Austin, Banff and Lake Louise
So I've just returned from a fantastic ski trip to Banff, with a few days tacked on at the end staying at the Chateau Lake Louise. Lots of pics, apologies for the length of the post but I thought I'd get it out of my system in one go rather than three...
Austin Texas was a stop on the way, a previous home (that I miss a lot) so this trip was a good opportunity to catch up with friends, eat and drink.
The majority of my stay was at the very funky Hotel San Jose on South Congress. Strongly recommend this place. Great location near lots of very good food and interesting shops. It's a very Austin sort of place. And it's directly across the road from the Continental Club with great live music.
South Congress Icon:
Downtown austin and the south congress bridge.
Don't let the blue skies fool you. It was bitterly cold. In fact, it snowed on the day I arrived which was extremely odd.
The Austin stay included a quick side trip to Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country. Sort of a random "I should get out of town a bit" thing.
Rose Hill Manor, the B&B I stayed at.
Enchanted Rock. The hike to the top of Enchanted Rock is apparently the easy hike. I'm obviously pretty badly out of shape...
On to Banff. This is slightly different for me in terms of ski trips. My usual thing is to go for ski in ski out type resorts, and normally in Austria (Lech typically). Going to a town with bus connections to the ski hill isn't what I'm used to. Banff has three resorts in easy reach, Mt Norquay/Banff (15 minutes), Sunshine Village (25 minutes) and Lake Louise (45 minutes). All have something slightly different to offer and are all worth exploring. Since I tend to travel alone I've followed my usual pattern of finding group ski lessons.
A few thoughts on Banff.
Food and drink are expensive. No surprises there, that's pretty much in line with every other ski resort I've ever been to. Quality of food was actually pretty good. Lots of game which makes me happy.
As far as I can tell, the vast majority of visitors were from the UK. In both my ski groups I was the only one not from the UK. Every person I met from outside of Canada was from the UK with the exception of the folks working in Banff or on the mountains, almost all of which were Australian.
Elk running around everywhere and blocking traffic is quite cool.
The snow quality (and quanity) at all the mountains was INCREDIBLE.
It was really, really, really cold.
All the views were breathtaking.
Mt Norquay. Smallest resort of the three.
Lake Louise.
Ski Patrol
Spot the Chateau Lake Louise in the far distance, center left.
Top of the Gondola at Lake Louise.
Final stop on the trip was the Chateau. Probably not worth the money to be honest but the scenery around the hotel was incredible.
As luck would have it, the results of the Ice Magic sculpture festival were still on display:
Ice Rink in front of the hotel being prepared.
The Chateau itself. You can see the Lake Louise ski area in the background.
Ice Climbing near the Chateau
For those who care, I had both my Panasonic GF1 with me (which I had with me while skiing) as well as my Canon stuff, which mostly got used around Lake Louise.
Full set of pictures can be found here
Austin Texas was a stop on the way, a previous home (that I miss a lot) so this trip was a good opportunity to catch up with friends, eat and drink.
The majority of my stay was at the very funky Hotel San Jose on South Congress. Strongly recommend this place. Great location near lots of very good food and interesting shops. It's a very Austin sort of place. And it's directly across the road from the Continental Club with great live music.
South Congress Icon:
Downtown austin and the south congress bridge.
Don't let the blue skies fool you. It was bitterly cold. In fact, it snowed on the day I arrived which was extremely odd.
The Austin stay included a quick side trip to Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country. Sort of a random "I should get out of town a bit" thing.
Rose Hill Manor, the B&B I stayed at.
Enchanted Rock. The hike to the top of Enchanted Rock is apparently the easy hike. I'm obviously pretty badly out of shape...
On to Banff. This is slightly different for me in terms of ski trips. My usual thing is to go for ski in ski out type resorts, and normally in Austria (Lech typically). Going to a town with bus connections to the ski hill isn't what I'm used to. Banff has three resorts in easy reach, Mt Norquay/Banff (15 minutes), Sunshine Village (25 minutes) and Lake Louise (45 minutes). All have something slightly different to offer and are all worth exploring. Since I tend to travel alone I've followed my usual pattern of finding group ski lessons.
A few thoughts on Banff.
Food and drink are expensive. No surprises there, that's pretty much in line with every other ski resort I've ever been to. Quality of food was actually pretty good. Lots of game which makes me happy.
As far as I can tell, the vast majority of visitors were from the UK. In both my ski groups I was the only one not from the UK. Every person I met from outside of Canada was from the UK with the exception of the folks working in Banff or on the mountains, almost all of which were Australian.
Elk running around everywhere and blocking traffic is quite cool.
The snow quality (and quanity) at all the mountains was INCREDIBLE.
It was really, really, really cold.
All the views were breathtaking.
Mt Norquay. Smallest resort of the three.
Lake Louise.
Ski Patrol
Spot the Chateau Lake Louise in the far distance, center left.
Top of the Gondola at Lake Louise.
Final stop on the trip was the Chateau. Probably not worth the money to be honest but the scenery around the hotel was incredible.
As luck would have it, the results of the Ice Magic sculpture festival were still on display:
Ice Rink in front of the hotel being prepared.
The Chateau itself. You can see the Lake Louise ski area in the background.
Ice Climbing near the Chateau
For those who care, I had both my Panasonic GF1 with me (which I had with me while skiing) as well as my Canon stuff, which mostly got used around Lake Louise.
Full set of pictures can be found here
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Funny thing is that when we were there, most non-Canadians were Japanese.
Very few Europeans, mostly French.
My wife will love your pics of the LL ski patrol. She got the ride down in the sled. The guy taking her strapped in beat me to the lodge. No injury, just after 5 straight days couldn't go on.
I've seen a few of those ski patrol guys going downhill at speed. Looks half way between fun and scary.
The club ski 3 day guide/lesson program with one day on each mountain was great fun and a good way to get a feel for the different options. Fantastic instructors too.
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