Christmas at Canmore, Post 4: Snowshoeing at Lake Louise

On Christmas Eve, we went snowshoeing at Lake Louise in Banff National Park. We hired the snowshoes in the little town of Lake Louise, and then headed to the stunning frozen lake to start our 7km trek.







As we walked around the lake to reach the start of the trail to Lake Agnes, we passed the area of Lake Louise that had been cleared for ice skating, and there were a few skaters out. An amazing castle-like ice sculpture was on the ice for the skaters to weave through and around. At the edge of the ice rink were shelves containing the skaters' regular shoes, and a brazier for much needed hand-warming. And for Christmas sleigh rides, there were two beautiful black horses pulling a large black wooden sleigh around the lake. Magical!







Trying to figure out how to attach our snowshoes...





The trek we did was 7kms, with the halfway point being "The Teahouse", the highest point of our hike. This means the first 3.5kms were mostly uphill, so maybe we'll just skip over how Megan and I felt towards the end of the first half, and just show you the pretty photos. :P (I was suffering from a lack of fitness and Megan was suffering from a lack of food... as due to a particularly ridiculous lack of planning, we had set out on a 7km hike having each eaten just two pancakes for breakfast, and having only two muesli bars between the four of us - and I think Justin brought those along unknowingly!!)

We took MANY photos and I have uploaded quite a lot of them to Picasa, so I will just try to include the highlights in this entry and you can look at the Picasa album if you are interested in seeing the rest! Here it is, our incredible winter wonderland...































Rapid-shutter tree-shaking...


Some of Megan's photos (with wide angle lens)...



















The halfway mark: "The Teahouse" (which was closed, so didn't help the hunger/ toilet issues)...



And a video compilation of Justin's antics in the snow (which may help emphasise how soft and powdery the untrodden snow is!)...

The return trip was much easier and faster, due to being downhill. We were very glad to reach the bottom. Then, after a quick walk out onto the frozen lake, we were even gladder to warm up at the fire, return our snowshoes, and head back to our cozy condo to prepare for a blissfully lazy Christmas Day indoors after our three full-on days of outdoor snow experiences!

Snowboarding trip, Post 3: On thin ice

On Thursday, when Ben and Donna were at Kitzsteinhorn, Matt, Kat and I walked across the frozen lake at Zell am See! A brand new experience for me, but it was the thought rather than the experience that was the most freaky. Apparently the ice had only been okayed for walking on the previous day, but don't worry, we weren't the first ones to test it out! By the time we got there, quite a lot of people were walking across it and there were benches and small trees marking out a safe path from one side of the lake to the other – it must have been two or three hundred metres across.

There were signs warning that walking on the ice was done so at one's own risk, and the unsafe sections of ice that were closest to the path were roped off with red and white tape and warning signs. If you refer to the first photo under the Wednesday section of my last post, you will see two large holes in the lake's icy ceiling... well, just to the right of the closest one (where the large white hotel juts out at the shore) is where the path started! And, in the below photo showing me walking across the lake, one of those ski runs visible on the mountain in the background will be where I took that photo from when we were at Schmittenhöhe the previous day. :)



Afterwards, we had a wander through the lovely streets of Zell am See. Note the photo below with the "no kangaroos in Austria" sign, which was also on shirts, bags, mugs etc... Kat explained it's because when Austrians are asked by Americans where they are from, Americans think they are saying "Australia" and instantly respond with "oh, kangaroos!" :P