After this winter in Sunpeaks I moved back in banff.
Going back to the same job as last summer, the time for me to think about what to do next and to enjoy a bit more the mountains around.
Usually the shoulder season is that time a bit more boring where you can’t do anymore winter activities, but it’s still too early to start summer activity. but the good thing about banff,is that you can do both winter and summer activity during shoulder season. One day I went hiking on top of a mountain, the next day I went skiing in Lake Louise.
After few month I felt the need to go traveling again, so I decided to leave in middle of july for more travel until next winter. I will keep you posted on here so you can see where I’m going and you can discover more places you me!!
Also before I left Banff I took a course to be a hiking guide in the Rockies, so I guess I know what i’ll do next summer ;)
I haven't post anything in long time!! it’s now time for a small update !!
last summer and falls, I was living in Banff doing a lot of hiking in the area.
In December I left Banff to move a bit more west, in a ski resort called Sunpeaks its next to a town called Kamloop in BC, about 4 or 5 hour away from Vancouver.
I spent the whole winter here, I really liked the place. Even if it have been the worst winter they have ever seen, it was still quite good for me. i had a really good time there.
during the whole winter I was working as Ski instructor. I really loved it. even if once in a while there is that one kids in a group that make the day a nightmare. most of the time it have been really fun!!
The only bad point on the job is that pay that is ridiculously low, I was paid minimum wage (10.25$/h) and when you realize that when I get for example 2h private lesson, the clients pay 220$, on this i got just about 20$, which is totally ridiculous to make 90% of the job for not even 10% on the money.
the good part on the job was that about half of my lessons were freestyle lessons, which was even much more fun, I really loved that. i made a small video for some of my freestyle groups that I had every week during the whole winter.
This was a group of kids from sun peaks, they are only 6 years old all in the same class.
In these group there was kids from 8 to 11 years old, from all around Kamloops and Sunpeaks
so I really had an awesome winter here, with about 115 days of skiing so far. Here is a small video of me during this winter I almost never film anything, I just got few shot to make this small edit.
but now the winter here is over, it’s time to move on. I decided to come back in Banff for a while and i will decide what to do from there!
The road between Lake Louise and Jasper is one of the most scenic road in Canada, surrounded by mountains and glacier, all along the road there is incredible view point. and if you take the time to climb some of the mountain around you can reach more amazing view.
About half way between Lake Louise and Jasper you can find the Icefield center, the base for some tourist attraction like the glacier skywalk and Ice explorer, as this is run by the same company as the gondola, I get a chance to do these attraction for free.
The Ice explorer is some huge buses the bring on on the middle of the glacier, on a small area that have been secured. I think for someone that have never seen a glacier before the experience can be really nice, but for anyone that just a bit of experience with glacier it will just feel like goin walking on a carpark few days after a big snow fall.
The skywalk is a really new attraction, it is basicly just a big viewpoint on the side of the road, with a glace floor to make you feel a bit more the high of it. it feel to me that it is just one of the many amazing viewpoint that are all along the road that have been closed, just to force tourist to pay for a viewpoint that use to be free, and they put a bit of attraction with this huge glace floor and lot’s of information about glacier and wildlife to justify to make people pay for something that supposed to be free.
these attraction are still interesting, but i wouldn't pay for it.
few weeks after doing these attraction i came back in these area just to climb some of the mountain around. the first one i did is Wilcox peak (2884m), it is fairly easy and not to long to reach the summit but the view from the top is really amazing. You can clearly see the ice explorer and the skywalk, that looks a bit ridiculous from up there (have a look on the photosynth) as it is often described in scrambling guide, it is the “best view for energy spent” in the Canadian Rockies.
The next day I decided to do another mountain, Nigel Peak (3211m). It is just next to Wilcox peaks, it is a bit higher and much more difficult climb. the view from up there is also amazing, but that day there was a bit of smoke all around so the view wasn't as clear as the day before on Wilcox peak.
A bit more north of Banff there is Jasper national park, and the small town of Jasper in the middle of it. I decided to go visit around during my days off. The town itself is very small and more quiet than Banff. it is a really nice little town.
I decided to take a full day to climb on top of pyramid mountain (2766 m), one of the mountain surrounding Jasper. it have been a really good day, the beginning of the trail is very long so I did the first half mountain biking. that make the day much more interesting. The climb itself isn't very difficult, but the view from the summit was also incredible.
Lake Louise is about 1h away from Banff it’s a very small town with basically just one big hotel on the side of the lake and a big ski resort with almost nothing else.
there is two very beautiful lake around, Lake Louise and Moraine lake, both are really beautiful and change color along the year because of the sediment coming from all the glacier water that feed these lakes.
Of course it is also surrounded by mountains, the most famous in the area is Mount Temple (3544m) the scramble to get on top of this one is a bit more challenging that Cascade or Rundle that I climbed before around Banff which made this hike really amazing and the view from up here is also perfect, it was a bit sad that it was a bit foggy the day i got there because of some fire further away in BC, so the view wasn't very clear.
Later in the season I went to climb another mountain just a bit further away than Lake Louise : Bow peak (2868m) the scramble to get up there was really nice, including a river crossing. and the view from up here was really amazing, one of the best view i got this summer, also because it was a very clear day.
have a look at the photosynth, I did this one with a very very high resolution so you can really enjoy the view!
The most famous mountain around Banff is Mount Cascade (2998m) , it offer an incredible view over all the Bow valley. and it is relatively easy to climb. that is the first one I did. and I end up going up here two times over the summer as it is easy to access from Banff.
Another very popular mountain is Mount Rundle (2948m). it is just next to cascade, both are easily accessible directly from Banff. Rundle is a bit shorter but steeper and a little bit more dangerous according to me. the view from the summit is really similar as the view from cascade. the summit is just on the edge of a very impressive cliff that make the summit quit interesting (if you are not afraid of heights)
I also climbed another mountain very close to Banff, Mount Bourgeau (2931m) I have been quite disappointed by this one. the climb was really easy, and the view on top wasn't as good as the other climb i did during the summer. also I did this one late, in October so it was really cold, which was one of the reason i didn't really like this hike.
About five day after I arrived in Banff I started working at the Banff gondola.
it is a lift to get tourists on top of sulfur mountain, one of the mountain surrounding Banff.
the lift run all year long but only for sightseeing, there is now ski slopes from there.
I started working as lift Operator, and I ask to do also some cleaning around the upper terminal to have a bit more variety in my job.
I really like my job and my workmates. and working with such an amazing view all the time is just awesome.
And when the weather condition play around the view can be even better.
