April 14th -15th – Jasper

April 14th 

I got up and hit the road to Jasper with Thomas. We stopped a couple of times along the way and took photos, the drive was pretty scenic. At the first stop there were 2 people doing alpine skiing, but you could hardly see them – they were tiny black dots on the mountain. There were also two ravens hanging around, and I threw them some trail mix which they sort of liked lol. The last stop we made was at Athabasca Falls (where the Athabasca River flows north towards the Arctic Ocean), and the view was pretty cool. The water was a beautiful green-blue colour and it flowed right from the waterfall through a narrow canyon, and back out into an open river.

Well I don’t have anything too exciting to say so I’ll recount one of Bill’s funny/interesting/insightful stories. The story started because Dan mentioned his girlfriend was living in Tacoma, the Hilltop area (where Bill once lived). Just Wikipedia Hilltop and you read about how it has a high crime rate. Apparently that is where the show Cops started out according to Dan. The story begins will Bill sitting in his car at Jiffy Lube, while he is getting an oil change. Across from him was a McDonalds with people eating inside. A drive by shooting from a Cambodian gang with Ak47s completely shootout the McDonalds (they even emptied a second clip). Needless to say, their targets were dead along with bystanders. He thinks “this day just can’t get any worse”. Later that day, he drives to a mall and pulls into the parking lot. As he pulls in, another car with a guy in a corvette, pulls into another spot near him. Out of nowhere, two guys jump out pointing a gun to the man’s head and takes his car and wallet. Bill and the guy head towards the mall to report the incident. Bill thinks “this day just can’t get any worse”. As the two of them approach the mall entrance, they see a guy in front of them with a sawed off shotgun robbing the place. They quickly close the door and run away, feeling bewildered with everything. After that he completely gives up living in that place as he tells his ex-wife about the story. Who knew I would ever hear a wild story like that in Lake Louise on my trip.

Oh also on the car ride, I got to know more about Thomas. He left London (UK) for Calgary on April 6th. He is only 22 and is trying to get his Level 1 downhill ski instructor certificate so that he can become a ski instructor in Banff. He was curious about how our Canadian education system was run. He was shocked to find out that the government didn’t cover it. In Denmark they cover your tuition (regardless of program), and they will pay you a bit of money (about a grand). He decided to become a carpenter (his dad is one), but is considering of doing more studying to become something like an engineer. In Denmark, he tells me, it is pretty easy for someone to go on and continue their education if they wanted to do so.

April 15th 

Today was my first day and only real day in Jasper. I decided to go for a little hike to the Old Fort lookout (about an hr hike). At first the hike seemed pretty boring, until I reach near the top of the hill and was rewarded with a fantastic view. In contrast to the other places I’ve been, Jasper was mostly snow free on the bottom. So I had a wide view of the forest and the surrounding mountains. As I pulled out my camera to shoot, I realized I forgot to put my memory stick back in. Fuck… Well at least I had my cell phone. The old fort lookout was a cool open grass area, like it was out of a movie. There must have been something like a herd of moose, elk, or caribou browsing in the area (evident by their poo). I also saw wolf tracks! I was super excited, as I never saw them before (there was wolf scat too) and so I had to take some pics on my cell phone. I guessed they were about 2 days old, seemed kind of fresh (the tracks! Haha). I also saw huge foot prints (but they were old and snowed in a bit), and the only animal I could think of was a Grizzly bear. After that I became paranoid and kept my hand on my bear mace on the way back to the car. Good times. I drove out to Medicine Lake which was a super cool view, with jagged mountains and apparently (according to the sign) the world’s largest underground stream.

Afterwards I walked around the town of Jasper, it seemed like a cool place. The town had a nice view of the surrounding mountains. I thought it was nicer than either Banff or Canmore.

