Today I got up early to take the shuttle bus to Marmot Basin for my skiing lesson. It was still dark when the bus came at 8.05am. The bus then stopped off at another 10-12 hotels and then we headed out of town up the hill. It was such a beautiful landscape.

This is the ski resort building, including the hire store, training school, café and lounge.

I took a couple of photos across the road into the valley.

I then headed into the hire store to sign in, booked a locker for my camera bag and then went to the right counter to get my boots, skis, poles, and helmet. Because I locked up my camera bag and iPhone, I didn’t get any photos of myself in my gear at the time I was having my lesson.

The hardest bit in the first place was to put on my boots, and then walk in them. They were like moon boots, heavy and very tight (all for a good reason). I felt like a robot at the start. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one. I then got my skis, poles and helmet and headed down the stairs to the area that is used for lessons. This is it below.

It was amazing to see the little kids having their lessons, some in English, some in French, and how easy they made it look. Thew black strip in the middle of the photo is a travelator for those skating down the slope to get a ride back up whilst keeping their skates on. I was very grateful for it by the end of my lesson.

So Mike, my trainer came along at 10am and we started my two hour session. The first thing he told me, which I’d never thought of but was obvious really, is that skiing is a gravity controlled sport. That is, gravity takes the skier down and so the important early bits are learning the control of the skies and how to stop. Both sides of each ski have sharp-ish edges, and that’s what the skier uses to steer, stop, and walk sideways up slopes (if needed).

In the first hour, I got to ski a bit on my left ski, helping me to turn left and right. Then I put the right ski (taking off my left) on and did the same thing. It was very counter-intuitive in the way I turned, as I would turn left when I thought I’d turn right, and vice versa. I then got into skiing slightly downhill a very short way, maybe 20 metres, then making a 90 degree turn to the left or right quickly to stop. I didn’t fall over which was good.

Thenn I started learning the reverse V skating stance which is meant to slow down and stop the skier. It was extremely hard for me because to actually stop, I had to bend my knees and twist my feet and legs on an angle that I was not used to. I put my hands on each knee which made me turn. It did work at times but it got harder and harder the more we did it. The longer I did it, the harder it was on my knees and nerves / tendons. So in the end I ceased the training session about 10 minutes early. I think I need to spend a little time practicing this further. So I am travelling to Whistler Village for 3 nights after next weekend (from Vancouver), and I’ll just spend some time practicing that at my own pace. The whole skiing downhill seems to be okay, it’s the stopping that I have to work on. As stopping is pretty important!

Before I handed the gear back, I grabbed my GoPro and took this photo with my skis and poles behind me.

So I had lunch, had a couple of glasses of stout at the bar, and walked around the ski areas to watch a number of skiers and snowboard riders coming down the hills. I also got a few minutes of video with my GoPro, which I’ll watch to see how the various techniques. Herewith some photos. The last is of a guy on a snowboard stopping at the bottom of the hill – great spray.

The shuttle bus then turned up at 2.15pm so I hopped on for my 2.30pm trip back to Jasper. My knees were still feeling their age, so I just did a small amount of shopping and went back to the Inn. Then into the spa and sauna, and back into the room for a couple of glasses of whisky and ginger ale (Crown Royal Canadian Whisky – tastes much better than Canadian Club; and Canadian Dry Ginger Ale – also tastes better than CC Amatil) and sat down to book my train trip to Vancouver and Greyhound coach trip from Vancouver to Whistler and return; then my accommodation in Vancouver and Whistler Village, and then watched a movie and read the paper. Then watched a bit of TV and went to bed. By this time, my sore throat is getting a little better but still not gone, so I keep taking Tylenol and hopefully it gets better when I get to Vancouver.

Today I planned to go out to Pyramid Lake. Beforehand, I went down to the Marmot Basin store to make my bookings for the trip tomorrow to the ski resort as I had booked a lesson in the morning. On the way back from the store to the Inn, I took a few photos.

The second photo is of the Information Centre, and gives details of it being built in 1914, being of local construction materials, and how because it was the first of its kind, it helped define the character of future Jasper buildings.

I then ordered a taxi out to Pyramid Lake. There were some family fun events on at the lake today, outside the Pyramid Lake Resort. This included dog sled rides, sleigh rides, ice skating on both a rink and a circular track, a skiing track, and some fat bike races on bike trails.

Herewith a panoramic photo of the Pyramid Lake scene.

There were 4 or 5 dog sleds with 6 dogs each, plus they had another 10-12 dogs “on the bench” to swap the dogs in and out from the different sleds.

