We find ourselves in Canmore this weekend. Let me explain.
Months ago, we heard that one of our favorite artists, Laurie Anderson, would be playing in Calgary as part of the High Performance Rodeo ( https://www.hprodeo.ca ), an international arts festival. We checked the schedule and purchased tickets for Saturday night. Since we were driving to Calgary, we decided to spend a few days skiing in the mountains.
As we were getting ready to get in the vehicle and drive, Murray said, “How is it we can travel half way around the globe with a carry on suitcase, but we fill a vehicle for a few days in the mountains?!”
Packed and ready to go!
A quick count: 7 pairs of skis, 8 pairs of boots (not counting the ones we were wearing!), 6 pairs of poles, 8 pairs of eyewear, 7 bags, 3 knapsacks and 1 cooler. All for 3 nights and 3 days of skiing.
We drove down to Calgary on Saturday, had supper, enjoyed Laurie Anderson’s concert, and then drove to Canmore.
Yesterday, we drove to Lake Louise to cross country ski the Moraine Lake Road. We had not skied this track before so thought we should give it a go.
Cascade Mountain, outside Banff
The mountains, between Banff and Lake Louise, were incredible. The features – crags, fissures, faces – are all so much more noticeable dusted with snow.
Castle Mountain
We arrived at the parking lot, gathered our ski gear and headed out. We noticed very quickly that the road heads up and up and up. With hardly a break in the climb, we skied up towards the lake.
Heading toward Moraine Lake
The tracks felt slow, perhaps from the dusting of snow, the cold, the grade or maybe from the fact that this was our first ski of the year. It was beautiful out there. When we stopped for a break, the only sound was our breathing and the creak of ski poles on the snow. If we held our breath, silence.
We turned around at about the 5 km mark and headed down. We had had enough for our first ski. The trip down was fast and suddenly we were at the car shedding our gear.
Mount Rundle
It was a great first ski and, if the weather cooperates, we hope to go out again before we leave Canmore.