Lake Louise (April 11 – 13)

April 11th 

My last day in Canmore, I was glad to be moving on and seeing something new. Don’t get me wrong I did have a great time in Canmore but I felt I’ve done everything I wanted to do here. That also goes for the town of Banff, the tourist town got pretty boring quick. But before I left I did one more ski at the Canmore Nordic Centre for good times. After that I pretty much headed straight to Lake Louise, a pretty scenic drive I found, especially with the Bow River right next to me.

I made it to the hostel and met my other fellow 3 dorm roommates for the night. Two of them were guys in grad school from Toronto attending a convention at the Chateau. They were Charles and Dan, Dan was doing his PhD in immunology, his research was looking at the acute response of heart cells to the first stage of a viral infection. What he basically did was mash up the heart cells of virally infected mice, and looked at the chemical responses of the cells in response to the viral infection (which is a general response at the beginning, then later the body forms specific responses in the form of like white blood cells).

The other guy was by far the most interesting individual I’ve met. His name was Bill, coming out of Jackson, Wyomming. He was here doing Alpine Touring all by himself, basically hiking out on top of glaciers and mountains peaks and skiing down by himself – and he is 58. Bill, myself, and Daniel talked through the night, or I should say Bill talked most of the night. He was a super cool guy, who unfortunately just had a divorce and doesn’t have a place yet to stay back home so he came up here to alpine ski. He works as a seasonal fire technician for the Forest Service and U.S. national parks battling forest fires. Also he worked as a park ranger in the past. His credentials include being an alpine touring ski instructor and a Nordic ski instructor as well. He talked nearly all night about different things, but mostly about his many skiing adventures which sounded pretty awesome.

April 12 

I forgot to mention one funny story that Bill told us. It was about this young 18 year old that stayed in the same dorm room as me (but before I arrived). He lost his right leg from bone cancer, but finished in the Top 5 of a downhill paraplegic downhill race that earned him a spot on the Canadian Olympic team. He was telling me the kid got so drunk (tons of beer cans were strewn around the dorm room and he went out drinking after that too), that he lost his medals and trophies that night. When the kid got back to the dorm room really late, he didn’t even make to his bed. But he did manage to step on his new Mac Book (a high school graduation gift) and snap the screen off completely. The way Bill had told the story was super hilarious with his impression of the kid.

Today I did a simple xc skiing route near Lake Louise. I did a half ass job of cleaning and changing my grip wax on my skis that resulted in a shitty ruined ski at the end. Halfway through my trip I had to stop a lot and scrap off piles of snow underneath my skis. After that I was kind of tired and just drove around the Banff area to take pictures, didn’t really get any good spots (because they were closed for the winter) – but just a few at the Bow River near the bridge of Hwy 93.

April 13, 2011 

I got up, and Bill and the new roommate (Aushwin) from Toronto were talking. They had interesting conversations, Bill was talking about how displeased he was with everything that was going in the US government and American conservative society. Oh there was one pretty funny story (well not at the time), of when Bill got chased away from his jeep by the Crips gang in Tacoma. He was saved by a black group of Muslims (the Cripps didn’t mess with them), who requested a donation – to which he gave them the 40 bucks in his wallet.

Anyways after eating breakfast, I said goodbye to Bill and headed out for some snowshoeing up a lookout point of Lake Louise. It was an Ok view (and I forgot my memory stick for my camera), but I saw xc ski tracks across the lake. So I decided afterwards to go back and grab my xc skis and ski across the lake, which was super fun! The view was spectacular, and skiing across a lake for my first time was unforgettable.

Today I met my new roommate (who replaced Bill). His name is Thomas, who came from Denmark. I told him I was heading to Jasper tomorrow, which he replied that he was heading there tomorrow and was planning on hitch-hiking. Well since I was heading there anyways I offered to give him a ride. So far my trip has been filled with pretty cool people from different backgrounds and with different stories. It is a shame that some of us never venture out in life, especially those that don’t do so by choice.

