Canada 07/08 – Banff – Day 4
Canada 07/08 – Banff – Day 4
Today started early, as always, when catching the 8:30am bus to Sunshine Village. We liked it so much the day prior that we decided to go again – although it took until about 8:10am to actually make the decision as to where we wanted to go (wow, life is tough hey?). The bus ride was uneventful, unlike a few days before, but up until this point, we had still seen no wildlife. This was Pip’s one goal for the week in Banff, and although the Sunshine staff member had pointed out all of the locations where we would be likely to see Elk, and Wolves, we saw nothing but animal tracks on the bus ride up.
Breakfast was as per normal, had at the day lodge at the top of the gondola. The group split up initially once finally hitting the slopes, and Pip and I headed for the Wolverine Express Chair once again (as we had had great skiing here the day before). On the lift ride up, we saw a great looking run – just off to the left. On the way back down, we tried to find it. Unfortunately, we missed – only by one run – but it was enough to change things just a little. Rather than the nice, smooth, gentle sloped run we had hoped for, we experienced the “steepest, most mogully run EVER” (according to Pip) – ‘Wolverine’. I must admit: it wasn’t great at that time of the morning, let alone for Pip!
I am pleased to report, however, that Pip managed to ski this fine, and didn’t stack at all down the slope. We assured Ed and Tess (once we caught up with them) that this was a great run to try, although they were reluctant before lunch. We ate lunch after completing a few more runs in the same area, and watched the snow begin to bucket down. It really was blizzard conditions, but luckily, not too cold. I don’t think the photos do justice to it, but it really was coming down hard.
After lunch, we took Ed and Tess on Wolverine. They had a bit of fun, as we did. Not as much fun, however, as what was to come on our very next run: Tess decided, as her and I generally do, to ski between the trees occasionally on the way down the run. I normally follow her, or she follows me, but on this occasion, I decided not to – after noticing the orange roped-off area that was beneath where she was going to come out from the trees. What resulted was one of the funniest occurrences of the trip so far – although probably arguably one of the scariest from Tess’ (and Ed’s) perspectives.
Tess emerged from the trees to find herself stuck in 1.5m of powder snow – just next to a concealed river that we pointed out to her. The snow was too deep for us to rescue her ourselves, and so, we had to provide directions from the outer. It must have taken well over 20 minutes for her to escape the powdery slope, but she managed to keep dry and get mighty hot ploughing her way up the hill and through all the powder. She was reluctant to follow me on any more ‘tree runs’ immediately following this…
There are some good photos in the gallery of this, so you’ll have to check them out for yourself!
Following this, it was a pretty normal end to the skiing day (although both Pip and Tess decided not to complete the lengthy ski out, and instead caught the gondola back to the base car park). Ed and I skied to the base via the Canyon trails – an alternative to the rather repetitive ‘Banff Ave’ trail that is very much over-used and crowded, as well as being icy and bare. These canyon trails were a nice alternative route home, and provided some very nice scenery for the journey back to the bus.
Once we had arrived back at the hotel, we returned to the 4th floor where our rooms were at the opposite end of the building. Upon walking to our room, Pip and I discovered that our key no longer worked. Although this seemed odd, it was not impossible that something had gone wrong with it during the day. We had almost reached the lift when we noticed that Ed was marching down the corridor from the other direction – also towards the lift. As it turned out, his key didn’t work in their room either – and neither did any of the other two keys that they had.
By the time we had finally sorted this mess out, it was getting on (and we were all tired and in need of a change of clothes – which we could not get, as they were locked in the room). It eventually turned out that the staff member who had coded the keys had done so with the wrong departure date – a possible explanation as to why they cleaned the rooms so much nicer that day versus any other day. It was a sure-fire pain, but we ended up with a complimentary bottle of Fairmont wine for each room – bringing the total to 3 wines, $300 gift card and a complimentary dinner at the hotel.
We ate dinner that night at the Bow Valley Grill – one of the Banff Springs’ nicest restaurants. While Ed dined on the only animals Pip had seen on the trip so far, the rest of us enjoyed more ‘normal’ meals. We were most impressed when the bill came, only to be told that (as it had been arranged) the $300 meal was complimentary… unfortunately, we had not been told that this did not include wine – so the bill came to $25.
After a rather extravagant night, we returned to our rooms and retired for the night.
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