Sliddery

Had a refreshing weekend in Jasper. Christine and her sister and I drove out to Jasper on friday night. The drive takes about four hours. It was pitch black when we left at around 8:00 PM. By the time we hit the mountains around 11:00, the full moon was out, illuminating everything brilliantly. About 30km from Jasper, we pulled over to stretch and look at the stars and moonlit mountains, Tragically Hip on the car stereo. A true Canadian Moment ™.

We were thrilled to discover free wireless access in our room, but sorry I didn’t have any time to post. The next morning we had breakfast buffet, and hit the slopes of Marmot Basin for some beautiful sunny skiing. The snow was a little packed and icy in places, but besides that it was ideal conditions. Christine’s Mom and Aunt and cousin arrived at the hill as well and we had a great day of skiing. We avoided the over-priced, crowded, crappy cafeteria food we would normally suffer, and instead skiied down to the car and made a healthy lunch in the parking lot instead.

The next day was more of the same, except that Christine nagged me to climb ‘the knob’ with her. The knob is the peak above one of the lifts, that does not go all the way to the top. The only way to the peak is to climb it, carrying your skis with you. The ascent is fairly steep, but there are stairs chipped into the hard packed snow, from the previous climbers. I panted my way to the top in about 30 minutes, then made some yellow snow at the summit, and ate a granola bar. The veiw was awesome, as you could see the full 360 degree panorama of Rocky mountains. It took about one minute to ski back down. All said, a lovely weekend warrior trip.