Rockies – Dale and Becca

Jasper – 3rd March

The cold snap was continuing, and it was again, freezing. I cannot stress how cold this day was. There is no other feeling like the insides of your nostrils freezing! My phone doesn’t like to operate in this cold, if I take it out for more than a minute, it has a hissy fit and turns off; it won’t turn back on until I have warmed it up again.

Our first day in Jasper we headed up the road, where you drive up a glacial valley, firstly to lovely views back over Jasper, then on to Maligne Canyon, to do the walkthrough.

We did the little walk down the way, and made our way to where the canyon opens out, and we climbed carefully down into it. The river was frozen mostly solid, with only a bit of water flowing right near the bottom. Water had flowed from the walls, and frozen, forming more walls of ice, ice all around! The floor was super slippery, what with being sheet ice, and parts of the floor had little ice terraces, where water had flowed over the top, but then frozen. It was very pretty, a bit otherworldly.
I wanted to spend longer down there, you can walk quite a way up teh canyon, but the lack of feeling on our feet made us leave. The walk back to the car was great, as it warmed us up a bit.

We then drove up past Medicine Lake to Maligne Lake, where we had lunch, then cruised back to town. This is an interesting area: Maligne Lake is a large glacier fed lake, the largest lake in Jasper National Park. It flows down to Medicine Lake, which was created when the river backs up, and disappears underground. It flows under and overground, and comes out furthur down in Maligne Canyon, where the walls are covered in fantastic ice sculptures, from the different springs and parts of the river that flow and emerge from underground.

After driving around some of the smaller lakes, we saw a squirrel, and another coyote, this one had some lunch in its mouth.

We watched a few squirrels, then headed back to town to get warm again.

The next day we had planned to drive to Valemont in BC, to get our licences sorted, but we gave them a call first, and I think we can use our NZ licenses for up to 6 months if just visiting. We are only here for a bit longer, so it seems a shame to have to drive so far and pay money to change our licenses when its only for a month or so.
We ended up with a day and not much to do. It was snowing, but a wee bit warmer, so we decided to walk the few blocks to town and check out the sights.

You can't see me, behind the couch! — You can’t see me, behind the couch!

We checked out the Den, a little corridor of native canadian scenes set up with stuffed animals. It was interesting to see, but it smelled a lot like dead animal.

We wanted to go to the museum, but that is only open Wednesday to Sunday. We wandered back home (after lunch at The Bears Paw bakery – delishuz), and started the car with only a little reluctance, and drove to the Athabasca Falls.

"Poor" road condition — “Poor” road condition

IT was very lovely, another frozen in time falls, with a bit of deep blue in the small patch of water that hadn’t frozen. We saw some squirrels playing near the car, and I got quite close to one who was just sitting there, eating his little nuts. Two of them had a bit of a fight while running up a tree.

P1210251 — I like it when I get to grow ice crystals on my face

This is how we drive in Canada when it is cold.

A quick drive back to home, and dinner at a yum pizza place. Also, we had dessert pizza that was filled with nutella, a dessert calzone, and it was delishuz.

This is what happens to mayo after it is frozen and unfrozen a couple of times

Icefields Parkway

We awoke bright and early in Banff, to a slightly chilly temp of around -30 degrees. From what I heard, Sunshine skifield was on hold due to it being too cold…. wtf!!! You know it’s pretty cold, when Canadians close their skifield. We stopped at the supermarket to get some lunch, then headed north, along the section of road called the Icefields Parkway. It is not a transit road, it is a scenery/tourist road, maintained by Parks Canada, and it one of the prettiest drives ever.

We stopped at all the places that were open. It was very, very cold, but it was perfectly clear and sunny, which is what we wanted. I will not go on about each place (hey look, another mountain!), but I do of course have pictures of each mountain. Well, most of them. There are more pictures than words in this post 🙂

My favourite bits were:

Weeping wall – an ice covered wall, frozen and blue. We stopped here for lunch, next to a very pretty little river.

Mistaya Canyon – very pretty! There was a raven sitting at the edge of the pull-out, and his feathers were fluffed out all over his feet, I assume to keep them warm. He didn’t want to move when I got close, but he eventually did, and looked a little put out.