Canmore+ Banff (April 6 - 10)

April 6th

Finally no more long drives. It took me only an hour and half to get to Canmore, and I headed straight to the Nordic Ski Centre. The sight of the picturesque Rockies around me was a bit mesmerizing. After being out of shape for a week, I decided to just do an easy 1hr xc ski through the easy and intermediate sections of the trails. The view was great, but the xc skiing itself was nothing spectacular. Personally I liked Gatineau and Mont Saint Anne more than this but no doubt it won in the scenery category. Despite doing a light route, my body felt beat. I bought a case of Rutting Elk beer (wanted to try the local bear), and downed two of them to ease the soreness. It sort of worked. Now feeling tired I ended the night with watching True Grit (for the second of course).


April 7th

The second day was simply tiring. I used the wrong grip wax on my skis as I went back for more xc skiing. In addition, it had snowed like 15 cm, leaving the classic xc skiing tracks mostly un-groomed. I had to stop lots of times to scrap the snow of the bottom of my skis, and it felt like I was snowshoeing more than gliding on skis. I did manage to get some photos while out skiing though. As I drove back to my hostel I nearly got my car stuck, my car slid backwards into the snow bank because of the slippery snow on the steep road that goes up the hill towards the hostel.

I do have to admit that this is the nicest hostel I’ve been to so far. It looks like a rustic cabin on the outside, nestled on the side of a mountain with a spectacular view. However, the inside is totally furnished and modern, everything here is clean and the living room is so spacious with wide open windows for you to enjoy the view.

So far I really only met two people who seemed pretty cool. One guy was named Jeff, who came here for ice climbing and skiing – we talked for a bit. The other person is a girl, who came with her friend for downhill skiing. Both of them were Japanese, living in Edmonton and working at an old person home helping out disabled people. Her name was Haneko, she was a pretty cool person. We talked a bit about ourselves, and she told me that she was from the Northern part of Japan, near the area of the earthquake. But because of the radiation problems that have occurred there, she told she has no plans to ever move back there, except to visit her parents. She goes on and tells me that she wishes the government informed the public with more details of what is happening over there. I felt bad for her, as having to leave your home and your country must be tough.


Later that night I was able to meet up a with an old friend (Dave) from Ottawa and his girlfriend (Theresa). I knew Dave from the old MEC days working in backstock, and now he is a downhill ski instructor in Canmore. We caught up on old times at the Rose and Crown Restaurant and Pub.

April 8th

Yesterday (my third day), I decided to give my knees a break from xc skiing and go explore the downtown area of Canmore and Banff. I picked up a few tourist gifts and postcards. My impression of Banff was just as everybody says it is; a town for you to go shopping and nothing else that special. I also drove around and took some pictures at Minnewanka Lake and Mt. Rundle. Later that night I had dinner at Dave and Theresa place, and got pretty buzzed from polishing off at least 2 bottles of wine.

April 9th

I went back xc skiing again, but this time with Dave’s girlfriend Theresa who wanted to try xc skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre. I tried my best to explain the proper technique of classic xc skiing but I think I did ok because I’m not the greatest at explaining things on the spot. We covered intermediate and beginner sections, covering probably about 14 kms. I guess I forgot how much it was going to kill the body for someone who hasn’t done it for a while, because Theresa was pretty wiped out. I was pretty wiped out too and took a nap. But later on I forced myself to get up and check out the Banff gondola, it was kind of cool.

April 10th

It was time do some sightseeing and give myself a break from all that xc skiing. I drove around Banff (mainly on the Bow Valley Parkway) stopping at sightseeing points. I also ventured past Banff on Hwy 93 into B.C. in Yoho National Park and stopped at some sightseeing points at well. At one spot I noticed there was a short hiking trail called Mine Canyon, so I finally busted out my snowshoes and up I went. It was a lot of fun and picturesque. I completely bailed trying to pose in front of the camera (with a 10 sec timer on).