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This morning three deer wandered up the hill outside our hotel balcony, I was in the shower, but Catherine braved the cold temperatures in underwear to get a picture. The picture is understandably blurry, and would probably fit right in with a Bigfoot fake…

So far the wildlife count is 6 Deer in town and a Coyote on a frozen lake. No Cougars, Wolves or other large scary predators yet, though it’s St Patricks day, so we’ll avoid the bars just in case.

Today we had a day off from skiing, instead we went out to Spray Lake to see the Howling Dogs husky sled teams.

The guide, Catherine and I were dragged along by Tron, Kermit, Ella, Doc and Diesel. The latter being without doubt the noisest dog we’ve ever encountered, he was clearly given noise lessons by a Wookie… All the noise stops when the dogs get moving though, and the Alaskan racing huskies, whilst certainly not having the presense of their Siberian colleagues, are real athletes regardless.

Spray Lake is just outside Banff national park, and a beautiful part of the country – it seems every other view of the Rockies is better than what went before, and it’s genuinely awe inspiring.

This evening we were back on the skis at Mount Norquay for the floodlit night skiing. The only issue with this is every time we got close to the treeline I expected a Cougar to jump out, perhaps with a posse of wolves for backup! Nevertheless, night skiing was great and we even tried some freestyling, admittedly unsuccessfully – still, the snow didn’t taste too bad! They have tubing now too, so we’re going to give that a go on Friday.

Some pictures from the Spray Lake:

Today we were back at Lake Louise, and with temperatures at the base station of +12c we could have done without the thermal baselayer – there were people out in t-shirts.

It was another day with unlimited sunshine, and though there has been no fresh snow since last week, conditions are still excellent, with just some heavy snow on the lower slopes.

The custom ski boot footbeds are certainly worth the money, and after 6 hours of skiing today our feet were still comfortable.

Tomorrow is a day off from skiing, so we’re heading out to the husky dog sledding.

Another beautiful dawn in the Rockies was a perfect start to an absolutely outstanding day, with Sunshine Village living up to its name. We’re both feeling a lot more comfortable on our skis so today saw us tackle our first black run, and a spectacular fall from me on a mogul field. Catherine was wise enough to select an alternative route!

On a practical note we’ve also had our 5 year old ski boots refitted with $50 footbeds to try and restore some of the comfort. The skis are also being serviced tonight as an unplanned excusion over a hidden rock left my bases in less than mint condition.

Unfortunately the iPhone camera isn’t dealing with the snow very well, with underexposure and colour balance issues. However, here’s a pic from today anyway.

Finally, we were eating dinner in a restaurant on the main street this evening when a deer walked down the pavement, which was different.

First day skiing was great, all day sunshine at Lake Louise. Excellent snow conditions all over the mountain and not too many queues. Hopefully we’ll get similar conditions at Sunshine Village tomorrow.

Last weekend Catherine and I went back up to Aviemore for another couple of days skiing and a long weekend away from work. We drove up to Ayrshire on the Wednesday night and Thursday morning, then up to Aviemore on the Thursday. Friday we went to Cairngorm where there was epic snow cover, it’s the first time I’ve ever used the Car Park and Fiacaill Ridge ski tows. Unfortunatly the 50mph+ winds and low cloud meant that only the lower slopes were open, and it was quite busy considering it was a normal working Friday. We stayed in Aviemore that evening too, both nights at the Hilton in Coylumbridge.

However for the Saturday Cairngorm would be even busier and the forecast looked better in the South, so we headed of to Glenshee. Glenshee was the last Scottish resort that we hadn’t been to, as unlike Nevis and Glencoe that are within 20 mins and 45 mins of Fort William, and likewise Cairngorm and the Lecht for Aviemore, Glenshee is in the middle of nowhere. There are some towns not too far away, but whilst Aviemore and Fort William are quiet, Pitlochry and Blairgowrie have nothing at all!  In reality it’s only 25 miles south east of Aviemore, but the road journey is 80 miles and takes 1h 45m – however it if you hold the map just right, Glenshee is almost on the way back to Ayrshire from Aviemore.

It was an excellent day with relatively low winds when away from the north west faces, and blue skies all day. It was probably one of the best days skiing we’ve had in Scotland with excellent snow conditions, some wind-blown powder and almost all the rocks covered. We explored Cairnwell, Carn Aosda and Sunnyside with the best conditions at Bucharts Coire. Some pictures from the day at Glenshee:

We’re now back to looking at Banff for March. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to sort something out as I’m really looking forward to going back to Sunshine Village. I’d like to get back on a board too for a day or so, though I probably really need some more lessons. Maybe.