Review: Canadian Rockies Chalets, Canmore

General appearance

The Canadian Rockies Chalets are situated in several rows of wooden attached buildings. It made a very atmospheric impression.

Location

The chalets are located in Canmore, just off Trans-Canada Highway. Our apartment opened on the bedroom side to one of the main roads of Canmore but still sleeping was not a problem. Even the railway line behind the complex did not keep you awake. A walkway went pass the railway and to the sypermarkets Sobey's and Safeway.

entrance

Room

This apartment was one of the most spacious of the tour. We had a big living room with an half open kitchen, a dining area and TV corner. We got two bedrooms, one with a queen sized bed and the other with a king sized bed and a terrace. Other doors led to the bathroom with tub, the heating room where we stored our skis and boots and the hall stand.

The heating fan was running quite loud in intervals that were not controllable. We could only set the temperature. On the second evening, we realized they saved on the step soundproofing as we could hear every move of the people above us.

Living room

bedroom

bedroom

bathroom

Breakfast

As we had a full equipped kitchen again, Victor was back at the pan making pancakes every morning.

Dining area & kitchen

Other

Wifi and hot tub as expected by us by now.

hot tub above the reception

Sunshine Village

Base

Skipasses: $79.95 plus tax.

Hours of operation: 9:00-4:00.

chairs without footrests

Lifts: A gondola that takes you from parking lot to Sunshine Village with a midstation in between to access Goat's Eye Mountain. From village and midstation there lead 9 chair lifts on the three mountains around. Even though looking new they had no footrests.

Lookout Mountain

Mount Standish

Goat's Eye Mountain

Trails: Sunshine Village has a World Cup Downhill trail that we used immediately. Besides the usual trails and glades, Sunshine Village offered two skiing enclosures with special restrictions called Delirium Dive and The Wildwest. We had only one day there and not the right equipment so we stayed on the normal trails of which there were enough. The areas were also closed due to risk of avalanches, but I guessed that there was not enough snow to ski them. Some of the black normal runs did not deserve their designation.

Entry to the Wild West

Snow: Sunshine Village proved its name. As there was no cloud to cover the sky, it got really cold. It is also Canada's highest ski resort which will bring temperature even further down. The snow was good and the trails groomed. At some points there were icy parts and stones. We saw it had not snowed in some time as all the snow was crammed on the trails and the open area laid bare.

Specials: Wifi was available at the village for 9.95$ plus tax for 24 hours. Staff who loaded and unloaded your skis and boards on the gondola. Several restaurants at the village offered lunch, but we decided to have lunch at Goat's Eye Mountain - that place is like a canteen in a barack. No atmosphere at all.

Some take the gondola back down to base, other the easiest way and we took the Canyon.

Revelstoke

We left Golden for a day trip to Revelstoke in the morning and due to the time zone change we gained an hour. Nonetheless, Victor speeded and overtook another car and an oncoming police officer stopped both of us. We got a speed ticket and went to the local courthouse to pay it.

Then we went skiing.

Skipasses: $74 plus tax.

Hours of operation: 8:30 to 3:30.

Lifts: Revelstoke has a gondola and two chairlifts. The gondola has a midstation where you have to change gondolas. We would have preferred a drive-thru midstation for obvious reasons.

5,620 ft. vertical

Trails: The trails are well groomed and invited even more than the highway for speeding. Most of the trails were black.

Snow: As it had not been snowing for a week, there was no more powder, but the groomed trails were great. Only between mid and base station it was either icy or sloshy. There were stones and roots on the very steep double black diamonds.

Specials: Revelstoke also offers host tours, but we had no time to take advantage of them. Everywhere they poked heli-skiing in your view but this was off budget.

The midstation restaurant offered the usual burger & fries combos but also had a live pasta cooking station. No wifi on this mountain.

Review: Sportsman Lodge, Golden

General appearance

The Sportsman Lodge is a Standard motel with two storey buildings and rooms directly accessed from the parking lot or the upper balcony. It smelled a bit strange like hospital from cleaning and we did not get a kitchenette.

Location

The lodge is located one block off the Trans Canada Highway (#1), surrounded by other motels and some dining spots incl. McDonald's. The Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is about 14 km up the hill.

Room

We got a one-room-apartment with two Queen-sized beds, a small bathroom, a fridge and a microwave. As we did not get a kitchenette, we convinced the staff to let us cook in the breakfast room kitchen that was no well equipped. We cooked and ate without pan, forks and other necessities. It was very adventurous and the hardest earned dinner of the whole trip.

Breakfast

According to our Expedia Reservation we should get a continental breakfast. Basically, they offered cereals and toast - so we skipped it and survived on eggs, rolls, jam, cheese and carrots.

