Execute Plan B

On Monday, Dale & I set of for Sunshine nice & early to hopefully take advantage of some fresh snow before the crowds trashed it.
We turned off the Trans-Canada with a relentless line of traffic around 8.15 & crawled all the way to the Sunshine car park. Usually at that time its a clear run straight to the first couple of rows of the car park. We made the decision to turn around & head back to Calgary. The Lake Louise experience was still fresh in our minds & we weren't about to go through that again.
The back-up plan was to go to the Canada Olympic Park (on the outskirts of Calgary) & just have a play. When we arrived, there were next to nobody there & we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The park has 3 short runs of varying degrees of difficulty, & 2 terrain parks. One of the main runs was quite steep but not beyond us. Fortunately it was steep enough to scare off most of the idiots & we had it to ourselves. We speared off that run straight into one of the terrain parks.
The big kids terrain park was a bit daunting for us, but the "progressive" terrain park was spot on. It has a mini half pipe, a couple of rails & a couple of little jumps (pictured is Dale on one). We gave the rails a miss, but had a play in the 1/2 pipe (we were crap at it) & practiced our jumping techniques.
At the end of the day, we had a bit of fun & didn't have to battle the crowds & ice in the mountains.

Learning how to use the new camera

I've been trying to get my head around how to use my new camera. It's a big step up from the point-&-shoot compact camera's that I've been using. There are so many extra settings & variables to try to understand. The camera came with a DVD to help & a CD with some tips for editing the photos. It's starting to come to me, but there will need to be a bunch of experimenting before I'm comfortable.
I'm hoping to have it sorted out by the time we get to Las Vegas & the Grand Canyon in 2 weeks.

Frozen Lake Louise

After a couple of great days Snowboarding on Xmas Eve & Xmas day (at Lake Louise & Sunshine respectively), we all had a rest on Boxing day knowing the crowds would be out of control. So today we figured it would be a bit better (we were so wrong) and headed to Lake Louise nice & early. I had promised Kerri some personal snowboarding lessons & hung out on the learner's slope with her for the morning.
Just before lunch, Kerri needed a rest & I managed to sneak one run in. It was terrible! I waited in the lift line for about 10 mins & the run down was icy & busy with idiots. We met up with Shane & Dale who had had enough as well. We all cashed in our tickets (half day refund), had lunch & headed home.

Kerri & I thought we would go & see what Lake Louise looked like in Winter, frozen over. (see pic). It's no where near as interesting as it is during summer. Notice the Fairmount insignia on the Ice Castle below.

The Fairmount has a way of fleecing you for money at any time of year.This one makes a good shot, but it not something I'll be jumping out of my skin to do.
Thanks to its position & altitude, it always seems to be cold Lake Louise. The last thing I want to do is ride around in a two horse open sleigh.....
Poor Santa. I know he only works one day a year, but it's a tough gig.

My First White Christmas

This is the gang I spent my first white Xmas with. Unfortunately Kerri had to work (nursing's a tough gig), so the last thing I was going to do, was mope around the house by myself.
What better way to spend Xmas than to head for the mountains & go snowboarding for the day? My fellow orphans from left to right; Shane (West Oz), Canne (Nova Scotia), Todd (Alberta) & Dale (West Oz). We all have our reasons for being orphans at Xmas, but none of us were complaining one little bit. It even snowed for us.
All of us except Dale had been to Lake Louise the day before as well. We had two great days with a heap or fresh snow around. I tagged along with Todd most of the time. He's been skiing for as long as he can remember & it forced me to do a few things outside my comfort zone. This was good because I improved so much over the last couple of days. I even conquered a couple of Black Diamond runs for the first time.
In all, not a bad way to spend Xmas. It was just a shame Kerri had to work.

