I know that this post will bore some of those who aren’t in Calgary. I just feel a certain duty to blog about places I’ve eaten to benefit those who might stumble across this post some day. Feel free to skip this if you want. Follow on to read all about it. Read more “Eating out in Calgary”
(More) Ski Fun in Calgary
I managed to get in another day’s skiing last Saturday, this time using the Sunshine Coach to speed me all the way from downtown Calgary to the Sunshine Village ski resort. Spread across three different mountains and served by numerous ski lifts, Sunshine is also one of the more unique ski resorts to host its very own hotel mid way up on the mountain. I found the trip on the Sunshine Coach extremely smooth and worth the effort of needing to leave downtown at 7am on a Saturday morning. We arrived just after 9am and I was up on the slopes well before 10am even after lining up to get my rental gear. Unlike the previous weekend’s skiing, the gear probably wasn’t as nice or as comfortable (to the extent ski boots ever are) since I didn’t have a buddy working on these slopes. By the end of the day, my weary shins groaned loudly with the effort of the day’s skiing. Fortunately Sunshine gets plenty of snow and Saturday was no different with the light powder making it more comfortable to ski on.
Compared to Lake Louise, Sunshine seemed a bit more beginner friendly. They seemed to have more green and blue runs and just in general they were wide and curvy instead of the narrow and sharp ones I remember at Lake Louise. Of course, they had their fair share of moguls as well. Despite having loads of cars in the car park, I can’t say that the lift lines ever became very long and even the slopes didn’t seem to have that many people.
All in all, it was another great day of skiing and nice to see yet a different mountain. I’d highly recommend the Sunshine Coach for those without a car, offering a great package deal involving both the bus and lift ticket combined.
Canadian Spring Time
And it’s still snowing… awesome.
Initial Impressions of Calgary
In many ways, Calgary reminds me a lot of Brisbane. Like back home, people, at least at our client, seem to start really early. Most appear to be present by 8am and I’m pretty sure everyone is there half an hour later. Back home, the combination of the heat (who can really have a lie in during the ridiculous summer temperatures) and the outdoors lifestyle seem to drive people to start and finish early. In Calgary, it seems to be the latter that drive people to finish early with plenty of people walking, jogging, and cycling despite the brisk temperatures.
Arriving back in town on Monday proved almost impossible to have a dinner that didn’t include pizza by the slice with most of the restaurants closed for the Easter weekend. I ended up at a reasonable Thai place, the Rose Garden where, other than myself remained completely empty. Similarly, many stores don’t open late at all with almost all of them shut by the time we get back into downtown Calgary by 6pm. Fortunately places like pubs, bars and restaurants remain open although I realise that living in London has spoilt me with reasonable options at every price point.
Of course, Calgary also has its own unique charm. The natural oil reserves nearby mean the town has a lot of money, and the many white-clothed fine dining restaurants are just one of many indicators. The Calgary Tower, built in 1968 and located in the heart of the city offers a great view of downtown and another vantage point to absorb the stunning beauty of the Rocky Mountains.
Strangely enough, the town appears to have its fair share of homeless people everywhere. On my first night I still remember being approached about three or four times for spare change just simply walking around for a good ten or fifteen minutes. Some of the people look a little worse for wear, although I’m surprised by how young many of them look. I think that most other people don’t walk the streets that much, preferring to drive around the blocks instead.
I’ve managed to keep busy enough for the past week and I can’t wait to get properly settled into an apartment so that it feels like I’m living in the city instead of simply just visiting it.
Skiing in Canada
No, I haven’t been meaning to neglect this blog. I just decided that spending the weekend skiing was a better alternative to writing stuff up. Now that the long Easter weekend is over and I’m back in my hotel, I can afford a little time to write up about the weekend.
I can’t really complain about that much, even with legs as sore as I have now, considering I’ve fit in two and a half days of skiing and I’ve only been in Canada for just over a week. With a ski package for Lake Louise conveniently booked via SkiLouise I was fortunate they still had rooms available for this Easter weekend. Despite three major ski areas located relatively close to Calgary (one to three hours away), it’s not as easy as you’d think to get to each of the ski areas from downtown Calgary with most of the transportation direct from the airport. None of the transportation is publicly owned, so I ended up booking transportation from my hotel to get to where I was staying through SunDog Tours.
Of the three major resorts I’m told are near Calgary (Banff, Lake Louise and Sunshine) I’m glad I went to Lake Louise. It helped that my old workmate, Suhail is based out there at the moment, helping me upgrade my stuff to a high performance kit and just helping me out on the slopes and around town. Staying at Lake Louise means that you’re also only about a five minute drive from the base of the mountain, unlike the longer forty minute drive from Banff with your trade off being less of a night life scene (not a big problem when I’ve only got two and half days to ski!). Suhail did give me a glimpse of the crazy antics that staff parties are known for, showing me “Chucktown”, the block of apartments he stays at hosting the hundreds of staff manning the slopes. In one way, it feels very much like an American college with 5 or so rooms to each apartment, in addition to a shared living space and bathrooms. Each building also has a large social common room well equipped with pool tables, football tables, stereos and TVs. Although the accommodation is pretty basic, the social scene more than makes up for it. It seems though that, with the way some people speak of it, becomes a little stifling at the tail end of six months.
Lake Louise claims to be one of the biggest single ski resort areas, and offers plenty for everyone although most of the trails appear much more suited for the more advanced skiers. One of the areas, aptly named the Ultimate Steeps (see above picture) show a series of double-black only trails with a single blue trail the only other alternative down that side of the mountain. Another big contrast was the huge number of trees on the slopes that I’ve seen. Apparently Lake Louise are much more lenient than other litigation-conscious North American ski resorts with many people heading off the trail to weave in and out of the trees.
I am thankful that the snow was much better than I was fearing (i.e. at least it was there) although for the first two days, it tended to be a little bit icier in the morning. Only just before the last day did the mountain get some fresh snowfall and with it, the lush softness only deep powder brings. As a result, after the first two days, I ended up extremely exhausted with that shin-splitting, leg straining tiredness you only seem to get with those unforgiving ski boots. All of it, of course, completely worth it.