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Published: January 3rd 2013
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A short flight from Seattle to Vancouver saw my return to Canada. Last time I was here I didn't get to see much other than the ski mountain I lived at (the NBA season was nearly over so I had to get back to the US). When I arrived at immigration in the airport I was greeted with an absolute grilling by the border control woman. She didn't look like a hard-ass but that just made it all the more surprising. She asked a multitude of questions, such as where I'd been, who with, what I did back home, and even going so far as to ask exactly which sights and places I saw in various towns. I mean come on, I'm Australian. I thought we were on good terms with Canada.
After surviving that brief tenuous moment I located my hostel in downtown Vancouver. I was only there for 3 days but was hoping to see as much as possible. Unfortunately the forecast was for rain and more rain and it did not fail to deliver. Luckily there was a small window where it was only drizzling in order to go see the Capilano Suspension bridge. It is for
pedestrians/tourists/cash generation only and spans 140m long and 70m above the river. It was quite impressive. Some clown (she may or may not have been from a country starting with China) decided to start jumping up and down in the middle of the bridge while I was on it, which prompted a quick and firm voice of reason to emit itself from a speaker somewhere - 'Please do not jump on the bridge'. They must get that a lot.
The park also had a small, narrow walkway jutting out from the cliff with nothing but fresh air beneath it. This was of course wet and slippery and quite a treat for someone like me...
After Vancouver, the next stop was a flight over to Calgary near the base of the Rocky Mountains. Here I would rent a car in the hopes of driving up to Jasper National Park and back (850km round trip). I wasn't exactly sure how the driving conditions would be, but decided to 'run with it and see what happened'. Always a great precursor to mishap and misfortune.
My car this time was a Toyota Corolla and I decided to take the 'Snow tyre'
option when offered. This meant I wouldn't have to muck around with chains should the conditions turn bad, though I still wasn't sure how much grip these tyres would actually provide in snow and ice. The first day would see me drive to the entry of Banff National Park to a small town (roadhouse) called Dead Man's Flats. It snowed about a foot that night and the snow froze solid which meant I spent 15 minutes the next morning scraping at the car with a small stick. After perusing the road reports (status: Poor. Poor written in red), I decided to continue.
A bit of a 'racing line' had developed on the highway by the time I set off. This was ok, but overtaking was not an option. I had to constantly fiddle with the demister's in order to strike a balance between not freezing my ass off and being able to see out the windscreen. Once I turned off Highway 1 for the Icefields Parkway though, the road was completely snow and ice. Apparently they don't salt the roads in this area, so there is always a constant layer of ice to contend with. After taking some time
Weeping Wall
Spot the ice climbers to adjust to the conditions I ended up getting comfortable enough. It never felt dangerous as long as didn't go too fast (I drove at 85 instead of the sign-posted 90). But you had to be on your toes. There would be no zoning out like normal. No 'I don't remember driving the last 15km'. I was mentally drained by the time I pulled into Jasper but I made it without incident.
It was very cloudy/overcast on that day so taking good photos of the mountains wasn't very achievable. However, I was able to see the 'Weeping Wall', which is massive frozen waterfall on the face of a cliff. After staring it for a few minutes I noticed 2 ice-climbers scaling it. That would be an all-day climb for sure. Better them than me. I also drove past the Columbia Icefields which has a huge glacier you can walk and drive out onto in summer, but unfortunately for me it was under metres of snow and closed for the winter. As I was to discover, were many other things. Such is the compromise.
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Graham
non-member comment
wow
Hi! Sounds amazing! Love weeping wall; pics look sick! Funny the Canadian grilling session, she must have thought you were mueling lol. Hope you're having a great time, I'm totes jelz.