Banff, Canada 2011

This is going to be a long one. Since I haven't been able to gain access to a internet connection.

Wednesday 16th February:

Today I set off to a skiing/snowboarding holiday in Canada with my Mum and Dad. I was flying from Hrathrow airport in London. The traffic was choka block the whole way there, we were lucky we got there in time. We were in terminal 5 of heathrow which I had never been in before. Our flight was with British Airways and would take 9 hours to get to Calgary Airport.

The flight wasn't too bad I watched three films that I wished I had seen in the cinema, 127 hours, Due Date and The Other Guys. Arriving in Calgary Airport we met up with our ski rep Hannah. There was a 2 hour drive to our hotel as I was trying to not sleep till I had to I pumped up the tunes on my ipod.

Arriving at the hotel was cold and plenty of snow could be seen everywhere, the name of the hotel was The Banff Inn. As I havent eaten much over the day I decided to treat myself to a large pepperoni pizza. After stuffing my face I went to bed at about 11pm.

Thursday 17th February:

There's nothing better than waking up to a blue sky and mountains covered in fresh snow. I still hadn't gotten over my get lag but we decided to spend the day looking around the town and getting our ski passes and equipment together.

In the night we had a welcome meeting from our reps at crystal. They described the different activities that there were available to do. I wanted to do ice climbing but it would cost $300 which was way out of my price range!

After the meeting we ate at the restaurant, I had a bison burger and fries. As I was I Canada I had to have some kind of traditional food.

Friday 18th February:

Today is the day I start skiing after two years, we decided to go to Lake Louise. The scenery was beautiful and I soon picked up the parallel turns in no time. The temperature was about -17 today so it was ideal that I was wearing a lot of layers and doing a lot of skiing.

At the end of the day I was nakered than ever, but it was so worth it!

Back at the hotel we decided to walk to chillis for food, I've been there before and the food is still amazing as ever. I had a spicy battered chicken and fries.

Saturday 19th February:

Another day of skiing was ahead of me today but today we were going to Sunshine Village the scenery was was even more beautiful than Lake Louise. The temperature today was warm 0 degrees even up to +5.

After skiing all day I had to trade my skis in for a snowboard and boots. There more comfy than the ski boots that I was wearing.

Later on we walked around Banff town looking for a place called The Old Spaghetti Factory. The temperature was about -10 so I was pretty glad we found it before it got colder.

Sunday 20th February:

Today was my first introduction to snowboarding school at Norquay my instructors name was Lisa, I learnt a lot in the first two or three hours and took a lot of falls and tumbles. The last one hour killed my legs and drained all the energy out of me.

In the evening we went to a local steakhouse, I had a Honey bbq ribs with fries (by now I think you'd would have guessed I like fries, especially Canadian and American fries!!)

Monday 21st February:

Today I had another lesson for my snowboarding this time it was an instructor called Matt I think I learnt a bit more with him than I did with Lisa on the Sunday although I was with a group on Sunday where as I was the only one today with Matt.

For dinner I had a pulled pork sandwich in an old Irish pub which I had missed after having it for the first time at a friends house in Florida.

Tuesday 22nd February:

Thank god today I'm having a day off snowboarding today my muscles are aching like mad!

I started the day pretty lazy not getting out of bed till about 9am and walked to a small cafe for breakfast on the edge of town for a giant plate of pancakes Bacon and eggs covered in Canadian maple syrup.

I didn't do much today just a little sight seeing and taking some photos of the mountains. For food I went to chillis again, only because its close to the hotel and didn't want to go out in the -17 weather. I had a burger and fries with nachos to start.

Wednesday 23rd February: 

The temperature this morning is -22p when I woke up. I had a small breakfast of a single bread roll and a bar of chocolate. We were off to sunshine village today again for a bit of snowboarding.

Arriving at sunshine village the temperature had droped to -35 and there were fluries of snow in the air. My first run of the day was an easy green run that I had done earlier in the week on skis but never on a board. The fresh powder snow made it hard for me to get any speed to turn or even move in. Half way down the green run I had bruised my ribs from falling on another run in the week. Once I got to the bottom if the run I went straight into the day lodge for a hot dog and a large mtn dew!!

In the night it was still at -35 so we decided to walk to chillis again as it was only next door to the hotel.

Thursday 24th February:

-29 this morning and were off to Norquay for our last day of skiing/snowboarding although its our last day I'm really not feeling it.

Even though I wasn't feeling like snowboarding today I geared myself up to only falling once and getting my turns down to a t! This was the last day of our ski and snowboard rentals, we finished off with a good run that I came down perfect.

Yesterday I thought in the future I would carry on using skis because I couldn't get my head round snowboarding, although now I think I will probably continue with it!!
We were planning on going to lake Louise but we head that a lot of the chair lifts were shut because the temperature had dropped to -50 with the win blowing.

Tonight we are going the the keg steak house again as the temperature has dropped to -37. The meal was tasty as it was the last time.

Friday 25th February:

-30 this morning and I thought Cardiff winter was cold! Today were heading up to Sulfur Mountain for a bit of sight seeing so I've charged up my camera and cleaned all the lenses to get up there. 

On top of the 8,042ft summit the tempreture had dropped to -40 with the wind blowing, even my buff and gloves had frozen up. The view of the snow covered mountains and terrain was beautiful and my camera soon wore out because of the temperature.

When the evening came the temperature was still -30 and decided to go to a local pizza and pasta restaurant.

Saturday 26th February:

Today is leaving day I packed up all my stuff into my bag and set off to get some breakfast. We were leaving the hotel at about 2pm so we had time to spare.

The bus journey to the airport was about 1 and a half hours, I didn't get to see the scenery the last time as it was dark, but it was quite amazing until we got out of the rockies as it was just barren land, kinda reminded me of fallout new Vegas but with snow.

The airport its self was long and the subway didn't have the sauce I wanted!! I was pretty shocked to be honest. The weather outside was about -18 and was snowing heavily, I was worried we wouldn't be able to get the flight but I I rememberd that were in Canada and all they have is snow anyway.  I have enjoyed my ski/boarding holiday and am pretty sad to leave, but I hope to return in the future maybe with a couple of friends and hit the double back diamonds and snow parks.