we had, what with the lack of multi-coloured spandex and all.


A view of Canmore. The white patch at the base of the mountains is the Canmore Olympic Centre, where we XC'd.


Crowfoot Glacier. Third toe melted already.


Bow Lake.

A kite-boarder. I guess it's called kite-boarding.


Just before entering the Columbia Icefields.


R. getting stuck in the snow at Athabasca Glacier.


Snowtubing at Mt. Norquay.

Perhaps a bit too much spinning.


Upper Hot Springs in Banff. Perfect post-tubing wind-down. Or un-winding. Spin in the other direction. Driving home, what came on the radio? Hello 80's! Did you know he's Canadian?


Ice-fishing on Lake Minnewonka. Looks warm.


The gondola at Sunshine Village.


R. discovering A&W's root beer float. Can I get that back now?


Downtown Canmore.


A quick stop at Canmore Wine Merchants, where we looked for some Canadian wines and tried a couple of non-Canadian things:

2007 Bichot Bourgogne Vielle Vignes - light, pure fruit, clear, clean, good acidity. Very approachable.

2006 Mas du Soleilla Petit Mars (Languedoc) - a blend of syrah, grenache and carignan. Fairly extracted, peppery tannins, medium bodied. Big and ripe without tipping over to jammy, palatable stuff.



At the top of the Continental Divide, just shy of 9,000 feet. Criss-crossing between "Sunny Alberta" and "Beautiful British Columbia."


Slopeside sake, the universal refreshment.


"You want me to ski where?"


That wasn't so bad, was it?


No, but it could have been... that back there is Delirium Dive. Just like the K-2.



Well, after a week of skiing, and 80's flashbacks, we just had to rent this teen-scene ski classic! I want my two dollars!


Finally, some Canadian culinary delicacies... Tim Horton's Timbits. The other Canadian highlight on this trip has to be Ontario's Creemore Springs Brewery's Premium Lager. Now owned by Molson, but still hand-crafting unpasteurised, unfiltered beer. I'm not usually a big lager drinker, but for this I can make an exception. If only I could find it closer to home!


A week of sensational weather comes to an end, but only as we head to the airport. A week full of sunny skies and warm-ish weather gets chased out by this snow storm. Stupendous timing!