Car Turds

The Canadian winter sees vast herds of cars gather at shopping centre car parks during the day, huddling together to stay warm. Just before night fall they all move off to their dens across the city leaving unmistakable evidence of their presence..... CAR TURDS!
So the true story is that snowfall brings dangerous roads & even more dangerous drivers. The city councils seem to think it's a good idea to plough the roads (fair enough) & then spread sand/grit & salt on them to increase grip. The result is, the cars pick up the slushy mix of snow & grit with their tyres & deposit it under the wheel arches. Typically these deposits fall of when they get too big & fall off. It seems to be that shopping centre car parks are the most popular place. I guess the heat of the engine bay melts the snow & it simply slips off.
Thanks to my mate Jim M. for alerting me to the phenomenon & the terminology.

Minus 15 Barrier

It was cold today. It was -14C when I left for work, with a wind chill taking it to -24C! Oddly enough, the temperature kept dropping until about lunchtime when it was -16C. By the time I left work it was still around -16C but the wind chill was down to -27C.
Up to this point I've not been too bothered by the cold, but waiting for the bus this evening was starting to get a bit uncomfortable. Another 15-20 colder is going to be an experience. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Christmas Already?

Christmas fever is nutty over here. Every major department store has huge arrays of Christmas stuff & the locals get all excited.
So does Kerri, so I found out. She pleaded with me to buy a tree until I caved. We bought the tree & some decorations including lights for about $50. It'll be good enough for the next 2 years. The lights were my call & I found one set that has 16 different settings. Couldn't help myself.

Sunset from Work

I certainly have no problems with the view from my desk at work. The shorter days & the end of daylight saving has meant that I get to see some fantastic sunsets. This afternoon I snapped a few off & this was the pic of them. It doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea. The thing I like is the silhouette that the Rocky Mountains cast on the horizon. It's all about the mountains here.

Lake Louise at Dawn

After a night of tossing & turning due to the over eating & too many glasses of wine, I decided to drag my arse out of bed & see what the lake looked like at dawn. The snow had stopped & the skies were fairly clear. It should be noted that dawn here at the moment is just before 8am.
Pretty lake isn't it. Kind of explains the millions of tourists that stop here every year.

This scene is on a million postcards & a million calendars, but these ones were taken with a 6.3 Mpix pocket camera. Not bad hey?
It's only the second time I've stayed at a hotel more than a mile above sea level. Lake Louise is at 1735m. The only other time was Mt Pilatus in Switzeland above Lucern at 2300m (7000 ft).

This is a different shot of Lake Louise.
Dawn at the moment brings some brilliant colours at this time of year & I usually get to see them across my desk at work. This photo is no exception. It's completely unaltered. Usually I need to correct the brightness or contrast slightly to take the haze out of the photo, but it didn't work at all with this one.

This shot is of the ridge to the North of the lake. We actually hiked up to the foot of the Big Bee Hive (top left of shot above & below) back in September. Lake Agnes is tucked in behind that feature. Believe it or not, Lake Agnes is 400m above Lake Louise.

After our traditional mountain Sunday breakfast of Pancakes with toppings, we set off for the Icefields Parkway to have a look at a few of the lakes & ranges that we'd seen in summer. I was so glad to have the all wheel drive & anti-lock brakes in the car because it was.... well..... Very icy! All the snow the day before had made the roads super icy.

I decided to rename the "Icefields Parkway" the "Ice Parkway". Check out the snow on the road! I guess I'll just have to get used to it.
We saw two cars off the road & in the ditch beside the road due to incompetent driving. The first one happened literally a few hundred metres in front of us. We gave the driver a lift back half a km to the Num-Ti-Jar lodge where he worked, to organise a tow & to get a load of abuse from his work mates. He was more worried about the ridicule from his mates than the damage to the van. And he was an Aussie! How embarrassing!
The other one was only a few kms further up & was clearly due to a nervous driver that panicked the first time they tries to stop the car.
Personally, the trip was a great excercise in learning ice driving.

You may remember a few lake mirror shots of Bow Lake from Summer time (see blog entry Aug 1). Well this is the same place with the winter closing in.
The mountains are a wonderful place because you can keep going back to the same place & it will look different every time.

Above is a pair of shots that clearly shows what a difference in season can make. These are near identical aspects, but the difference is massive. The lake has even started to freeze over on the far side.
I love the mountains!!!

Snowboarding in Canada

Today I went for my first snowboarding trip in Canada.
I set off at 7am picking up Dale & James along the way. Lake Louise opened last week, but only one lift & a token number of runs. Sunshine opened on Thursday with about half the available lifts open, & Dale had been there on Friday, so we figured we'd give it a go. The two main peaks shown on the trail map above were closed.
The day just didn't go to plan after that. James couldn't find his gloves & I had to stop for fuel, so we got there later than we would have liked. Then I struggled to get my new gear rigged up properly & the guys had to wait. Once we got going, it was disastrous for me. My first run was hopeless & I was back to being a beginner. Dale spotted that my bindings were too close together & we reset them. After that it was a whole new ball game. My balance & confidence returned & I started having fun.
The rest of the day went OK considering the crowds. I was cruising along for a while until my body gave started to fail me, then the rocks started to appear through the thin snow cover. We called it quits about 3pm & headed for home.
Hopefully the other resorts will open up soon, along with the remaining lifts at Louise & Sunshine. There is so much potential in these mountains!