Mistaya Canyon, Mount Sarbach in background

Athabasca Glacier – the glacier has retreated quite a way, but you can walk up almost to the face, to the frozen pool of water that sits in front of it. Down one side you can see the exposed glacier, a beautiful deep blue, with layers and lines. It was hidden away, most of the glacier is covered in snow. On the walk up, there are lateral moraines (scree piles), tall on either side, and you climb up a terminal moraine. Occasionally, the bedrock pokes through, and it is sleek and smooth to touch, slippery to walk on if wet, and you can see the lines scratched into it, from when the sheer mass of glacier was moving rocks across it. The glacier is part of the Colombia Icefield, which is over 300m2, and feeds at least 8 glaciers. It was pretty. They had plenty of signs telling tourists not to try and walk on it, as people fall in to crevices and die.

Wild coyotes – Dale spotted one walking down a river, so we screeched to a stop, and jumped out to watch it. It trotted down the river, peed on a rock, then continued on its way. We spotted another one crossing the road in front of us further down the river, and we stopped to watch that one too.

There are around 100+ accommodation places that are guesthouses, located in the basement of peoples houses, in Jasper, a bit like in Field. It seems to be a good way for people to make a bit extra from home. Warm and snuggly, if no view, and we found a relatively cheap one for our few days in Jasper. It was nice to have a lounge and space to ourselves.

Lake Ohara. Tues 25th Feb

Tuesday we were up nice and early for cross country skiing, fully bundled up in all the clothes, and we were on the trail by 8.10am. It was freezing. Absolutely literally. About -22 degrees. We got our gear on and got moving as quick as possible; if you sat around for any length of time, all your bits started to freeze. The first few kms were pretty easy, getting used to up and downhill, and trying to make the skis slide nicely. It took 3kms for my hands to unfreeze, and another before I could feel my toes – it was a good incentive to keep right on moving.

Just a fraction of what we can do with icicles

We stopped after a couple of hours, at 6km, for a hastily munched snack of solid muesli bars (sorry, granola bars) and chocolate. They were not quite frozen solid, but pretty close. Had to be careful to blow the water out of the drinking tubes so they wouldn’t freeze. With mine, the plastic had frozen, but was able to drink easily. We only stopped for about 5 mins, but our fingers started freezing again, so we had to keep going. We both had grown ice forests, with icicles hanging from the sides of the hats. I didn’t get any pictures of the ice farms at their peak, though, unfortunately. They dripped everywhere during lunch.

Another couple of hours got us to the campground, where tent sites were a metre deep squares dug out of the snow.

Don't leave your food our for the bears — Don’t leave your food our for the bears

Furthur on took us past the lodge (I’m not sure if it operates during winter, but it is super expensive to stay there. An incredible location, but I think it was something like $300 a night). Must be fantastic in summer, they have a whole pile of cute little log houses on the edge of the lake. They were all closed up for winter, but we found one in the sun to perch on the deck and eat lunch, as the snow was too deep to do it anywhere else. It was another ridiculously pretty place to eat lunch, with the white covered lake in front of us, and the high peaks all around.

Lunch was interesting. We had the cooker to make noodles and soup, which was great.. However, our egg sandwiches had somehow manage to freeze a fair amount. Especially the egg bit. Frozen egg is not delishuz, not even a little bit. Dale tried warming his up on top of the pot, and I stuck mine down the front of my jersey. It took a couple of hours to thaw enough to eat ><
After lunch we traipsed across the lake (you can’t climb to a frozen solid alpine lake and then not walk across the middle of it!), to the deep blue of the waterfall we could see on the other side. I’m not sure if it is even a massive waterfall in summer, but in winter it is a great, pretty wall of blue blue ice.

Sharks teeth in the upper left corner, sticky out cube rock in the left lower

We took our skis off at the edge of the lake, and climbed up to the falls. It was lovely, we stopped to take a few photos and videos, and saw a couple of squirrels in the trees around, and a flock of little dark coloured birds who would keep flying to the bit of the waterfall that was still flowing, and hop around in the water. Weirdos, its cold! I think they might be called Dippers.

