01 March 2002

Ski Raid, Canada

I was involved in running a software project and service that came from a vendor in Edmonton. This city is to the East of the Rockies and only several hours drive from Calgary - the get way to the Eastern Rockies ski areas. As chance would have it this trip would finish on a Friday, and both Tony and I fancied a weekend on the slopes, so arranged the flight back for the Monday.

After we finished on Friday we hired a car at the airport - they gave us a Jeep Cherokee ... as it would turn out the ideal car (apart from the fuel consumption) for the weekend. Then we picked up some rental gear in Edmonton as it was cheaper .. however returnign it was to be a real problem on Monday, so it would have been better to get them on site. As we left Edmonton heading for Calgary, the snow was falling fast, and the wind was blowing it around in large blizzards. The drive was all on the freeway, but the two lanes were down to a narrow track cleared in the middle.

We arrived at Calgary and Tony took over the driving, for the push to Banff ...  the weather cleared up a bit as we got to the mountains, and by the time we passed though the "rip of the tourists" gate into the park the view was much better and we could make out the mountains in the dusk.

We pulled into Banff and found our Inn .. The Inns of Banff we had found this place over the internet and booked from Edmonton. It was a bit of a punt in the dark ... what we did not expect was a large room with two double beds and loads of space ..  too much for the two of us.

Time for some food and a beer before working out what we would do tomorrow.



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