Well the snow just keeps coming here in Didsbury, and
elsewhere around Alberta, just for us it seems! (well no one else is quite so
happy about it, anyway!! I guess it means winter could be here to stay for even
longer…) There are some really deep snow drifts around the place, and LOTS of
snow shovelling being done around the town (thankful for farm machinery here
instead!)
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| Awesome red barn in Didsbury |
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| Knee deep going to put some stuff in the burn pile... |
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| Serious snow drifts in the back yard |
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| Snow plowing, farm style |
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| Sunset over the snow-drifted tree farm |
On Thursday 5th December we headed out to Lake Louise in the Rockies for a day of winter fun, and first up after the beautiful drive there, we hired some snow shoes to explore some trails near the Lake. But first we stopped off by the lake and admired its frozenness, and even though we’d seen many photos and knew what to expect, it’s still somewhat of a shock to see the beautiful blue/green lake we saw in summer covered completely in white, with an ice rink on it!
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| Coming into Canmore, driving into the Rockies |
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| Majestic mountain over Banff |
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| Typical wildlife crossing in the Rockies, with majestic scenery |
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| Frozen Lake Louise! |
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| Cute frozen plants at Lake Louise |
Snow shoeing was pretty cool! I guess it’s not the most exciting of things to do in winter here, as it’s essentially just walking, but it’s great to be able to walk the same tracks as in summer, and just walk on top of most of the snow drifts, rather than sinking up to your knee every step, and getting sick of it very quickly! Going downhill we found was fantastic especially, as you could just take massive steps and they were so grippy you could go really quick! The scenery was absolutely beautiful, and pretty much exactly what you’d imagine of a Canadian forest in winter! Things were dark green/grey and white, with all of the pine trees speckled with big clumps of soft powdery snow J The view from the top of the trail we walked was the same as in summer, yet so different – a white Lake Louise from above, with the colour subtly sucked out of everything, but so pretty still! However, there was a slight downside… It was COLD. As in -30ºC or so almost all of the day. COLD, right?!
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| Lawrie with snow shoes :) |
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| The trail (this was actually uphill, although doesn't show...) |
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| Frozen but happy : |
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| It's winter in Canada!!! |
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| Frozen Lake Louise from above |
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| Close up of the Fairmont Chateau and the ice rinks |
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| Still very excited about the winter & snow :) |
There were a few reasons why we knew it was this cold…
1. The obvious – it is winter in Canada, after all
2. The temperature guage in the car said -33ºC before we started, and -31ºC when we finished…
3. When we stepped out of the car, our noses froze, and when we breathed in through our mouths, it felt like we couldn’t get enough air, because lungs don’t seem to be made to cope with air that cold!
4. Our eyelashes clumped together
5. My hair went white wherever it was exposed to the open air!!
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| Although it was rather chilly at the time... |
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| Very chilly, in fact! Not such a fan of white hair, myself! |
After snowshoeing we raced over to the lake with our ice skates to have our first go out skating outdoors ON A LAKE! We were pretty excited! Even when we realised how much bumpier it is than skating on a regular ice rink, and how much colder… Lake Louise has such beautiful surroundings, and on this day there was almost no one there to share it with us (just one Australian family who were struggling to stay upright on the ice!) – possibly because it was so cold…
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| Ice skating on Lake Louise |
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| Lawrie skating backwards |
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| Us on Lake Louise |
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| Ahh winter :) |
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| Lawrie chilling out on the ice...\ |
I walked further out onto the lake, which still felt a little iffy, as there was no one else out there (just follow the footprints, they said… And look out for dark areas, or creaking, or slushy ice – however, a little difficult when it’s covered in half a foot of snow! J) – was pretty excited to stand in the middle (well OK, not even nearly the middle, but still well out from the shore!) of a lake!
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| On Lake Louise! |
We were planning to somehow fit in a hike to a hopefully frozen waterfall at Johnson’s Canyon, also in the Rockies, but as it gets dark around 4:30-5pm, there wasn’t much hope for that by this stage! So we decided to try again another day, and enjoy a hot chocolate and warm up instead, before getting back into the freezing car for the drive back…
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| Whole bunch of elk on a lake on the way back |
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