Day 4 Lake Louise

Well isn't it nice when you can sleep in he he he - our snow shoeing expedition was not to start until 1pm. So we had a leisurely brunch and met up with our wonderful guide Mike - picture this 47 years old, married to an Australian nurse for some 20 odd years, he is about 6 foot 5, has one of those gorgeous voices with a real timbre to it and his first comment was - "Do you like my office?" - he was actually pointing to the wonderful scenery around Lake Louise - "Best screen saver you will find!!!" We signed the inevitable indemnity - Mike pointing out section F which states that there is wild life not excluding Grizzly bears, black bears, cougar, lynx, moose, deer, elk etc etc etc You should never really read these things. We have both decided that just flying in to Northern Canada there should a overall indemnity with the VISA - that would just save time in our opinion.

Anyway on with the snow shoes after a little lecture re the history and the making of snow shoes. Quite interesting actually. We headed off in fairly easy terrain but again people, the snow here is quite deep in places even on the trails. Being such a lovely day and once again being the only people on this tour, Mike set off into the woods for some REAL snow shoeing - Oh My God!!!!! At times up to our waists in snow and the rigmarole it takes to get out of such a positions is unbelievable. You certainly thank your lucky stars that the snow is not wet like ours in Australia otherwise we would be suffering from frost bite in some really unusual places!!!!!

Mike must have felt confident in us as he said "Well off you go - head that a way, and see if you can find us a decent path to follow!" Apparently I was not good at this as Megs was yelling at me to stop trying to find the closest trees and go between them!! Ooops - tree wells apparently are not fun and quite difficult to get out of - I'll let Megs tell you about it.

Megs Typing

Elona took the lead, excited about navigating our path through the National Forrest...  Mike advised he often liked to 'break trail' it is the only way to experience true snow shoeing.  We later found out that the person in the front does about 70% of the work by packing down the snow for the people behind, the second person 20% and the third about 10% of the work (in a large group to be the 4th person or later apparently is really easy).  Now as you would expect in most cases the guide is the person in the front and therefore is doing most of the work.  Mike felt it necessary to share what that felt like with each of us (and it is challenging) the problem I faced following Elona's lead was she chose narrow paths between large snow ladened trees, really not a problem in and of itself.  The deception was that Elona would create the new trial and with her petite stature and with the large surface area the snow shoes provided on her feet would navigate this quite successfully.  I, who is taller and heavier than Elona would follow behind on the narrow path only to discover that with the tall trees so close together there are often hidden tree wells or pockets of air trapped underneath a metre of snow just waiting for the unsuspecting snow shoer to put their foot in the wrong place.

Now the technical skill required to remove oneself from a tree well, with one leg buried to the hip in snow and the other leg balance precariously on the surface, requires you first to check to see if your snow shoe had gotten wedged on a tree branch, if so try and dig around and free the snow shoe.  Once you have ascertained that the foot is now just buried under a ton of snow and not also stuck, you need to roll onto your stomach (yes in the snow) use you ski pole (holding one end in each hand to give greater surface area and stability) to slowly bring your feet with snow shoes now facing the opposite direction under your knees (at the same snow height if manageable) and then inch the top half of your body backward until you are in a crouched position then you can carefully stand, turn around and continue on your way.

Now after the 3rd or 4th incident of this nature and Elona's continued reluctance to stay away from narrow pathways between trees, I 'broke trial' and went my own way.

We discovered a new phenomenon whilst on this trek.  Winter high-lights, or Quaff de Jack Frost.  Now when we asked Mike about this phenomenon (see photos) of our hair freezing white by the strand.  He advised us this happens when the spit exhaled through our mouths when breathing lands on our hair and then freezes - EEEEWW!!!!  He apologised and then rectified the explanation to kisses from fairy angels -much better, Mike.

Elona Typing

Now just to clarify things....it is a bloody forrest and the trees are close together hence "forrest"!!!

We did have a very exciting moment - we were just standing around catching our breath - as you do - when there was this very large 'whooooomp' and then the earth moved -we both; Megs and I were on either side of Mike - looked at him and then to the ground as the damn thing just moved, a whole area just fell down an inch or two. This apparently is called a slab avalanche and if we were higher up Mike said, it would have scared the hell out of him. But we were all good and Mike tells me to just keep on heading down - you won't get lost just keep looking at the ski hill. This man definitely does not know me well - this is the girl who walks into a shop in the shopping centre and can't remember which direction to go, on the way out. Therefore telling me to keep looking at that hill and navigate around trees to make my own trail was thrilling for me to say the least and a little scary for Mike when Megs informed him of my lack of navigational prowess. I was having fun but was basically on my way to Banff - entirely the wrong direction and then I hear yelling - Now others who know me also know that I am deaf in one ear and trying to work out in which direction a sound comes from is no easy task but apparently I guessed right...because I found them both and I was sooo very pleased with myself - it felt like a big achievement for me!!

We continued down and on the path - a little boring after the thrill of off trail but anyway brilliant scenery and lots skills learnt in keeping oneself safe in the snowy forrest. We said our farewells to the lovely Mike and headed to the Chateau for dinner where we enjoyed cocktails and a cheese platter for dinner - sometimes you just gotta splurge a little - we have been so good!! After a lovely dinner we were back at the beautiful Deer Lodge where we showered and went to bed to be fresh for the next day's adventure of Ice Walking!!!! And this time we set the alarm - doesn't happen often these days but we had to be out of the lodge by 8am.

Deer Lodge outside light - snow and ice just waiting to fall

Bloody missed it!! It had fallen the next time we came out.

This is the hat that Mum bought me for my trip - worn in alaska a lot!!

He has the same material for his jacket and hat - very cute!

Deer Lodge original safe

Bob

Beautiful day for a walk

Walking from Deer Lodge

Heading towards the Fairmont Chateau

Their front sign

Views on the way

Mike's Office

Mike's Screen Saver

Mike's Shed - modern but old snow shoes

Mike with modern shoes

Mike in Guide pose

Nice views from the forrest

Can get a tad deep

Meg's knight in shining GoreTex

We are higher now

This is the tracks we are making

Meg's the explorer!

Again with the whole guide pose thing

This believe it or not is our path

Just a view along the way

Okay so the trees were a little bit close together

The adventurers

That's my path and Meg's is making her own!

Meg's in a tree well

Winter highlights - lion like

Mine- rats tails

View on return

Mike's attempt at an igloo - 'There was a snow storm last night' he defended

Mike bending down - bless him

Cocktail time!!

View whilst drinking cocktails

And you just can't forget the fruit and cheeses with the cocktails!!!

One of the staff here - Roger - playing his guitar and giving us some songs by the fire

Or maybe he thinks he is singing to Bob

Our corner near the fire - with the much needed power point

Piano stool has crystal balls under it's claws

Said stool in front of piano - this stool doubles as our lap top holder

being higher than the coffee table in front of the chairs

Bless him - this is Bob - isn't he just a cutie!!

Meg's commented that he is suffering some neck problems!!!

There are many antiques at the Deer Lodge

One of the many hallways that just remind me of the movie

The Shining