Parade of Lights and the Ice Queen

On Saturday evening we went along to what is probably the highlight of the locals' year - the Parade of Lights. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but the inflatable santa was pretty impressive and was surrounded by all sorts of other contraptions, equally well lit. Given the temperature (still c.-30C), the turnout was very impressive - the centre of Banff was filled with thousands of people.

We grabbed a quick bite in a great Japanese noodle bar (more on Banff's restaurant scene to follow in a later post) before hitting the town proper (well - a couple of pints in the aptly named Rose and Crown, one of several british style pubs, before going to Wilds Bills to watch an excellent Jonny Cash tribute band).

We had a lazy morning on Sunday - with a big cooked breakfast (you get half a plate full of fried potatoes plus some random fruit with anything you order!) before heading up to Lake Louise to catch the end of the World Cup - this time the Ladies Super G. 

The afternoon held in store what is definitely the most comical moment of the trip so far. Having found a really nice, virtually un-skied run (Meadowlark),  we came out the trees at the bottom and needed to cut across back to the bottom of the gondola. There was a snow cannon in our path, but fully togged up and having skied though many others over the last week, we pushed on straight through. Moments later: (i) we came to a grinding halt - it felt like somebody had superglued our skis to the piste; (ii) our goggles iced over so we couldn't see a thing and (iii) we were covered from head to toe in water from the snow cannon which, given it was still c.-30C, turned immediately to ice! Having managed to drag our way out, it took quite a while to de-ice all the essential parts…but since the water had permeated the fabric of most of our clothes before freezing, we remained partially covered in ice for the rest of the afternoon, attracting lots of surprised comments and questions!