Oot West

A couple of weeks ago we made our way to Edmonton to visit my brother and family. We'd hardly met our sister-in-law and hadn't seen the nephew yet, so the visit was long due.

Lil' Nick on pappy's neck.



What to do in Edmonton? Well, enjoy the snow of course... much more left than in Ottawa. And then West Edmonton Mall. We've both been there, over 15 years ago, but I can't say it looks like much has changed.

We went to the mall one day intending to go to the waterpark, but it wasn't open for several more hours. So we hung out and shopped... oh, and randomly bumped into a cousin from Smithers. Too bad it wasn't noon yet, we coulda had a beer. Next time, Rob.

We also ventured over to the indoor handgun range; it was tempting but far too pricy.

We did go back to the mall the next day and spent a few hours at the waterpark. Good times. It also means I've had my fill of frolicking in water for 2011.

Went to Costco of course, because, well, it was there. We saw various deals for ski resort passes, so we bought a few just in case...

We went out for dinner several times. One outing was to the Melting Pot, an interesting fondue experience. Fondue appetizer, fondue main course, fondue dessert. Yum! They mix the various fondues right in front of you. Not a cheap night out, but certainly memorable.

Appie: cheese fondue with bread, veggies and apples.


Entrée: broth fondue with lotsa kinds of meat.


Dessert: flambéed chocolate fondue with various sweets to dip in it. Really hard to go wrong here.


We stayed three days, during which time my brother graciously failed to show up for work. Then our wonderful hosts drove us to Calgary on Saturday for the next half of our trip. There we rented a car and headed west.

Pretty clear roads heading into the Rockies. Not so clear skies.


And finally, some real hills! It may have been overcast but sights like this were welcome.


Our drive took us from Calgary, past Banff, hang a left at Castle Junction, another left at Radium Hot Springs, past Invermere, and to the resort village of Panorama. Driving time 3.25 hours. Carrie's parents were staying there, and two of her siblings would arrive a few days later. It's an old stomping ground for their family.

Panorama is tiny, not yet overgrown like some resort towns we've seen. A very picturesque valley... more so if it's sunny, I imagine (I didn't really get to find out all week).


There are a number of condos in the village, but also some houses, mostly on the outskirts. Some of these are more than winter cabins... I wonder how many weeks per year the owners spend in these?


The view from our condo. Hot tub at bottom left, ski hill visible in centre. Newer condos obscure the view somewhat, but at least it's still possible to ski pretty much to the door.


Having a full week at Panorama, we decided to hit the slopes every other day, so as not to strain our old joints. And because it's stinkin' expensive. Our Costco-purchased passes gave us a few dollars off, but it's still steep. Actually each pass we bought at Costco was good for 2 adults and 2 children; we had trouble finding people to take the child passes we didn't need, which seemed a bit of a shame.

The weather was mild all week, with temps up to 12 degrees in the village. Higher up the mountain the conditions stayed good, so there wasn't too much trouble finding good slopes.

Ahhh... real slopes. Things are good when it can take you 40 minutes to get down from the summit.


Nice thing in this pic is that pretty much everything you see is skiable terrain. I didn't say fun, I said skiable. Unless you like the combination of moguls and trees. Then fun.


There were in fact many areas that were out of bounds, but honestly there were enough in-bounds runs on which to kill oneself without having to go out of bounds.

Drop-off to nowhere... and beyond.


Sisters.


At the summit. At 4000 feet vertical, Panorama has one of the largest vertical drops of North American ski resorts. Actual elevation at the summit is 7800 feet.


On Wednesday, our second day on the hill, we were heading down to get to the condo for lunch. I decided to fly down a hill a little too fast. I failed to navigate a particular corner and ended up sailing off the edge of a run. The edge was marked by wooden posts with rope strung along them. I missed the poles and the rope, which meant no crucial slowing down. As I flew along in a rag-doll fashion, I reminisced at my folly and prayed I would not hit any trees. Fortunately I landed on the very snowy downhill slope of a peaceful gully, in about 4 feet of snow. Unfortunately I landed on my head and right shoulder, and I distinctly heard every vertebra crack as my body compressed and twisted in a way it was not designed to.