By this time it was about 2.30pm, and we needed to get going, so we could make it out by dark. Starts getting cold again when the sun goes down. We swooshed across the lake, then started the interesting part of cross country skiing, that is going downhill!

Cross country skis are meant for traveling long distances, not for downhill skiing! They are very thin, and do not have metal edges, the whole thing is plastic. There are funny bits on the bottom, like fish scales, that help stop them from sliding backwards when going uphill. When going downhill, you have to stick your foot out and snow plow, and you can’t steer very well because of the no edges. I fell over a few times on the steep downhills, before I figured out how to slow myself properly with the skis.

Dale didn't do well in powder — Dale didn’t do well in powder

Heading down was much quicker than going up, most downhills meant you could just cruise, and try not to fall over. You sound like a train when you’re going fast with your skis stuck in the ski tracks. Feel a bit like a train too. Easy to derail! It was much more fun going downhill, but by halfway back I was ridiculously exhausted. We stopped for a snack – I had been keeping my food down my top to keep it warm, and the rest of my egg sandwich was finally unfrozen, so I got to finish that. The last 3 kms were very hard, only because we were so tired. We finally made it back to the car, going out took us just over 2 hours.

Light and shadow over the top of the mountain

Back home to Field, where we went to the local restaurant, Truffle Pigs, for dinner, to celebrate our last night (and we were also too tired to bother cooking). Food was delishuz.

Cross Country Skiing @ Emerald Lake. Mon 24th Feb

Our last day in Field, and the only thing I hadn’t done yet that I wanted to, was make it up to Lake Ohara. It is 13km up to the lake, which is nestled amongst the mountain peaks. In summer, the only way to get there is via the bus, which only takes a certain amount of people, or walk. In winter, either snowshoe, walk. or cross country ski up the snow covered road.

We were planning to snowshoe in and do an overnighter, but we ran out of time to do that (and I’m not sure about staying at the hut in winter), so we decided to try cross country skiing, and make our way in like that.

We went up to Emerald Lake, to have a look around, and ask about skis. Christy had arrived in Social House, she was taking over form us at the hostel. We took her up to see Natural Bridge and the Emerald Lake. We ended up being convinced to hire cross country skis, and to try them out on the lake, so we went for a quick ski.

Christy's first time on skis! — Christy’s first time on skis!

Powder Days Part 1

After watching the weather forecast with bated breath, we knew it was going to start snowing again. So Excited. It also meant the temperature was going to rise a bit, and while -30 degrees was interesting to experience, it is fine if it doesn’t continue for our whole trip.

It started snowing! We had to work for another day, but that was fine, as it meant the snow could start building.

On Wednesday morning, we consulted the internets, and due to the 10cm of snow overnight, and the accumulated snow over the past few days, we decided to go to Kicking Horse again. There were puppies playing in the carpark. They don’t seem to care about the snow.

It was ridiculous and amazing and so soft and foofy. The whole day was great, the powder was great, the field was so much fun with that much snow. Everywhere is so much fun with powder! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Cruising down into the bowls, it is all quiet and peaceful, and the only sound you can hear was not the scrape of board over firm snow or ice, but the “WooooOOOOO” and “YEahhhhh” of the people riding around you, everyone was just so excited and happy to have a powder day. Even Canadians get excited about powder! It was the best day we’ve had, and Woooooooooo.

I love the trees in the snow, not only for zooming around them, but they look so pretty! And they have squirrels in them!

Thursday (today) we decided to mix it up and go to Lake Louise, as it was closer, even though they hadn’t had quite as much snow. We had a great day there, we stayed on Larch and Ptarmagin lifts, over the far side of the field, and the whole day was great, lots of zooming through trees, falling around trees, and a few swear words, but mostly it was fantastic and there were freshies galore!

We arrived home to nicely plowed streets, and a large ledge of snow in our driveway, so we had to spend some time clearing it out before we could park. Not so much fun after a couple of full days of boarding, but it was nice to get the driveway clear.

I’ve formed a theory, on why Canadians are so nice and helpful. I think it is cause of the powder, and cause their country is so pretty. They can’t help but be super happy after having a winter of riding powder, it makes everyone so very happy! And everything is just so pretty, even when there is no snow, the mountains and trees and lakes are all So Pretty, that it just makes everyone happy. All the happy.