Elbow River

Today we got sick of sitting around the apartment & decided to go for a walk to the Elbow river (a few blocks away).
Most of the waterways are frozen over now. The lakes & rivers in the mountains have been frozen for a while. The last few weeks, even the rivers & streams around Calgary have been frozen over (or at least partially). It's pretty cool really. You can see the city buildings in the background.

During our wander along Elbow River, I spotted some movement up river. An animal scurried from the island in centre of shot into the gap in the ice. I'm not sure whether it was an otter or a beaver (I think it was a beaver or otter) but it was cool to see so close to the centre of the city. I was way too slow to take a photo of whatever it was.

New Toy

I never would have thought to buy a DSLR camera back in Australia. Canada has that kind of scenery & wildlife that makes you want to get out & see the world & then, take photos of it. I decided that, as good as Kerri's camera is, it was time to upgrade. I'm sure we'll get plenty of use out of the new toy over the next two years and beyond.

The camera comes with a 18-55 zoom lens, but I also bought the 70-300 because I thought it would come in handy for shooting animals that are too dangerous to get close to. Waterton National park down near the Montana border is literally crawling with animals & we're going to be spending lots of time down there next Summer. I'm seriously considering a wide angle lens as well, although they're quite expensive. It would be nice to have because the awesome scenery in North America is, more often than not, very difficult to frame with a standard camera. I can see the uses for it back home & in NZ as well.

Sunshine Village

Friday was an EDO (Earned Day Off, as they like to call it at Jacobs) & it was my first opportunity to head up to the Ski fields when you take advantage of  shorter lift lines & less chopping up of the runs. Shane had the day off as well, so it was on. Kira came along with us as well. Kira's the daughter of a guy that Shane & I have both worked with back in Oz & Shane is still quite friendly with them (they live over here now as well). It was Kira's first time snowboarding.

We reached Sunshine right on 8.30 and headed up to the village in the gondola nice & early. The photo above is what they call Sunshine Village. It's at the top of the gondola, but is the hub for most of the lifts.

It's always an advantage to get to the ski fields early. The runs haven't been chopped up & the lift lines are shorter. This applies in Oz & NZ as well.
We left Kira with the instructors & hit the mountain when there were next to no marks on the groomed runs & there lifts were clear. It was awesome! We had the place to ourselves & had an absolute belter of a day. The only downside was the minus 20 something temperatures. It was a small price to pay. Sunshine Village scored over 1/2 metre of snow last week & it showed. Notice the snow on the trees behind me in this photo. It was much better than when we were there last weekend.

This was the sight that greeted us when we headed up the first chair lift for the day. There was so much snow! And the day was as clear as I've seen it since we arrived in Canada. Beats the hell out of sitting at the office!
There are a couple of runs high up to the left of shot that were groomed in parts, but still had 30cm of powder. Having learned to snowboard on ice & chopped up runs in Oz & NZ, I had no concept of how to deal with it (and still don't). Apparently you have to change the way you balance & steer. I came of second best. I was traveling pretty fast, went to turn & dug the nose of the board into the powder. I must have tumbled about 6 times before I stopped. It rattled my confidence for a bit & I've got a sore neck & shoulders to show for it. It won't stop me going back & having another go!

This is what happens when 57cm of fresh snow falls in a matter of 3 days. Needless to say the outdoor tables weren't getting much use.

The mountain over to the left of picture is Goats Eye, where he wrecked his beloved snowboard on a rock & I'm lucky not to have done the same to mine. The lesson learnt, is not to get too excited when a run opens for the first time for the season.

Hot Chocolate with a Dash

My cousin, Mark, put me onto this one when we were in New Zealand snowboarding last year. It's a standard hot chocolate with a hearty dash of Brandy. Sounds odd, but it's really quite nice & gives you a warm feeling inside. Just the tonic when it's pushing -20 outside & your core temperature is low because you've been out snowboarding in it all morning. It's become a bit of a lunch time tradition for us.
Normally one at lunch is sufficient, but Shane ended up having about 4 on Friday after he destroyed his board. Can't blame him really.

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.