Lake Louise

This weekend is a three-dayer for me & with the ski resorts opening a week late (well so I thought) Kerri decided to have a look for some cheap accommodation in Banff/Lake Louise. Turns out that she found a room on Saturday night at the Fairmount Lake Louise for $125. That exercise is usually in the $350-$300 bracket! We always said that we would go & do it once, & it was an ideal opportunity.
James booked a room as well, so he & Soni came along for the weekend as well. We all ate & drank too much, but it was a fun weekend over all.
The hotel is pretty good, but they don't miss you once you're there. $32 per night for parking for a start, then you start buying food! Don't get me wrong, the hotel is very nice & we certainly didn't go hungry, but the pressure on the back pocket takes the edge off it a bit.

When we arrived at the lake on Saturday, we checked into the hotel about midday & went for a walk along the lake trail which is about 2km each way. It was absolutely bucketing down snow, as much as I've seen before. It was easily cold enough that the snow wasn't wet, which made it a lot more bearable. We were pretty well rugged up, so the cold wasn't much of an issue.

We reached the lake head to find a very different scene to the last time we were there. You may remember a hike to Lake Agnes we did some weeks ago & a photo of the lake with horses having a drink. (see entry on September 3) This is the same spot. Instead of the muddy flats, we were greeted by this expanse of snow. A vastly different outlook.

With such a large expanse of snow, I couldn't help but go out into the middle of it. I nearly didn't make it...

Kerri pleaded with me to make a snow angel. Who am I to disappoint?
It was cold enough that the snow brushed off & I didn't end up paying too much of a price for my stupidity.

This was just a cool shot. It does demonstrate how heavily the snow was coming down.

Snow in Calgary

Remember the photo of our lovely green leafy street? Well, it's become decidedly colder over the last few weeks. The leaves turned yellow & then dropped off. This morning we woke up to this sight. It's snowed a few times before now, but this is the first time it's still been snowing in the daylight. It's still snowing now & doesn't look like letting up in the short term. The predicted top temperature today is +1 C. That remains to be seen.
The only time I've seen this before coming to Canada has been at ski resorts in New Zealand. It's pretty cool for an Aussie who doesn't see much snow. The locals hate it!

Later....
The snow's coming down heavier now & not just as tiny little pin points, but great big fluffy puffs. It's very cool! One thing that occurs to me when comparing rain to snow is that when snow falls, it is completely silent. Not only that, the snow lying around actually muffles other sounds.
Snow's hard to take photos of because the light isn't great & the snow is moving so you just end up with white streaks in the picture. Currently the temperature is -2 & they're predicting -10 for about the time I head off for work tomorrow morning. Oh Joy! Looks like winter has decided to stay.

No matter what the locals say, I like snow. It makes the place look bright & clean. If nothing else, it breaks up the browns of Autumn & Winter. Unfortunately today, once it stopped snowing, the temperature climbed enough for the snow to melt a bit & then everything turned kind of slushy & muddy.
All things going to plan, the ski lifts at Sunshine & lake Louise next weekend. Unfortunately, it may be delayed a week or so due to insufficient coverage at the resorts. We'll see.

Edmonton

It's Kerri's birthday today and, on her request, we went on a sticky beak mission to Edmonton.
The "Big Attraction" (and I use the term fairly loosely) is the West Edmonton Mall. There isn't that much else other than work and loads of service industries for the Petro-chem industry. I actually saw the assembly yard where some of the pipe rack modules for the project I'm working on now are being built.
This photo above is taken from the University looking across the river at Parliament house & the Downtown area.

The West Edmonton Mall

The West Edmonton Mall isn't your typical mall. Aside from being huge, it has a whole bunch of attractions/amusements to keep, particularly kids occupied. The following blog entries will fill in the dots.
Kerri was very excited to go & have a look, but by the time we had spent 2 half days in the place we had both decided it was all to much. It's too hard to shop because there are too many shops to be able to make any decisions.
You would think it was every girl's dream, but not for my one. It was cool to have seen it, but the chances of a return visit are very slim. The boring as bat shit, 3 hour drive each way from Calgary is enough to put you off the whole idea period.

The West Edmonton Mall has a real water theme to it. I guess it all helps in a city in the middle of the Alberta Prairie.
Notice the Submarine in the bottom right of shot.

Here we have a Grey Whale made out of solid bronze. You can actually sit in its mouth.

What would a mall be without a Mini Golf Course?
Notice the Victorian style facades on the shop fronts.

