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Published: October 7th 2009
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Having left the farm in the Kootenays, I headed for Banff. But lifts were harder to get than I'd found previously, and I only made it as far as Revelstoke on the first day. This was a fairly small town that looked like it came alive in the winter, and was a big ski/snowboard destination. My experience of it was a hostel full of young australians, and a sports bar where I had dinner and watched Liverpool beat Leeds without any commentary.
The next day wasn't much better in terms of lifts, but I did manage to get to Banff, and the scenery became more and more dramatic the closer I got.
Banff Town
Banff itself is a pretty small town, essentially set up for tourists.
Rich tourists. The manicured lawns with not a blade of grass out of place were a pretty stark contrast to what I have been used to so far, and the expensive designer boutiques and shops selling all manner of tourist tat dominate the town centre. Everything is expensive.
Naturally I didn't stay very long. But I did rent a kayak and go for a trip down the Bow river for a
couple of hours. It didn't take long to get out of the 'manicured' town bit, and soon I was having a great time on the brilliant blue water, with mountains all around me.
I got a bad case of 'what's round the next bend', and completely forgot about the time. So it was that I spent about an hour and a half paddling upstream and exploring the river, then blistering my hands on a mad dash back (going with the current didn't help as much as I thought it would) to try and avoid being charged extra for being late. In the end I was ten minutes late, but they let me off, bless them.
Lake Louise
I got the Greyhound bus up to Lake Louise, which is about 60km northwest of Banff town and consists of a big lake in the mountains, and a small tourist village about 5km away. The whole 'tourist' thing was even more obvious here - the scenery was incredible, but marred by being overrun with coachloads of visitors, and everything that goes with them. Very expensive here too.
On the first day I went up Mt. Whitehorn on
a gondola/ski lift thing on the other side of the valley, and viewed the lake from there, which was nice. The following day I elected to do a big day hike up and around the lake itself.
When I arrived at the lake I began to wish I hadn't bothered, as it was a tourist scrum, with lots of japanese tourists taking photos of anything/everything, and various wedding photographs being staged (I later learnt there were seven weddings there that day).
The worst bit for me was the Chateau Lake Louise, a massive concrete hotel sat right on the edge of the lake, that surely must fit into the 'monstrous carbuncle' category of tourist development. Still, it was almost worth it to see the costumes they made the staff wear - all togged up like swiss mountaineers with plus-fours, and hats with a jaunty feather in them. Even the security guards with the Madonna mic, earpiece and obligatory black shades. I struggled not to laugh out loud. Good views from the rooms though, I imagine.
Anyway, as soon as I got there I started on the trail up to Lake Agnes, and immediately left the bulk of
the tourists behind. The guy who ran the hostel told me that only 0.1% of the visitors to the Banff and Jasper National Parks walk further than 50m.
I hiked the trail up to Lake Agnes and then the Big Beehive lookout point, which gave great views of the blue waters of Lake Louise, then continued on up to the Plain of Six Glaciers, where it snowed, and was very cold. By the time I got back to the hostel, I was completely shattered.
Then I decided it was all too expensive, and the way the place was being ruined by humans all too depressing, so it was time to set off for Jasper, in what was turning into a whistlestop tour of Banff and Jasper National Parks. Incidentally, this whole area appears to be under the control of the Australian Mafia - they were working in every shop, bar, cafe and hostel I went in. Bloody Australians. Bloody tourists.
(Yes, I know I was one of the tourists. Shut up.)
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Andy Walmsley
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Snowboarding paradise...
Well I thought it was a snowboarding paradise, but to be fair this was 6 years ago, so things will have changed. It did seem quite picturesque during the winter that i was there, but I am easily pleased......just give me loads of snow!!! Great pictures by the way. I do remember the Chateau, very unsightly and not at all in balance with the scenery and surroundings.