A trip to Canada, the first few days...... Calgary, Banff and arriving in Revelstoke.

I guess this one is finally being written???

Tucker and I left for Calgary on March 24th after work.   We arrived late and caught a cab to the hotel.....   got in about 11:30pm.

 Up at 6am to make sure we caught the Greyhound to Banff.....    Got a cab from the hotel to the Greyhound station.....   

 

Rode the Greyhound to Banff - it was running a little bit late and arrived around 11am.   Tucker walked down to the rental car place to get our vehicle for the next 28 hours.......      I bought tickets to Revelstoke for the 2 of us for the next day.

We took off in the rental car (full size, 4-wheel drive pickup) to Lake Louise Ski area.   We changed in the parking lot and the skiing?  Well, it sucked.   Terrible, actually.....  Their snow has been much like ours.....   not a good base to cover the rocks and trees and nothing fresh in a while.  A long lunch at the resort (I stayed in and Tucker took a couple more runs) and we were off to town to make sure we had everything we needed for the following week's adventure in the backcountry.   A hot tub visit, a purchase of thermoses for both of us and we finally made it out for some dinner.

The next morning we ate at the hotel and checked out.... got in the truck and took off for Sunshine Ski Area.   A remarkable improvement over the previous day's conditions.  Not sure why but it was quite lovely!   We even skied all the way to the parking lot from the top - while avoiding bits of road base that were showing through the snow. 

 Next, we arrived at the Greyhound station...  Tucker unloaded me, the baggage and both ski bags and took the truck back.   He walked back to the Greyhound station and we were on our way!

  

We weren't exactly sure where the Greyhound station was in Revelstoke in relation to our hotel but it looked 'close' except we had to walk on/next to the highway.....   the Trans-Canadian Highway.   Turns out that there was a lovely sidewalk and it was only about .5mile.   Canadians are so kind.   A guy in a pickup offered us a ride!   We walked anyway.
 

Russ had been in Revelstoke for a day at this point and we hot tubbed and then met up for some dinner.   We were headed to Revelstoke Ski Area the next day!  (which was 42% open - more on that later)