There is a semi-impressive array of water slides.

Right next to the water slides is a wave pool & it's all under cover.
The only downside was the heavy aroma of chlorine trapped inside the dome.

No indoor place in Canada is complete without an Ice Rink.
It was funny watching tiny kids with all the right intentions, trying to learn how to skate. The little girls in their pretty little dresses trying to ice dance & the little boys in hockey helmets, pads & gloves. They all kept falling over, but it didn't phase them for a second.

A big section of the mall is an amusement park. It had a bunch of usual rides of sideshow alley at the royal show back in Oz, but mainly geared for the younger population. There were a couple of exceptions including this Roller Coaster. It was pretty full on. It was all made a bit more exciting being inside a building. Consequently everything is very close & gives the sensation of speed a whole new edge.

The Mall even has a seal show! (Look at the centre of shot for the seal's head & neck sticking out of the back of the elevated ship.

We had a bit of a look around Edmonton but didn't find much of interest other than Parliament House. We won't be rushing back to Edmonton.

Snow in Calgary

Last night the temperature plummeted from the mid teens during the afternoon to about 3 degrees by the early evening. A storm front came through about 10pm and dumped about 2-3 inches of snow on the city. Sunrise from the office this morning had a distinctive white tinge to it.

Here's how you work out how much snow has fallen over night. Check the layer of snow on the seat. It looks like someone stuck a piece of polystyrene to the top of it.
By this afternoon, all that snow around the place was gone and there were only small patches left in shady areas. I'm sure we'll see plenty more in the coming months.

News Update

Main story. Immigration finally sent through the last of the paperwork allowing Kerri to start work at the Children's hospital. It's taken close to 5 months for the local authorities finish stuffing around. Needless to say, Kerri's pretty happy and relieved, as am I. Wouldn't it be great if we could back charge them for lost income due the their incompetence? It can only happen in the public sector.

Local News. As of Saturday, I'm now officially licensed to drive like a maniac like the rest of the Albertans. I passed my Alberta test which, from my observations, allows you to drive 30-40kms above the speed limit, as close to the car in front, dodging around traffic as radically as possible.

Sports news. The Rugby World Cup is finally over. (Not that I really care). After the English and the French upset the Wallabies and All Blacks, the Semi finals ended up slightly off the expected. The Spring Boks took care of Argentina as expected, but the upset was the English over the French. Everyone saw that one coming about as much as the previous week. Fortunately, sanity prevailed this week with the Boks cleaning out the English in the final. In the repechage final, the Argies did the French in for the second time in the tournament. Order is now restored to some extent. Bring on the new round of rule changes next year!

The Weather. After a couple of weeks of great autumn weather, sunny in the high teens, things have taken a turn for the cold. It was -5 when we woke up this morning. The forecast is for 2 or 3 more nice days before the temps drop a notch. They're forecasting highs of only +5 and lows of -4. Winter is on its way for good (or bad??) this time. No snow for now (other than that short burst for a couple of hours in September), but it won't be long.

Spray Lakes

This morning, we woke up to -5 C. It was our plan to head out to Kananaskis to do one of the many day hikes in the area. It seemed like a good idea with a sunny day and +10C forecast. It all looked good until we started into the mountains behind Canmore. It was overcast, cold and looked like it wasn't going to get much better. We pushed on along beside Spray Lakes (below). It's a great little scenic drive along a well graded gravel road. (The new car was great, by the way).

You will have seen many shots in previous blog site entries of lakes with mirror reflections of mountains. This one fits the description, but with a difference. It didn't come out too bad.

Thanks to the high altitude of the Spray lakes trail, the cold is so much more severe and it showed its face today. The overcast weather turned to snow and the smaller lakes along the trail had started to freeze over. This one is called Mud Lake, and has a nice thin crust of ice across most of the surface and a light dusting of snow from the last day or so.
You may be able to see the white streaks of snow in the photo. It's somewhat different to last weekend's fantastic weather.

Here's a different lake that was just starting to freeze over. Looks cold doesn't it?!

All along the road to the Kananaskis Lakes, the signs of winter were obvious. Freeze burnt grasses dusted in snow, white mountain peaks and waterways beginning to choke with ice build up.

Spillway Lake

In the Rockies, even the man-made waterways are capable of a nice photo. This one is the river that runs away from the foot of the Lower Kananaskis lake dam. Unfortunately the overcast conditions prevented the photo showing up the fantastic greens in the river.

We did have a look at Upper Kananaskis Lake but the icey winds and flurries drove us back into the car rapidly.

We make a couple of failed detours into the higher altitudes on the way back where the fresh snow was coating the vegetation. Winter had definitely arrived.

The gloomy skies coupled with the shortened daylight drove us out of the mountains pretty early. Although not a particularly good day for photography, it was an interesting outing to see winter regaining its grip on the mountains. No doubt Calgary's turn will come soon enough.