Canada, ehh?

Potts, Dan & myself arrived in Calgary early Saturday morning and began our drive West, out the Trans-Canada Highway, up to the Bow Valley where our ski adventure began. Views in the Canadian Rockies were absolutely spectacular as we made our way through Banff, a touristy town where we spent night one, en route to our first ski resort, Lake Louise. The snow was good and wintery, but not super fresh. Terrain off the back-side was fun and steep, but the jagged rocky peaks and buttes were the main attraction and just spectacular. At the end of a fun day, we hit the road to continue the travel further West, over the Continental Divide, to the amazing resort of Kicking Horse – where I find myself now. We skied today, and will hang here for another day before we mosey down the road for a few days of heli then jump a bit further West to meet with the larger crew for our final destination of Revelstoke.

While snow conditions were similar here in Kicking Horse (wintery but not fresh), the day was pretty awesome. Last night in the hot tub we were lucky enough to meet a super fun, nice & ripping local couple (Mike & Kirstin) who showed us around this amazing resort all day today. Our arrival here was followed by a rather big night of drinking complete with human sized Jenga, so joining them for full throttle skiing was a bit of a shock to the system this AM, but after we quasi-kicked the hangovers we got with the program and didn’t make them wait around (as much) – a huge thanks to Mike & Kirstin for showing us an epic day here at Kicking Horse. We, no doubt, would never have found such great snow and terrain without them. This resort is just amazing and definitely will need a repeat visit when conditions are good.

Hopefully we can take it a little easier this evening, but who knows, Jenga is calling our names…

Views of The Rockies out of the town of Banff

Some time for shopping in the touristy town of Banff

We three gents do not pack light

In Canada, dudes walk the streets with hockey sticks, and there are ice climbing walls in-town

Views out of the town of Banff down The Bow river

Rocky Mountain views from the ski resort Lake Louise

Dan-eyed view of some fresh at Lake Louise

A look at some of the fun terrain on the backside of Lake Louise

On the drive up the Bow Valley we passed through several National Parks – views were stunning the whole way 

Wildlife was just on the side of the road – I think we counted over 14 Elk in all

We arrived in Kicking Horse for evening light – This view is down valley, down the Columbia which eventually makes its way South into The States to become The Mighty Columbia, the final river that Louis & Clark navigated in the early 1800's – Amazing to see it's 'headwaters'

Life sized Jenga is pretty serious & all time fun

The group made some questionable decisions when we stacked two giant Jenga sets up to form a super-sized Jenga tower – picture one is me pulling what turned out to be the last brick – picture two is me getting completely covered up by probably 60+ falling 2x4's

Dan & I before the descent of Consequence

Ants-eyed view of me at the entrance of the chute

Dan making some tight turns down Consequence

Dan with our new friends Kirstin & Mike at the top of T1 at Kicking Horse