Banff (Woo)

The prospect of going to Banff made me climb the walls due to the most amazing, stunning views that could be seen and what activities we would be doing there.

Day one as always was travelling nine hours west to Banff National Park, stopping off every few hours as usual for Subway Lunches and Tim Hortons coffee (I’m very addicted to the French Vanilla coffee and Cotton Candy ice cream!).

Day two we travelled to the ski resort Sunshine Village to snowboard for the day and put into practice what we learnt on the big slopes. Here I perfected my grabs and rotations and nailed a method. However I did damage my shin coming off a rail which left me with a second knee which wasn’t cool. The weather and slopes provided perfect conditions and we all had a great day. At the end of the day there is a route that you can board right down to the car park which lasts about 20 minutes, so was a nice cruise down as a cool down.

We planned to hike but because of the snow there was a severe risk of an avalanche (of which I do not want to repeat that experience again). Instead we went to a tubing slope which we bombed it down a 100m slide in a rubber ring. You could go down yourself or up to 8 people could join rings and go down together, however we ‘accidentally’ couldn’t hold on and bashed into each other which was fun. After lunch we trekked into the wilderness and set up our own abseiling ropes. I never thought much of abseiling but when you descend under your own accord it can be fun, fast and cool to try and jump n spin off the rock face.

It was during this time where Tom and I went out onto the frozen river to mess about and saw two coyotes trotting towards us, which was very uncommon due to coyotes usually tend to be shy. These were the first decent wild animals that I’ve seen since coming to Canada and was a relief to get a good sighting of them.

On day three we went cross country skiing near Lake Louise which was soo much fun and was slightly easier as there were previous tracks we used so our skis didn’t slip out as easily. As always throughout the week we were blessed with amazingly great weather, of which cameras could not do it justice. Banff is truly one of the most spectacular, breath taking environments I’ve come across, no surprise that’s it’s a tourist hotspot all year round!

Day four I had been looking forward to since arriving in Canada. Yes today was the day that I ICE CLIMBED!!! That morning we travelled to Johnston Canyon and caught sight on an Elk which was sick, as I had tasted an Elk burger two nights before. We then trekked a couple of km to a frozen waterfall where our mission was to climb a 20 metre high vertical slope. 

It was definitely harder than I thought as although the technique is to climb with your legs and support with your arms, due to the difficulty of the climb my forearms and hands were definitely destroyed afterwards and cramp set in on my first attempt. 

However my second try allowed me to persevere to the top. I even managed to attach a few GoPros which should come out with some decent footage. That evening we went to Banff Springs Hotel and went to the hot baths there. They also had 1940s swim suits that we could rent so after being peer pressured I gladly did.

Day five we travelled to Lake Louise to snowboard which was a great experience as world snowboarding and skiing competitions have been held there. I got the chance to switch from a solid board to a more flimsy flexible board to allow me to jump and spin better. The board I was using, to buy, would cost over 500 dollars so was great to use such a high performance board. However a disadvantage of having a flexible board for me is that I cannot turn and have control as easily; and as a result of going down a black diamond run I picked up too much speed and dislocated my shoulder in the process of bailing. 

Within a minute everyone was around me and Josh Erb relocated my shoulder. This made me out for the rest of the day snowboarding, the only benefit of which was to have an adventurous sleigh ride down to the bottom with first aid by a skidoo. After being checked out by a doctor I have my right arm in a sling for a minimum of three weeks before I can start rehab. It doesn’t ache too much and I should recover quickly. So that was the end of my time in Banff, sadly it didn’t end on a high note. I’ve come to realise that there is such a happy uplifting presence within the Soul Edge team and have a lot of people who are there for me in times of need, I’ve genuinely never felt happier and more at peace.

One small note to add in this blog, probably one of the biggest things I miss about the UK is the water, Herbert water is absolutely vile and stinks to high heaven! Plus the fact that instant coffee out here is also diabolical, I've converted myself to a tea drinker and my progress is great!