Winter activities in Jasper, Canmore, and Panorama.

---

So for our only full day in Jasper we were heading skiing/snowboarding to marmot basin. While my brain no longer felt jet-lagged, I still wasn't able to sleep a full night through, so we had a relaxed morning and went to the mountain in the afternoon. We got really good deals for classes, gear rental and lift passes. Doug was going skiing as he'd done it before and I was going to try snowboarding for the first time. I was on my own for beginner lessons and they were for two hours. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a lot of fun and very similar to kayaking in terms of edging and trunk rotation! Look where you want to go and relax seem to be the fundamentals. We went over the basics, toe-edge, heel-edge and then combining the two. I felt like I was making progess - at least I'll know what it feels like if I'm doing it right! After we finished I headed to the nearest beginner slope with Doug for some practice. My first run was incredibly frustrating as I promptly forgot everything I'd just learned! Doug lapped me three times! But things came together on my 2nd run and I was able to board down without falling over - woohoo! We had to leave then as the lifts and carpark were shutting down, but I'm definately keen to board again! Doug got on really well on his lesson too and is ready to tackle the more difficult routes.

The next day was another long travel day - I don't know what we were thinking trying to cram all this travel into this week! We honestly well under-estimated just how vast this country is! I definately want to return to Jasper. We were heading to the town on Canmore, the other side of Banff. We took the icefields parkway back through the mountains again and stopped to glacier-gaze. In Canmore we dropped off the car and got a lift out to our new accommodations, a good bit out of town again! We somehow ended up with a pine cabin big enough for six people all to ourselves. We headed into town later for drinks and ended up at a really lovely pub/resturant called the Grizzly Paw which again served their own beers. After another delicious sample, I went for the Grumpy Bear and Doug tried the Rutting Red Elk. Yum yum yum. I also tried poutine, a Canadian staple, essentially a cheesy gravy chip except that they use cheese curds instead of grated cheese. It was okay! The staff were great and gave us tips as where and how to go skiing tomorrow.

So we ended up bussing it out to Sunshine resort for a day on the mountain. Bus tickets included lift passes and we got 50% off rentals so we were off to a good start. I chose to go snowboarding again and just work on what I'd learned two days ago on one of the easy slopes! Unfortunately no such slope existed! The first green one I went down was actually quite steep with a narrow valley. I started off that run by face-planting myself getting off the chair-lifts! It didn't get better, I got ridiculously frustrated going down and felt like nothing was going right. It was too much effort and Doug lapped me three times! I had to take some time about before I felt I was ready to try again. The next run was long but looked flatter on the map, so I was hopeful that I could go down more easily and work on my edging. Unfortunately it also had many mini-hills which I didn't have the momentum go up over, and vast drifts of powdery snow I got wedged in, so I ended up just as frustrated walking myself out of these hiccups! Doug managed to lap me again three times - he was doing really well and really enjoying it too! I had to call it a day as I simply didn't have the energy for another battle downhill - more lessons needed!

After jet-lag, inability to sleep, and rolling around in the snow - I was ripe to come down with something. As it turns out I caught a chill from the day at Sunshine and had a crazy temperature and flu-like symptoms which knocked me out all weekend! To make matters worse, it was over a ski weekend with Doug's work to Panorama resort in B.C. which I was unable to take advantage of! I spent most of the weekend drugged up in bed wating for my temperature to break while staring longinly out the window of our room at the snowy vista and runs that literally ended outside the building! Next year Canada, next year!

---