This past weekend, a group of folks and I ventured off to Alberta to visit Banff National Park. We flew out Friday night and got to town at 2am. Five hours later, we woke up, and got going!

^That’s Cascade Mountain from Banff Village

Most of the group went downhill skiing near Lake Louise. Zac and I went cross country skiing at Lake Louise!

This was my first time XC skiing, so he taught me how it worked, and we did a practice run to the end of the lake

…where one could watch some folks climbing some serious ice!

One the way back, a groomer came by and paved some nice tracks to help speed us up. We quickly made our way back to the chateau at the lake, and found it much busier. What is this silly business happening on the lake?!

#Canada

The sun rose over the peaks and lit up the ice sculptures out front. This one was carved by everyone’s favorite crazy Canaditexan, Ted Cruz.

^but seriously, this was carved by some Texan.

We took a short break to grab lunch and then drove over to Lake Moraine Rd to ski a longer trail. The road to the lake is closed in the winter, and the pulloff is turned into a parking lot, so a variety of groomed trails start from there

15.6-km later, we arrived at the viewpoint or the Valley of the Ten Peaks!

We called it a day, and drove back to pick up the folks that went skiing. Along the highway, right before Banff is a viewpoint for Mt. Rundle. It’s worth the stop.

For reference, here is the view of Mt. Rundle from Banff Village.