During March 2007 we took a trip out West to ski and visit friends . Although we struggled through a tough Saturday, on Sunday George took us out to visit Bow's Summit in Banff National Park for some avalanche training and ski touring. It was a perfect day; Warm, sunny and a lot of fun.After saying good-bye to George we spend a cosy night in the the town of Banff and skied Lake Louise the next day. It was an OK day but unfortunately it was overcast which meant the snow never soften up so it was quite challenging. We decided to stop early and enjoy the scenic drive into the town of Golden, BC where we met up with Geoff. An exploratory visit to Overwaitea, the best grocery store in BC, gave Lia another reason to move out west.
The three of us spend two really fun days at Kicking Horse; Skiing nice chalky snow up top, warm spring mush at the bottom, breaking bindings in inopportune places, visiting Overwaitea and generally having a great time.At the end of day two Geoff headed home, narrowly avoiding a major slide that closed the Trans-Canada and we drove to Radium Springs to have a well deserved soak in the hot baths.
Feeling great after the hot baths and a good night sleep we were on the road again, towards Fernie for three more days. When we got within 20 min of Fernie it started snowing like crazy and we were getting a little excited because this was the first fresh snow of the trip.
Arriving in the parking lot we saw a little bit of snow on the cars and it was very wet and heavy. Luckly the snow was much lighter up top and we had a great day of fresh tracks. The next morning we could here them blasting on the mountain and when we looked out window we could see the remenants of slides that came down Lizard Bowl. Lia took a well deserved day off (after 5 straight days of skiing) and I went out to explore the mountain by myself.George met us the next day in the parking lot and although the conditions were really difficult (very wet and heavy powder) me still managed to have fun. An incindent initiated by an evil customer service manager and a collision with a drunk skier getting off the lift notwithstanding, good times were had in Fernie.
Arriving back in Calgary that night we had a late dinner and George arrange another ski touring day for the next morning. Not only did we get to bed really late and have to get up really early but we also switched to Daylight Savings Time, thereby losing another hour. 
After about 4 hrs of sleep, George and I grudgingly got up and drove to Canmore to meet a couple of his friends who were going to show us around. After getting to the bowl we dug a pit, had some lunch and did a couple of fun runs. In the end it was good that got up so early because the weather turned around lunch and it wouldn't have been a good idea to stay much longer.
Although it was snowing and raining were we were, when we arrived back to Calgary it was 18 C and a blue bird day. It was a great way to end the trip, in shorts and basking in the warm sun.