Other

Wifi was for free without password. Across from our building was the pool house with indoor pool, water slide and hot tub. We were too lazy and exhausted to walk over.

Kicking Horse

We spent two days in Kicking Horse. The ski area was 14 km up from Golden, a town founded as an outpost for the Thompson expedition to find a pass across the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. The geologist Sir James Hector was kicked by his horse and knocked out. Thought to be dead, he was nearly buried, but made it back to consciousness just in time. After his recovery he explored th surroundings and discovered the pass which was called after the incident that led to its discovery: Kicking Horse Pass.

On Day One a cloud hang in the valley, but on top the sun was shining and we had blue skies.

View from Top - an ocean of clouds

Mid-Mountain - entering the cloud

Two days later, we could see all the way down to the valley bottom.

Skipasses: $75 plus tax.

Hours of operation: 9:00-3:30.

Lifts: There were a gondola to the top with no midstation (which would have been good to avoid the bad visibility on the last vertical meters) and three chair lifts. Only two of them worked - one in the beginners and foggy zone, the other one brought you up to the Stairway to Heaven.

Trails: The trails were spread out from the top in four bowl, one of which were accessible for all.

Bowl Over is easy to reach for all who can battle their fears. The run down on Super Bowl and Feuz Bowl, we had to earn hard by walking around Terminator Peak or climbing up the Stairway to Heaven.

Bowl Over

way around Terminator Peak

Snow: We made it to all bowls but no "champagne powder" was left:-(. We found the groomed trails covered in a bit of powdered sugar snow that created some nice snow clouds when we wedeled down the hill.

Specials: Mountain host tours - got some info on the mountain but it was the slowest and dullest tour we joined so far. We had to admit that visibility was not good but still there would have been more possible. Food at the Day Lodge was okay, but nothing remarkable.

A little heavenly story:

We packed our skis and walked up the Stairway to Heaven:

When we knocked on heaven's door, nobody answered.

Instead of taking the easy way down to earth on Cloud 9,

we went vertical and plunged from this edge downward on the right and in the valley.

Jasper to Golden: Icefield Parkway

Saturday morning, we left Jasper for one the world's most scenic and beautiful roads - the Icefield Parkway. Before we started south, we fueled up as the next 217 km would be without gas stations.

Icefield Parkway

We entered the park at 10 am and made it to Lake Louise by 4 pm - the road conditions were good but the beautiful landscape requested our stops every now and then. Once, we stopped three times within less than 5 km.

Athabasca Pass

Luckily, some of sights were closed for winter, so we made it still in daylight to our destination.

Mount Edith Cavell

The Columbia Icefield consists of 8 glaciers and sits on the Continental Divide of North America. In summer, you can tour the glaciers with snow coaches - in winter you enjoy them from afar.

There are also the sources of three rivers that flow in three different oceans: the Athabasca River via several other water systems in the Arctic Ocean, the Saskatchewan River via Hudson Bay in the Atlantic Ocean and the Columbia River in the Pacific Ocean.

Viewpoint to Columbia Icefield

Athabasca Glacier

The Weeping Wall

View at Saskatchewan River Crossing

Mount Cephren

We arrived in Lake Louise at the peak of ski-out rush-hour and after a short detour to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise we continued west back into British Columbia to Golden.

Jasper & surroundings

After skiing everyday we explored Jasper and its surroundings.

Post Office

Jasper was founded in the mid 19th century as an outpost for the fur trade but its fame really rose with the arrival of the railway and the connection to Vancouver. Today the railway serves two ports in the west: Vancouver and Prince Rupert. Goods transportation is still done this way, but passenger transport has changed dramatically - you are much faster by road or air. A basic service is upheld, but it's not profitable.

The Yellowhead Museum and Archives tells the story of the town, its inhabitants and the ski resort.

On the first afternoon, we ventured around Patricia and Pyramid lake. Both frozen and surrounded by the mountains, they give a great backdrop for those who wish to do snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.

Patricia Lake

Lake Pyramid

Next day, we went to Maligne Canyon that was formed by water and time in the carst region. In summer, a noisy creek flows down the canyon, but in winter it all freezes to a winter wonderland with iced waterfalls, frozen creek bed and snow covered trees on both sides.

There were tours offered to explore the creek bed of Maligne Canyon but we decided to find our own way. We went along the top of the canyon for a while until we found a flat place to enter it. We followed the trails of the groups, walked over the frozen creek and squeezed through a narrow gorge. Be sure to take the right equipment: warm boots, spikes and poles. Don't forget the camera!

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We were always looking for animals and one dawn we got rewarded: at a road crossing we saw a small herd of caribou (Canadian reindeer) grazing.