At first I was quite sure I'd broken something, but nobody was around for me to yell at. I was soon surprised to discover that I could move quite freely, without the level of pain I'd been expecting. But my next challenge, after coming up for air, was climbing up the slope to the run I'd abandoned. I tried to keep my snowboard strapped on, hopping my way up the bank; that didn't work, since the bank was too steep and the snow too loose. Then I tried to unstrap; as it turns out, floundering in 4 feet of snow whilst trying to climb a steep slope is even harder than simply floundering in 4 feet of snow. In the end I had my board unstrapped, and I climbed up by jamming it into the snow above me and pull myself up towards it. Not an easy task when you back feels like a sumo wrestler just walked on it to crack it.

Anyway, I made it back to solid ground, albeit achy and drenched in sweat. I decided that was about enough for the day, and I spent 2.5 hours that afternoon soaking in the hot tub. I think that really helped in the end, because by Friday I was good to go again.

I briefly considered taking pictures during my little episode, but strangely I was in no mood for it, and besides, there wasn't much to take a picture of. However, later at lunch, I felt something weird on my elbow...


Looks worse than it is. Just some gross fluid build-up. Problem is, I don't remember hitting that elbow, during my wipeout or any other time. Oh well, a memento nonetheless. It's mostly back to normal now after a week, having visited every shade of colour known to man.

We did a trip to Radium Hot Springs one day. One massive pool there is a comfortable 39 degrees, making the jump into the 30-degree one nice and refreshing. Sure beats Canada's lake temperatures.


After a relaxing week, it was time to go home. We left at 6AM Saturday to catch our 11AM flight in Calgary. Except we hadn't bothered to check the forecast. It sucked.

First part of the trip was 2 hours on Hwy 93. First gravelly and wet roads. Then gravel and snow. Then gravel and slush. Then slush. Then just snow. Sometimes it wasn't clear where the road was. Not quite as nice as the drive up had been.


I was fortunate to be a ways behind a transport truck that was making nice tracks in the snow for me. I didn't actually catch up to it until it stopped near the end of Hwy 93 for a brake check before a steep hill. Well, having had the pleasure of driving in his tracks, I was now on my own and neglected to realize how much harder it was to steer. As we headed down the hill he'd stopped for, our little rental car went into a slide. Not a big deal, as much of the morning drive involved sliding and correcting on my part, white-knuckle grasping on Carrie's part. Except I didn't have the nice tracks to stay in, so the car decided to ignore the steering wheel and hit a snow-covered curb. BUMP! This wasn't going well. I heard a hissing and proceeded to a pullout nearby. The rim had a nice big dent in it and the rubber wasn't staying round for very long. A bored shuttle driver waiting there decided he wanted to help change my tire, which was cool.

We were at the junction of Hwy 93 and the Trans-Canada. Now we had a few choices: drive on a donut all the way to Calgary (couple hours yet), or find a Hyundai dealer and furtively replace the wheel, or find an Avis location and replace the rental car. Banff was 20 minutes down the road, so off we went. No Hyundai dealer there, but fortunately an Avis one, so we swapped cars and got on the road, having lost about 40 minutes.

The Trans-Canada turned out to be no better. Probably worse, since there was actually traffic on it. The plows were nowhere to be seen that day, so the left lane pretty much didn't exist. This proved handy for me, since no one else dared to venture into it. My new rental must have had good snow tires because, many scary passes later, we made it into Calgary; angels must have been working overtime. I gave Carrie many opportunities to decide to miss the flight, but she hung in there with a fear-induced lack of reason sense of purpose.

Pulled in at the airport at 10:40, no time to gas up the rental but they gave us a break. Then off through the terminal with 5 bags. Flights were on time... drat! Of course the Air Canada counters were at the far end, and when we thought we'd reached it, it was a little further yet. Carrie stood in the executive line-up, while I headed to the poor people line. Fortunately I caught an Air Canada attendant walking around, and upon telling here we had an 11am flight to catch, I was whisked to the counter past the line-up. Woohoo! I flagged Carrie over. We got our luggage checked and scurried through the under-renovation terminal, getting lost a couple of times. Security was quick, and we got to the gate with 6 minutes to spare.

When you get to the gate and they greet you by name, you're probably the last people to board. They also handed us boarding passes, as our original seats had been filled already. But who's going to argue with upgrades to business class!? AAHAHA! As we boarded we spoke to a few others who had come from Panorama area as well (but who had left much earlier than we). I apologized for being the crazy guy who passed them, as I must have at some point that morning.

All's well that ends well. Oh, except for a pending bill from Avis. But that's what credit card perks are for; I expect my bill will be covered in full. Thanks Amex!