It’s not always foggy in Whistler, sometimes it also snows. There will be stunning vistas on other days, but for the present we are happy to see interesting stuff looming out of the fog. An adult black bear was grazing below our bedroom window, much in the manner of a cow turning grass into milk. There is buffalo cheese and even a Brie like camel cheese. Would there be a niche market for Grizzly bear yoghurt? As the Grizzlies are a threatened species, that might just be their saviour.
On a tour around the hills in a jeep, left overs of the 2010 winter Olympic games peeped out of the fog. The downhill track for Bobsleigh, Skeleton and Luge is the fastest in the world. After the finishing line, the dare devils traveling at about 160 kph go into a hairpin bent and head uphill to wash off speed. A luge competition will be held in the coming winter. Above the town of Whistler there are twin peaks, Whistler and Mt Blackcomb, joined by the Peak 2 Peak gondola which is the longest at 4.4 km and highest lift in the world. 1430 feet above the valley floor.
The Whistler alpine park has action the year around. Plenty of snow about now, but not in skiable quantities. Todays visitors are gondola riders hoping for a break in the fog, and mountain bikers toting their bikes up through the fog on a chairlift. Not an e-bike in sight, Breeze Bandits. For the local bikers there is a weekly comp, but there are many international standard events. At the change of seasons, for a couple of weeks one mountain is set up for skiing, the other for mountain biking. Odd mix of athletes in the village.
Not surprising, that in a place called the Rockies, rock is so widely used as a sculptural medium. Wild life is often featured. The black bear, which is sometimes brown, is far and away the most popular subject. Possibly due to the cuddly nature of its young. In appearance. Also because of the connection with Teddy, the famous Louisiana Black Bear, who, a hundred years ago was the inspiration for the ubiquitous soft toy. Some artists do minimal chipping on a large ovoid rock to suggest something that could be a hibernating bear. Some of the most handsome bears were carved from African sandstone. My favourite was a bear happily standing on one foot with the other limbs spread akimbo.
In the foyer of our Whistler hotel was a large marble Möbius Strip – a one-sided surface that can be constructed by affixing the ends of a rectangular strip after first having given one of the ends a one-half twist. Interesting properties, such as having only one side and remaining in one piece when split down the middle. Also at the whistler hotel – check out the jovial sommelier.
Near Jasper the Columbia ice field is actually a permanently frozen lake. The outlet or overflow from the lake happens to be the Athabasca Glacier, the beginnings of the mighty Athabasca river which flows all the way north to Alaska.
There is a fleet of 22 huge Ice Explorer vehicles that actually transport tourists out on to the ice field. The only 2 other Ice Explorers are located permanently on the Antarctic. Originally with caterpillar tracks, they now have big squashy tyres to avoid damaging the surface, which today was about 5 cm of snow over the ice.
Further down the Athabasca, a lake drains into the spectacular Athabasca waterfall. This pic graphically shows what millions of years of relentless water pressure can do, leading to a bit of rafting.
Blessed with idyllic weather on one of our days at Lake Louise, managed to capture the rare treat of the mountains reflected in the lake. From that pic, the lake looks as wide as it is long. Another perspective, from about a quarter of the way along the bank looking back at the chalet reveals that it is about 4 km long and only a few hundred metres across.
Everything is joined up. The year was 1638. George III had yet to lose the American colony to independence. Sweden was at the height of its limited military power and Queen Christina sensed that the time might be right for a colonial move to the americas, in particular to what is now called Canada to establish New Sweden. Sent a few boatloads of Swedes and Fins to set up shop. They were spectacularly good at building log cabins but failed dismally at building a new nation. After 20 years of ineffective effort, they hand balled the project to the Dutch, who did no better and they left the region to the Brits. At that time the land was more lawless than Wild West America, with added Grizzly bears. Precisely the sort of place for bootleggers to set up camp. And they did. For many years.
So the British Canadians, sensing attractive revenue possibilities, sent a band of a hundred or so horse riding troopers wearing wide brimmed hats, jodhpurs and red coats (red was apparently the cheapest dye, and the nicer colours were already taken by other nations) to establish law, order and taxation. According to our favourite Mountie, the bootleggers had already moved on. But the Mounties were established, later to become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They eventually found that motor vehicles were cheaper to maintain than horses. But they keep the horses and the red tunics for ceremonial occasions.
The Banff Springs Hotel is truly grand. Built in the 1920’s by Canadian Railways to provide tourists with a wilderness experience in opulent surroundings, it continues to fill that role. Following the dictum that nothing exceeds like excess, the food is truly grand. Quality superb, but the quantity obscenely decadent. For all but the most gluttonous one third of the offering on the plate is more than enough. The wait staff on their own initiative attractively package the remains in a neat carry bag with wooden cutlery. Bloated with the one third of the magnificent milk fed veal, still couldn’t resist Affogato. The Banff version is made by filling a hemispherical cup with ice cream, scoop out a hollow in the ice cream and pour in espresso and liqueur. Whatever. The important thing is the Frangelico.
The Banff Gondola takes off from the foot hills above Banff up to the peak, quickly into the classic Rockies pointy mountains. Snowing when we step out at the top, but spectacular through the snow and scudding fog. There is a board walk down and up to the next peak which is a bit higher. But due to the snow blowing thickly up the valley and over the gap we chickened out
A big thank you to Randy and Shay, our driver and tour director. Randy admits to being a composite lovable rogue, naughty boy and cowboy. Kept us safe with impeccable driving and limitless hand sanitiser, happy with his singing, and pausing for wild life photo ops. Shay is a super efficient and explosive happiness bomb. A bundle of wild energy. “Oh look! our first bear! this is unBEARable”. and “This is so exciting, I can’t stand it!” however, always in control and a step ahead of the game – giving seamless bliss to the punters
The popular two day Rocky Mountaineer trip from Banff to Vancouver is a recent chapter in the Canadian Pacific Railroad story. No shortage of massive pointy mountains. Photography near impossible because of the pine trees flying past and interfering with composition. Also, having to have your phone/camera directly onto the window to avoid reflections doesn’t help. However, for the mountains, the food, the people – just brilliant. Starting time for the voyage is accurate, almost to the minute. But the time of arrival at any destination is governed by the unpredictable movements of very very long trains of up to 200 carriages of coal and shipping containers that have locomotives a the start, the middle and the end of the train. On the final leg in to Vancouver there was gridlock at the bridge. Accustomed to this sort of thing on a Friday afternoon. The smiling cabin chief: “The chef will rustle up some food some time soon and we’ll hand out blankets if it gets to bed time”. Scenery is great, comfy seats, good company, choice of cocktails, bottomless glass of 12 yo single malt. Who needs to be in a hotel room?
Check out mountie horses on YouTube.
See you next week on the cruise.
scatterbrook 
Love your stories… will come and hear more on your return…assuming that the lure of a Victorian winter will draw you back sometime!🤣🤣
Really enjoyed your commentary Rob which brings back memories of our time there.Enjoy the next chapter of the journey.
Jeff G