Train to Jasper, Alberta

Finally made the leap and set sail from Vancouver — I've had an absolutely wonderful time there with the O'Donnells, and I'm glad they let me stay for so long. I've hopped on a 20 hour train bound for Jasper, Alberta which sits at an elevation of 1062m amongst the Canadian Rockies. I left late in the evening under darkness, but from the unlit cabin I could still make out parts of the starry sky and the outlines of mountaintops on the horizon that blacked out much of the space throughout the night. The economy class cabin was particularly empty, and I was able to fold out a set of 4 chairs, recline a couple of them back, and make myself a comfy little nest for the first part of the journey while the decadent folk retreated to their sleeper cabins. The few times the train stopped to let oncoming trains pass on the single lane stretches woke me up a few times, but otherwise I slept surprisingly nicely. First thing in the morning I made my way down a half dozen cars to the fancy restaurant on-board, and treated myself to a transcontinental breakfast and a pot and a half of coffee. I spent much of the morning in the observatory cabin, which is essentially a glass pod sitting atop a single car which gives you 360 degree views while you relax in leather chairs underneath a glass ceiling. The trip through the Rockies was incredible, and either side of a few small snow flurries visibility was excellent — It was impossible to capture it all on camera. As we arrived in Jasper, there was a herd of Elk just mowing about on the rail tracks, which the engineer had to shepherd away, and walking to the hostel a short distance there were definite signs of their earlier presence, strewn all about the footpath.

I have left much of the planning for when I arrive, however I know I'm in for a busy month ahead still within Canada. I have a couple weeks across Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff — then a flight booked from Calgary to Montreal where I'll trip to Quebec City, and likely depart from Toronto where Reykjavik, Iceland is likely my next port of call as March approaches.

Grouse Mountain, Vancouver

Just as we finished packing our gear, it began snowing quite decently and within only a minute there was a solid covering. Knowing we were about to ascend 1100m or so, we knew we were in for a good one. Grouse Mountain is ridiculously close to downtown Vancouver, but on this particular day we forfeited panoramic views in exchange for a massive snow storm. The Skyride was awesome, and brought us up above the snow covered Douglas Firs and into the cloud in no time. I had no idea what snow-shoeing would be like, and I was completely surprised — I could ninja up a steep snow bank without much difficulty, and walking through big pockets of snow wasn't too onerous. I couldn't believe how much powder there was on the snow shoe grind, and just how quickly we became immersed in proper winter wilderness — with only the occasional post marking the trail, it felt like we were on top of an untouched mountain. Either side of the narrow and slightly compacted trail, were metres of fresh powder, with tips of very tall trees protruding. Venturing just slightly to either side would land you sunken at least a few feet, or down a cliff face in a couple places. In one spot I got myself very quickly in a precarious situation, and while we goofed around with some photos, I was quite close to a vacant pocket surrounding a tall tree line that was slowly giving way about to swallow me up — so that was fun. The entire hike, was exactly that, and would have been a decent trek without the snow, with several steep passes which required a bit of effort. We finally made it to the peak, about 6 kilometres later, and then had the fun time of coming back down. It's hard to hurt yourself running full speed down a snowy decline with so much lovely padding about, so I had a great time crashing through the wilderness at speed.

Once we headed back down, the mass of snow we had brought with us began to melt, and the sack of snow in my hoodie gave me a good drenching. So we each put together a strange arrangement of pseudo-warm clothes, and headed to a department store to grab some extra socks and whatnot to survive the trip back in comfort. With my plastic bag socks, over-sized high-vis jacket, odd gloves and general foreign disposition, we ended up being not-so-subtley followed about by a staff member and what had to be a secret shopper, so that was a good laugh. This had to be one of the highlights of Vancouver, and I look forward to giving snowshoeing another go further on in Alberta.

Sea to Sky Highway, Whistler BC

Whistler, BC sits on top of a magnificent stretch of highway, 120 Kilometres north of Vancouver, following the coast from sea to sky. This became the basis for our daytrip, leaving first thing in the morning, and stopping off at different sightseeing spots dotted along the highway — much of which we found blanketed with snow. We were also lucky enough to come across a largely frozen river which allowed us some great photos while we walked the loop to Shannon Falls beneath the light snowfall. We also headed to Brackendale, just north of Squamish, which is home to several thousand Bald Eagles during the winter months. I managed to see my first Bald Eagle immediately as we arrived, and we spent some time listening to it's calls from the other side of the river. Despite the distance I was pretty chuffed at how my rather pixelated shot turned out, and didn't end up regretting only bringing a 18-35mm lens. Upward and onward, Whistler was quite the spectacle, and was absolutely packed to the rafters with bloody Aussies. It was quite surreal really. We had a great look around the village, and I ended up buying a massive rabbit fur hat, with ear-flaps that will keep me warm no matter where my trip takes me. I'll get around to posting the lady-killer selfies with said hat shortly, and the handful of pics below (with Joshies dream-hat) will have to do for now.