Another Banff adventure and moving house

In Banff out the front of Whyte Museum

We have less than a month to go until the season finishes here at Panorama. Aaron and I moved into some private accommodation (Toby Creek Lodge) in the lower village on March 1st. We are living with two other girls, Cat and Harlee, but its a lot better than 8 people in our previous accomodation. We also have a lounge room now and our own bathroom so thats good.

Its heading into Spring now so all the ice/snow is melting and falling off rooms (sometimes hitting people in the head which is scary. Everyones ok though) The sun is out all the time and its nice and warm, ranging from -4 to 5 degrees during the day. The layers are starting to come off and they say it is nearly 'Tshirt weather' for snowboarding.

Eagle view of Banff

Aaron and I went to Lake Louise Ski Resort on Wednesday and snowboarded there for the day. It was fun but wasnt the best day. It was snowing so the sun wasnt out and you couldnt see anything up the top of the mountain because it was like a blizzard up there. So we just stayed in the lower parts of the mountain and had a good time.

We stayed in Baff overnight and spent Thursday doing touristy things like catching the Banff Gondola ($29.95 each.. ouch) it was fun and I took lots of photos to make up for the price! It was an 8min ride and it took you to the top of Sulphur Mountain where you could buy souvenirs, have lunch and walk around the mountain.I have put some photos up of the gorgeous views.

The views from the top

We came back only to celebrate St Pattys Day! Which was a great night. Everyone was very merry having started drinking at 10am. They even had green beer at the Tbar!

Our stay in America has changed as we would have been overstaying our 90 day visa. So we are now coming back to Panorama to work for the Summer which I am really excited about. I really wanted to see the place transform. Our managers are both more than happy to have us back in the Summer. We are hoping to rent a place down in Invermere this time round so it will be a different experience. I am also looking at getting a job in Invermere waitressing as Wildfire is only open at night times during the Summer. We will keep you posted..

Other than that not much else has been going on besides the countdown for our roadtrip.. Talk soon!

Aaron and I with our green beer

Tummy flus, Broomball and more adventures with Tori

The last couple of weeks have been really slow on the mountain. I have been getting very minimal hours and got a whopping pay cheque of $49 for this past fortnight! Woohoo! (That is after my rent gets taken out) Lucky Aaron gets 40hours every week as there is always snow and ice to get rid of! It sucks at the same time though as I have all this time off and we could be spending it together but here I am writing on my blog :) I have asked work to give me Wednesday's and Thursday's off though as this is Aaron's weekend so we actually have some time together.



Lake Louise



Our snowboarding is improving (FINALLY!) we have gone up the Champagne chair lift which is the next one after Mile One Quad (the first one). I did the Rollercoaster run which is a blue run with some girls from work and I think Aaron did the same when he went up with Dane a couple days before. On Aaron's next weekend we will definitely be heading to the top of the mountain! Eeek! There is a hut up the top (Summit Hut) and we will have a hot chocolate or something to reward ourselves :)

A tummy bug has been drifting through the staff here, we are calling it Pano belly. All our roomates have had it except one.. his time will come and we hope it hits him hard because he keeps going on about how strong and awesome he is for not getting it.. Anyway I had it two weeks ago - vomiting and some unwelcomed movements from the other end.. stayed curled up in bed for about 3 days and had a couple of carrots and thats about it.. Aaron got Pano belly last week and was only vomiting. Poor bugger. He still hasnt got his appettite back and feels queezy after eating but its staying down so thats good.


Food & Bev team. Aaron took this photo to highlight how
short I am. Thanks Aaron


There is a staff game that has just commenced up at Pano and it is called Broomball. It has the same rules as ice hockey but you are in shoes not ice skates. I had my first game on Monday - Food & Beverage verse Housekeeping. We lost 3-2 and my Swedish roomies scored all their goals and did I hear the end of it!! It was really fun and was great to get out and be active and play a team sport again. Very similiar to hockey. It reminded Aaron and I of home because he was cheering just like he does when I play hockey hehe. Except it was snowing and friggin cold! Poor Aaron had numb hands and face but I was hot from running around and just had a shirt on! I am trying to convince Aaron to play withhis Maintenance team.... maybe next week...

We went on another adventure with Tori on Aaron's weekend. This time we went a little further - Banff and Lake Louise. About a 2hour drive. Lake Louise was beautiful. I would love to see it in the Summer when there is just so much more colour to it. They had big ice sculptures around the lake from a competition that must have recently been held as they had first place ribbons and things hanging off them.


Aaron & I poking our heads through the windows of the First Place ice sculpture at Lake Louise

We then drove to Banff, Aaron drove the whole way and the roads were much better as it has been really warm lately and all the snow is melting off the roads. We had to drive through Kootenay and Banff National Park which cost us $19.60 to get a permit or something so we could drive through and not get a fine.. weird..



Aaron and I at Lake Louise



We got into Banff and did some looking around and dropped Morgan (Aaron's workmate that tagged along for a ride) off at the Pano bus that was there on a day trip. Aaron and I then went to find our bed and breakfast - At Wit's End - with Barbara and Vic and their little dog Pipper. It was a 2min drive out of town and was such a nice old fashioned place. It was cheaper than staying in the backpackers and we got breakfast made for us!



Beautiful views from Banff Ave

 We drove to Canmore and did a workout at CrossFit Canmore which was pretty exciting and reminded us of our home gym. We bought CrossFit Canmore shirts and CrossFit Canmore workout books which are awesome! Canmore was about a 20min drive from Banff and I was driving which was super scary! We got stuck at the B&B as the driveway was all ice so Aaron had to shovel some dirty snow from the side of the road and make tracks for our tyres then we got out about 10mins later and with a bit of a push from Aaron and Vic. The drive home was the scariest as there are no lights on the highway and I didnt feel comfortable going 110km/h when I couldnt bloody see anything! Not only could I not see anything but there are mountain goats walking all over the road!!! AAH! AND there are big water puddles from the melted snow so Aaron was freaking out coz I always drift too close to the gutter and we hit the water... hehe! I was getting better at avoiding them by the end of the trip and only managed to do 90km/h so everyone was flying around me. They all speed over here!!
So Banff was a beautiful place. We had dinner at Saltlik steakhouse to celebrate Australia Day and we had lunch the next day at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Until our next adventure!