So on Sunday Danny and I went skiing at Lake Louise and dog sledding which was great! I had been waiting so long and it definitely lived up to my expectations. We did it just in time as well, due to the little amount of snow we have received this season they are stopping doing tours this week, so thank God I booked when I did. I'm kicking myself for not getting my arse in gear earlier as there as so many activities I would like to do that are now not possible, and if we don't get our second year visa I do not know when we will get the chance again. Ah well, positive thoughts, and back on to how frickin awesome this week has been.
For the last six weeks now we have had a three day trip planned for our friend Fabian's birthday, and again it has been hit and miss down to the lack of snow at the resorts, but after a helpful dumping the week before last we took our chances, and boy are we glad we did. Monday afternoon we set off for Fernie, straight to the resort. We booked to stay at the Slopeside lodge, ski in ski out, perfect. I say ski in ski out, there actually was very little snow at the bottom of the hill, but it was pretty nice to think that when I wake up in the morning I only have to roll out of bed and round the corner.
We checked in, dumped our stuff and headed into town for dinner at the Livery which was lovely. Fernie is a weird old town, very spaced out and kinda desolate so it seems, but this restaurant was awesome. The food was incredible and our waitress was pretty damn good too. We had mussels, pork rillette and duck confit leg to start, followed by a bison burger, paprika fried squid and duck breast. God it was good, all washed down with a nice bottle of BC merlot and Fernie beer. Throw all that food in, with a four hour drive and we were all pretty exhausted, so we hit the hay ready for a busy days skiing in the morning.
8am alarm and we were up, showered, dressed and picking up our lift passes at 9am ready for the first lifts. It is so strange to get on a chair lift where all that is beneath you is grass, and get off at the top in some really nice powder where it is dumping with snow. Super weird. I really liked skiing on fresh snow that isn't too deep, I can keep my balance and not be sliding around anywhere, it's cool. Due to very little snow in the lower sections a lot of the runs were closed so the only way we could find to get back to the base was sign posted 'WARNING: experts only' - well that certainly isn't me so God knows why I went along with it. But lets just say it was not fun, and my day of skiing was done after that and I settled in at the bar with a large glass of red and my book.
Once everyone else had finished their laps we headed out to the Lussier Hot Springs, which unlike the ones in Banff, are totally natural, and totally awesome. There are three little pools on the edge of the river separated by a load of rocks, one cold, one luke warm, and one nice and hot - almost too hot if anything. We sat in the hot one for a considerable amount of time, drinking beers and chatting about anything and everything. It's a pretty cool way to spend your birthday - I'm super jealous Fabian. We still had a bit of a drive to go to get to Panorama so we headed on out and God did we get more than we were hoping for from our cute little motel.
A 40 minute drive from the ski resort was Piccadilly Motel, run by a lovely English woman and our rooms were just lovely. It was pretty late by the time we arrived and checked in, so we just ordered pizza, had a couple of beers, gave Fabian his birthday cake and presents and headed off to bed. When we woke up there was the most incredible breakfast spread laid out, buffet style so everyone could just help themselves, it was a great thing to wake up to that's for sure. As we got ready to leave there were these HUGE big horned sheep just chilling on the grass outside the motel, and as we drove off there were even more round the corner. I guess big horned sheep are like Banff's elk - they are just everywhere, but it's still pretty darn cool.
When we got to Panorama it was evident that there was more snow coverage than at Fernie, but definitely not as much powder. The first run we did was super hard packed and icy, but after that we found some lovely softer runs - relatively steep, long and wide which was great to just cruise down and enjoy. We were definitely all pretty sore from two days of skiing and exploring so decided to go to another hot springs to relax - this time the Radium Hot Springs. These ones were much less natural and cool than the Lussier ones, but still a nice end to the day and relieved all our achey muscles before driving back to Banff. Thank you very much to Halie by the way for doing the long drives and organising the entire trip. We have had lots of fun and we definitely need to do so many more day trips and activities like this!
I'm sat in bed now, totally exhausted, of course watching a few more episodes of Pretty Little Liars (I'm addicted) and I am now noticing how insanely long this blog post is compared to any other I've written since I've been here, but I guess I've just got so many exciting things to share with you all that I've rambled on a fair bit. I am pretty tired, and I have got 3 double shifts coming up so I guess I should go to sleep and leave you guys to look at the pictures. Enjoy.
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