I went on one of the dog sleds, and got some video of it through my GoPro. It was good fun. Afterwards, I hired a fat bike and went cycling. I tried the bike out on Patricia Lake, about 1km from Pyramid Lake, but the snow was too soft for the bike, even with its fat wheels. So I went down a couple of lanes and rode around different spots for two hours.

These are the fat bikes, and one of Patricia Lake.

I then went back to the resort and grabbed some photos of ice sculptures and also two wooden sculptures outside the resort. They look really great up close and certainly something like I’d like to be able to carve but on a smaller scale.

I then headed back to the resort and jumped into the pool, spa and sauna for 15 minutes each and went back to my room. The bus for Marmot Resort was leaving at 8am (relatively early since I haven’t been getting up before 9am on this holiday), so I went to bed a little early (10pm). I have no idea how I’m going to get up at 6.30am for work when I start back!!

Given my sore throat, I decided after breakfast to stay at the Inn today. So I just remained in my room, did a bit of reading and watching television. By the end of the day my sore throat started to feel a little better.

Today was a pretty good day. After breakfast, I watched a bit of TV, until 11am when it was warmer, and I went out for a walk on a couple of trails. The trails are at the Old Fort Point. Below are a few photos on the way. The photos that have a “fish-eye” look were from my GoPro mounted on my head. The first photo is me all rugged up for the trip. It was around minus 20C and my sore throat was getting worse so I only planned to stay outside for a maximum of 3 hours.

I was able to get up close to the top of this next photograph, but my shoes were too slippery in the snow, plus I’m not fond of narrow trails with valleys on either side, so I stopped and turned around.

I caught this deer on the tracks on my way back to the Inn. It was smart enough to get out of the way of the train thank goodness.

I also got a photo of the old train engine outside the Jasper Railway Station, as well as one of the Jasper Community Garden. It’s obviously snowed over now, but it has quite a good range of different sizes and shapes of garden plots, mulch and compost areas. So I believe it will look really good once spring comes to melt the snow.

After I got back, I flipped between some of the current affairs shows for the reaction to the President-elect’s news conference yesterday. Very interesting, also his tweets and some of the interviewing of his nominations for department heads being cross-examined by their Senate committees. Some of these people seem quite sensible, so he’s likely to not end up doing too much of the stuff he wants to, if they have any say in it. I am unsure why I am so fascinated by this. But it is interesting to watch.

Ahhhh, waking up in a suite hotel at Jasper National Park. Delightful!

Today is just about checking things out to enjoy this week. Relaxing without pressure to do anything, but wanting to get some things like skiing and walking trails in.

After breakfast in the Inn, I took a load of clothes to the tenant laundry. Unfortunately I had chosen a machine that decided to stop working half way through the cycle. After trying everything to get it to work, I did the usual technological solution – I pulled out the plug and reconnected. It did the same thing again and so this time I got a technician in. He paid for me to use another machine, and so whilst that worked I spent 15 minutes in the sauna. I then switched the clothes into the drier and sat down and read the newspaper.

I took the dry clothes back to my room and then wandered down to the town centre to pop into the Visitors Centre to ask about skiing and walking trails. I got some really good information. I then went to the main street grocery store and purchased some food, and a camping store to buy some bathers for the pool and spa. I took a few photos whilst walking down the street.

The first photo below is of the Visitors Centre, and the second is the front of the Railway Station. They are both great buildings.

Some of the information I read on a street sign advised that the Jasper Forest Park was established in 1907. It was later renamed the Jasper National Park after being granted national park status in 1930. This attracted people to the area, and this was followed by the railway which brought more visitors and residents to the town. Jasper (which is in the Alberta Province) is one of the few National Parks that have a settlement in their boundaries.

The park covers 10,878 square kilometres of forests, glaciers, lakes and peaks, including Mount Edith Cavell (11,033 feet or 3363 metres high). In 2014, there were 2.2 million visitors to Jasper National Park. The average high and low temperatures for January are -3.7 degrees C and -15.3 degrees C, respectively. Interestingly, it has been around 10 to 12 degrees lower this week for both lows and highs, than these averages.

Once I got back to the Inn, I headed down to the pool for 10 minutes, the spa for 20 minutes and then the sauna for another 15 minutes.

What a great feeling.

I then went back to my room, switched on my TV and found the delightful President-elect of the USA giving his much vaunted press conference. For entertainment, I then switched between Fox, CNN and MSNBC for an hour each to see them, as expected, selectively editing the conference video to show their own preferred views. That was quite exhausting, and I was starting to feel that I was getting a cold (now? after everywhere else I’ve been in the past two months??) and it ended up being 10pm so I took a High Potency Vitamin C tablet went to bed.

Today is my train trip from Edmonton to Jasper.

