The gondola climbs
from 2292ft (698m) to 7486ft (2281m) above sea level
These brutes were big and where the rubber hits the road they take no prisoners. Where these Trans-Canadian highways track through the many national parks in Canada, the highways are fenced to prevent the local wildlife from crossing the roads and causing accidents. At about every five to 10km they have 100m wide grassed-over passes to allow wildlife to cross or migrate safely. Banff was everything we imagined and more. As a picture postcard alpine tourist town it must rate up with the best. The local lakes were mostly frozen although the water remained flowing under the heavy ice cap.
Many waterfalls had become frozen spectacles and the forest was coated in a white frosting of snow. An obligatory trip up the gondola in Banff gave us an insight into what to expect in the Rockies as the building snow clouds complimented the stunning scenery.
Given the changing conditions preceded by wind gusts of over 40 knots, along with Vivienne's encouragement for us to get off the mountain, because she did not like the prospect of being left hanging in a gondola car when it is stopped for safety reasons at 40 knots, we reluctantly left the awesome views behind. It was probably just as well, because as soon as we hit the valley floor a strong gust with wind-blown snow and ice just about bowled us over. As we looked up into the tree line, the stationery cars were being buffeted as they swung back and forth on the cable. You can imagine the grief I would have got if we had still been on the wire. As we arrived back at the hotel for a well earned quart it was starting to snow and by morning we woke to find a layer of some 200mm of lovely powder snow, the stuff ski buffs die for, with the promise of more to come.
Our bucket list of things we had to do included dog sledding, and where better to do it than among the hydro lakes in the mountains out the back of Canmore, Alberta.
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March/April 2012 Professional Skipper 31 GMS_NZPS_QPV_FCI.indd 1 21/09/2009 7:28:03 p.m.
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