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.