piste and off piste
So I made a little excursion to the Canadian Rockies for the first time in my life. it's a wonder how sometimes you wish you would've done something sooner, can't believe you didn't, can't believe it wasn't in the cards sooner be it with friends or family...can't believe some people have lived it their entire lives not knowing much different. There are some places in the world that people flock to...or should I write, to which people flock. we've all heard about them. I'm of the opinion that we should try to get to as many as we can while we can...at least that's what I've been told by wise humans on the barstool to my right...and left...many times drunkards who have and are now lonely drunkards. maybe that's why people are not as enthralled by the whole idea. 'cause they see where it has led these oh so wise people. most often, it's simply that type of person who randomly enters into the lives of others during every day hum-drum making it seem as though a life of adventure has ill-fated consequences. but, lo and behold, there really are people whose lives are oozing with fulfillment while in the midst of these adventures that can actually be a lifestyle rather than the people whose lives are oozing with envious enchantment looking back at the good old days while gazing at the bottom of an empty pint in the midst of the every day hum-drum. here I go again, not having the patience with myself and the english language to make better sense of my thoughts.
I guess what I'm getting at is that whatever is in the back of your mind for what you think is so intriguing in life that you think it will probably never happen to you, just might happen...and if there's something you feel fits you just right but is in the cards for future plans rather than plans of today, well then, you'll only regret not doing them sooner if you finally get around to doing them.
for me, seeing the Canadian Rockies is a perfect example of what I've been told to do for years and for some reason didn't get to it. I remember the first time I had ever heard of Banff 10 years ago. A couple friends of mine drove there and elsewhere in the Canadian Rockies (Canmore, Jasper, Revelstoke, Vancouver) for their honeymoon. I was so envious of my buddy (good friend of a friend) who found a girl as cute as she is who would want to do that for their honeymoon...although, these days they're kickin it in Cambridge Minnesota which I tend not to envy all that much. They talked about it like it was some Garden-of-Eden type of mountain atmosphere. I believed them whole-heartedly as they talked about it, but as the years have progressed and my experiences have varied considerably, I thought it was my naivete at the time that heard them describe this place, Banff...how could it be THAT cool, I have thought over the last several years.
well...it is.
and the deeper into the Canadian Rockies you go, the cooler it gets...all the way to the Pacific so I'm told. For the most part, from what I saw on my meager 2 hour drive further into the hills from Banff (on my way to some hot springs), these hills are pretty much not accessible. Banff, Canmore, and Jasper are on the far eastern edge. Makes me wonder what the 'San Juans' of the Canadian Rockies is...although I was just checking out this website of Revelstoke, what the locals hold in the highest regard for resort skiing (which says a whole hell of a lot) and maybe they're onto something in this little town. click on photo gallery/web cam/video, then click on the video. enjoy. this place is kickin' a vertical mile of resort skiing.
my little excursion consisted of staying at a friend's place in Canmore, hangin' out and skiing in Banff and Lake Louise, soakin' in Radium Hot Springs, ice climbing at haffner creek, a flat tire out of cell phone range in need of a sledge hammer, and a long long flat drive to and fro.
no real issues on the way to Banff except for a couple minor setbacks. 1) being a bit shy of the -50 degree wind chill in Minot F'n North Dakota heading for the Canadian Border...a super remote part of the country...not knowing where the next gas station was going to be so I had to shack up on a couch at a truck stop. no big deal, warm, free. 2) getting totally searched at the border where the Canadians thought I was such a threat to their safety that they had to empty everything out of my f'n car...I guess the dude took it easy on my, though. there was only one of them who actually went through my things.
the resorts I hit when I was there were Sun Shine (the local favorite resort for Banff dwellers) and Lake Louise Ski Resort. these two resorts were fantastic. The first night I had my virgin taste of a Wild Boar Burger! it was tasty!
The first day I headed up the hill with a couple ski bunnies, Kate and Anne Marit, super hot and super holding their own on the hill! lucky me...lucky me. Anne Marit the norwegian Kate the brit and Patrick the american...met up with a girl from France on the hill as well who had lived in Chamonix for a spell but now had the arduous task as a full time employmee mon-thurs, of coordinating the arts for the community of banff at the Banff Center For The Arts, the organization that puts the Banff Mountain Film Festival together which I was lucky enough to see while it was on tour here in Minneapolis this year! rough set up she's got going on. a three day weekend every week in Banff...making enough dough to live comfortably...wow.
these photos are of goat's eye. if you look closely at the first photo here, you'll see a big outcropping of rock on the top right of the mountain. just below that there are a couple runs that we're looking down upon in the second photo...nice. very nice.
The second day we headed out to Radium Hot Springs via a nice drive through the amazing Kootenay National Park on the Banff-Windermere Highway.
Day three was an awesome day of powder at Lake Louise Ski Resort. The off-piste runs at this place were phenomenal. I like using the terms piste and off-piste. so much cooler than groomed and not groomed. There was a button chair that takes the skiers up a super steep run opening up an entire area that involved up to a 30 minute hike further up...all still in bounds. so cool.
LOOK CLOSELY at the middle photo. you'll see the Lake Louise Resort. If I ever end up married, that's where it will be...winter, spring, fall, summer...I don't really care. that was the view from the top of the back bowl called "the wall" and other OFF PISTE runs.
woohoo!
then we went and had some drinks and the most amazing fruit and cheese plate that I've ever had at The Lake Louise Resort.
The fourth day we dealt a bit with my alpine touring ski set-up at the shop...I was really pumped to get my AT set-up going in time to use it on my last day of skiing. Then we went into the hills again hiking up Haffner Creek for some ice climbing among some insane mixed ice climbing routes.
The fifth day we headed back to Sun Shine and ended up getting a priceless guided day at the resort from Ed, Kate's boyfriend...lucky guy. but this guy was fantastic. fun to eat, drink, and be merry with, a kick ass skier, and a world class kayaker having guided in Norway, Peru, New Zealand, and Nepal over the past year and a half or so. one classic run that we did involved a bit of a trek up a fairly steep slope with the skis on while the tips were hanging off of a 30 foot rocky ledge and the tails of the skis were scraping the rocky ledge behind us. not sure I would've done it had ed not shown us the way since the drop in around the other side of the rocky ledge below us was a bit blind. f'n amazing stuff!
and these photos are of the exit to banff off of the transcanadian highway...
then I drove home leaving that evening at about 5pm...and arriving home at about 9pm the next day. I was able to sleep about 5 hours on the way and, lucky me, I was totally searched at the border again! but this time it was dealing with the u.s. customs. f'n dorks. it took 8 of them, yep! 8! to search my car inside and out this time. assholes. could not believe the hassle. they didn't believe one word I said. don't even know why they even asked me any questions. throwing my gear around like a rag doll. I asked them to be careful. you can imagine how much they entertained me interrupting them having to stick my head out of the one way mirrored room in the vehicle checkpoint garage. freaks. so much $$ in gear...really pissed me off. and it took a f'n hour this time. seriously. if I was going to smuggle shit in to this country, do you think I'd be as much of a stinky, hairy, gear entwined, rusty hot-rod driving dude as I was? no. no one would. way too obvious.
yep! got home, went to bed, woke up for work at 6am!
all in all a safe and exciting adventure! I'm ready for more! although, the civic was getting a bit cramped. we'll see if it's worth doing something about that over the next 6 months or so. depends on how much $$ I spend doing other things, i guess!
Comments
Hehe... "ski bunnies" ... that's cute.