Jasper is obviously also known as a ski destination, so I took a day to explore Marmot Basin, the local ski mountain.

It is simply amazing, not very big but beautiful and fun. The car parks are all ski-in/ski-out, you ski down to the lodge and pay for a lift ticket.

All the people I talked to were either local or from Edmonton, and there were plenty of good conversations on the lift. (a few eyebrows were raised when I told people how long I'd been in Canada) Eventually I made it up to the high point of the mountain where I found big, thick untouched powder that was simply amazing.

I did have a slight problem when I took a wrong turn and hit some rocks, luckily I had my helmet on and a very well padded jacket! I eventually climbed out and carried on.

Simply a fun and inspiring day!

The crowded slopes

The local kids having fun

Fantastic for scenary. Just breathtaking all the time.

The Icefield Parkway through Jasper National Park and Banff National park is one of the most scenic roads in the world, so we had to go and explore.

Near Jasper town are the Abathasca falls, along with a few other 'pull overs', so we went for a drive and saw some sights.

On the way back from Hinton (don't bother, it smells really bad), Kim managed to spot a Coyote in the woods on the side of the road!

Then a few days later we managed to find some Elk stags. They don't come into Jasper town for some reason, so it was great to see them! We also spotted some Mountain Rams and Goats a few days earlier.

A coyote!

Male Elk

Jasper is beautiful, as expected, and we were happy to see so many Elk and Mule deer around the town itself.

The Maligne canyon is actually an old underground river that used to flow through a cave, but now the cave roof has disappeared leaving behind a beautiful canyon.

The river was frozen over when we went and, knowing that they conduct tours on the river, I had to climb down and explore. It's a little off putting as the river cracks as you walk along it and you can hear the water flowing underneath, so after a while my nerve went and I climbed back up to the pathway.

We then followed the canyon until the river finally showed itself and we came to the various bridges that cross it.

Hoping the ice doesn't suddenly give way!

  After a month in Kelowna, it was time to move on. Kim found us a place in Jasper and it didn't take long for use to agree to move there, it looked beautiful.

This time we decided to break up the trip with a stop over, our trip to Kelowna had made us aware of how much the snow can slow you down, as such I booked us a cabin in Clearwater, about half way to Jasper.

The cabin was beautiful, if a little basic, and we spent a fun day driving around the local national park looking for moose. No luck of course, but we did find an amazing frozen waterfall.

The road trip itself was fairly uneventful, but we were excited to see our first Elk near Jasper.

Our Clearwater cabin

I heard that Big White had a special on Fridays, $5 lift tickets after 4pm, so naturally I had to take advantage. I was lucky enough to arrive dead on 4pm so had some empty lift queues until around 6pm when everyone else made it after work.

I had exhausted myself by then anyway, although I trooped on for another hour before the cold really started setting in.

Amazing place, amazing night's snowboarding.

Kim and I decided to have a beginners ski lesson together, we timed it for the Wednesday and, although we had booked a group lesson, we were the only people in the lesson. Naturally Kim had plenty of talent and we were both whizzing down the beginner slopes in short order.

I enjoyed myself far more than I had imagined, there's more to this skiing lark than first meets the eye!

A bit of pre-lesson practice. Nice form there Kim.

On the slopes, looking comfortable.

Our Canadian instructor. A very, very patient man.

No jackets required.

Well, it had to be done, so we bought tickets for the Kelowna Rockets vs Medicine Hat Tigers ice hockey match.

The teams are in the West Hockey League of Canada and, despite being under 21, are pretty much equivalent to division 1 UK football teams, in fact probably better as they are where the talent for the major teams comes from.

Anyway, Kim managed to land us rink-side tickets for an amazingly atmospheric game. The Rockets beat the Tigers 10-1.

The Rockets enter the rink

Best seats in the house! (if you want to see some violence)

Violence! Yay!

On the way to Big White is a frozen lake (well, in winter) that is used by snowmobilers, cross country skiers and snowkiters!

Naturally I dragged Kim up there 3 or 4 times chasing some non existant wind, but at least we had a bit of an explore

Pretty interesting roads on route

Prime snowkiting terrain. (see the kite in the background? this was the one time I didn't have my gear with me )

The coldest loo in the world.

Fashion in Canada

The facilities were amazing.