I was awake since 2am, so I got up at 4am and had breakfast. I checked out at 5.15am and waited for the taxi to arrive. He was a little early which was great given it was cold and windy outside. I arrived at the Via Rail train station at 5.35am, and found the station didn’t open until 6am. So I stood outside all rugged up, anther gentleman was also there. There was a bit of a snowstorm on at the time.

The station staff must have felt sorry for us as they opened the door at 5.50am. As the checkin desk wasn’t open, I sat down and read The Economist magazine.

The train’s original arrival time was to be 6.22am, meaning the one hour delay was causing it to arrive at 7.30am approximately. By 7am when I checked my bags, the train was due to arrive at 10am, which then got further delayed to 11am. I wasn’t too bothered with the delays as I had water, snacks, reading material, on no big plans. I understood the issues that the Via Rail people have with the priority given to goods trains over passenger trains, there wasn’t much they could do about it short of building their own rails. I just hadn’t realised how many goods trains there would be, as there were some but not many on my previous rail legs from Halifax through to Winnipeg (although I did see some in the trip from Winnipeg to Edmonton).

During winter, there are two trains per week that leave Toronto for Vancouver. Each of my stops is along the way, and there are a number of smaller stops in between the major stops that I am hopping off and on at. The train trip between Toronto and Vancouver takes 3 days and 15 hours. So there are many places along the track where the train can be delayed.

At 11am, one of the staff gave an announcement explaining the delays and notifying that the train is likely to arrive around 12 noon. It was not far from the station but was on hold behind one goods train being refuelled and then another goods train that needed to cross first. The staff were really good at keeping us informed.

So it did arrive at 12 noon, the passengers who wanted to get off did so, and then about 15 minutes we started to board whilst the train was being restocked. I was first into the train terminal so was close to the front on the queue. When I got on, I had my choice of seats which was good, as I picked a window seat, to enable me to take some photos out of the window.

We started out of the station at 12.44pm, although stopped a few times due to traffic congestion. We ended up heading off at 1.14pm. The trip is planned to take 5 ½ hours, so we were due to arrive at Jasper at 6.45pm based on that timing. The original scheduled time was an ETA of 1pm, but subject to the delay issues.

About a quarter hour after we headed off on our trip, we started to pass Wabamun Lake, a very large iced-over lake that has some people out ice fishing, a variety of waterfront houses, yachts tied up in one spot that looks like a small marina.

Down the track we also passed the McLeod River.

At around 4.55pm the train stopped for a little while just as we got our first glimpses of the Rocky Mountain Ranges. The second (larger) photo below has heat from the train engine across the left half of the ranges. Disappointingly, we didn’t move off again until it was too dark to take more photos. But that’s life. The landscape along the way was so picturesque, there was so much to enjoy.

We got into the station at 7.45pm.

The delay looks to have been caused by at least 2 goods trains passing per hour, each one delays us by up to 15 minutes as we had to slow down and stop in a siding until they came past. Overall we were delayed by an hour more than was factored into the train schedule. So that adds up to approximately another 4 goods trains in the 5+ hours. Which must be good for the economy at least. And Via Rail staff were great and kept us informed. There was also free coffee and tea, biscuits and fruit in the dome carriages. I had a magazine to read and an audiobook to listen to on top of looking at the nature passing, so it was okay with me apart from not getting the Rocky Mountain photos as we got closer that I would have liked. I also got to get some good film from my GoPro so I look forward to playing around with that.

After collecting my suitcases, I caught a taxi to Best Western Inn and Suites and checked in for the week.

Today was my last day in Edmonton so I decided to visit the Alberta Aviation and Royal Alberta Museums. They are both on opposite sides of town from where I am staying, so I’ll get a good 8 kilometre walk today.

On my way to the aviation museum, I passed the Kingsway Shopping Centre so I popped in to get a new set of gloves and an umbrella. I misplaced one glove from my premium (super keep fingers warm) gloves, and my umbrella bent so I needed new sets. I’m glad I got them because as soon as I went outside a light snow shower started. Herewith a photo of the city centre from the shopping centre carpark.

I got to the aviation museum and had a close look at the outside front exhibits first before going inside. I didn’t get close to everything as they had a small front end loader moving the snow around, and it was bigger than me. The large grey plane below is a McDonnell Douglas CF-101 Voodoo. This served the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) between 1961 and 1984. It had a highest speed of Mach 1.78, and with its “exceptional” climb performance, provided the aircraft with significant striking power.

Also outside was a tri-faced “sign” with what look like bronze plates that depict different scenes and each one states one third of the saying that we raise at ANZAC Day (and other times) and that both the USA and Canada use for different purposes. This being “At the going down of the sun”, “and in the morning”, “we will remember them”. Here is one side:

look inside. There were around 2 dozen planes inside and outside. I first watched a video of some of the retired ladies and gents talking about the history of aviation in Alberta, and then went to look more closely at some of the planes.