Banff, Canmore, Edge of the Rockies. Tues 29th

We worked Tuesday and Wednesday, but I woke in the early hours of Wednesday wanting to barf, and that continued the day, with me feeling lethargic, nauseous and weak. I mostly sat on the couch and watched media, while Dale did the work. Luckily there wasn’t too much to do.
I was feeling much better on Thursday, but still wasn’t 100%, so we took it easy, and went on a driving day trip past Banff.

We stopped in Canmore for lunch, in a lovely bagel bakery. Delishuz. Picked up some cheap previous-day bagels to put in the freezer for later.

We wanted to see if we could easily find the edge of the Rockies, and we definitely did…the mountains just kinda wind down to flat, then you come out from between two mountain ranges, and there is just flat ahead of you. It was a lovely day, so this clear winter blue sky just stretched out ahead of us. There was some forest, but a lot of farmland too, even though it was covered in a layer of snow. Not as much snow as in the rockies though, the piles at the side of the road were little, and you could still see the fenceposts, and there were horses grazing in some of the paddocks. I guess they get less rainfall there?

Once out in the open, the speed limit turned out to be 110km/h, and there were signs saying “Aircraft Patrolled”. Dale was amused, as was I, as he had thought they were signs only in movies, not irl (in real life), so it was interesting to see. We didn’t test out their resolve, however, and we stayed within the speed limit. There were also many signs warning of wildlife on the roads. I guess it is not like NZ, where the biggest thing you might hit is a wallaby. Elk probably make a slightly bigger dent in your car.

We didn't test them.. — We didn’t test them..

There are places along the highway between Field and Banff, that have large bridges across the road, and I couldn’t figure out what they were for for ages, I thought perhaps they had put in overpasses in case they needed them in the future.. but they have trees on them, and are quite wide, and I think they are bridges for the wildlife to cross, so they don’t get squished, and it’s not so stressful for them.

We eventually turned back and headed back to Banff, saving the visit of Calgary for another day. In Banff, we stopped at the Cascade Waterfall, which was frozen solid, in majestic spray over the edge of the rock. There is a walk to the base of the waterfall, but we didn’t bother, as it would have been hard to distinguish between waterfall and snowbanks. We did help dig out an aussie, who had got her car stuck in the snow at the side of the road…I think she didn’t realise she would sink into it when she drove on the edge.. Not much snow in Melbourne to base her experience on!

We headed into Banff, it was a lovely clear day, with epic mountains all around. We drove through town, past the ice rink, and the cute little shops, and the ice wall that had been put up in town, and drove to Surprise corner, where we had a bit of a view from the top of Bow Waterfall. We wandered a bit, nearly slid off small ledges that had sheet ice under the snow, and generally decided it was too cold to do much, as it was about -15. Chilly. Face started freezing.

We drove back around to the other side of the river to view the falls from the bottom, and guess what? Mostly frozen!! It may seem boring to read about all these frozen lakes and waterfalls, but I love it. Water that was flowing, is mostly stopped, or at least diverted. I love seeing all the ice hanging from rocks, waterfalls literally frozen in time. All pretty and deep aqua and blue.

P1190901 — The Fairmont, Banff. Very Fancy.

At this particular waterfall, I think a fair amount of water was still flowing under, and one point over the far side it hadn’t totally iced over, and there was a bit of a crack, with mist/water vapour rising from it. I am unsure why it does this, and couldn’t find anything on the internet, perhaps cause I don’t know what the process is called. It can’t be melting, as it was freezing out, and not getting any warmer. I know mist rises above the river on some days, my best guess is that the flowing water reacts to the cooler temp of the air or the ice around it? I know sublimation is when ice changes straight from solid to gas, without being a liquid, so perhaps it is something to do with that? If someone could explain it for me, that would be great!

Anyway, after checking out the frozen waterfall, pretty river, and trying to read the signs in French, we hopped back in the car, headed into town to do our groceries, then zipped off to home. The thermostat in the car hit -22 degrees c, and home was the best place to be.