The museum includes a 7/8 scale Vickers Viking IV biplane. This plane was developed in Britain after World War I and became the first amphibious aircraft to enter production. Two Vikings were purchased by the Canadian Air Force in 1923. Canadian Vickers then won a licence to build these in Canada, and a further 6 were purchased. These biplanes played a critical role in the early mapping of Northern Canada, due to their ability to land on both land and water. Even now in Canada, many of the public own or lease planes that are able to land on water, as a way of getting around, especially as there are over 3 million lakes on Canada, mostly in the sparsely populated Northern Territories.

There is also a full restoration of a B-25 Mitchell with the name of “Daisy Mae”. One day in 1957 on the return to base from a training program, a reserve pilot in the 418 Squadron crashed the plane into a hanger when the brakes of the B-25 failed. The pilot missed three other bombers through his actions. The right wing scraped the side of the hanger, which then caused the plane to arc into the hanger wall. The original plane was left in a farmer’s paddock and identified 40 years later. It took 6 years and over 40,000 hours of volunteers’ time to restore.

I also got to test my flying “skills” in a small simulator. I did quite well I thought, taking off and flying over Edmonton for about 20 minutes. Sadly I crashed the plane into some houses trying to land.

There were many more planes as well as great displays of past history and military clothing etc. and some other outside planes.

After two hours, I left and headed off to the Royal Alberta Museum. I had to traipse through a strong snow storm, stopping on a couple of occasions to shelter in bus stop shelters, to warm up a little. After getting to the museum, it was closed for renovations. There were signs on the doors and workers everywhere. So I started back to my residence. Next door was a Casino which also included the Ice Hockey stadium for the Edmonton Oilers.

I stopped over at The Canadian Brewhouse on the way. The snow was replaced by rain so I thought it was a good time for a drink. I nibbled on roast potato strips whilst downing 2 dark ales followed by 2 Guinesses. I was much warmer then to get back to the residence and the rain had stopped so it was at least a little clear. Herewith the outside of the MacEwan University Residences.

I then rang the taxi company and booked a 5.30am trip for the morning (to the train station), and then had a shower, packed my bags, and read the newspaper and watch a few episodes of The First 48, the crime show, until it was time for bed. I received an email from Via Rail, the railway company, advising that the train was running an hour late and so to factor this into my plans. I was happy to leave the taxi time as it was, I’d just spend another hour reading at the railway station.

Today I felt a bit lethargic, so I stayed in the room and read the Globe and Mail Weekend newspaper and watched movies all day. A relaxing day out of the cold. The news was interesting as so many of their local issues are the same as ours.

Today I caught a bus to the largest shopping mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. It is also the 10^th largest in the world, and between 1999, when its 4^th stage was completed, and 2004, it was the largest in the world. Initial construction commenced in 1981.

It doesn’t look much from one side, but it is quite long and deep.

I went for a wander around and got to see one and a half of the two floors in the period from 11am until 4.45pm when it was time to leave to catch the bus back to the hotel.

The mall has a lot of different entertainment attractions, including:

Galaxyland – an indoor amusement park with at least 3 rollercoasters and a number of other rides, entertainment machines and even a Ghost House, like the haunted house at the showgrounds. It also has a number of food stall and a small train. I took some action photos of the rides at speed (quarter second and half second), when gave some streaks of colour and also made sure I didn’t get any identifiable people, given Galaxyland was full of parents with kids. Some of these came out well, especially without a tripod.

A food street of a number of different restaurants, which is only 1 of 3 food halls. I’ve left this photo dark as that is the atmosphere on the “street”.

An ice rink called an Ice Palace, which is a reduced size ice hockey rink. It is used for hockey and other tournaments, as well as for the public to skate on, as today.

An 18 hole putt putt course. I played and came in 14 over par, though at least I got a hole in one!

There is also the World Waterpark. I didn’t bring any swimming gear so I didn’t pay to go in, but went to the observation deck. It has a beach and a large pool with a wave machine, and well as a number of waterslides and a small café and seating area.

There is also the Sea Life Cavern and Rock, with an indoor lagoon with sea lions and a replica of the Santa Marie (the ship on which Christopher Columbus sailed in on his first voyage in 1492).

One of the smaller commercial businesses is what is called 9D Virtual Reality. There are 7 pods (3 in one circular grouping and 2 lots of 2 side by side) which you can sit in, strap yourself in the seatbelt, put on Virtual Reality goggles and go on one of 8 different rides. I chose the roller coaster, as I decided not to go on a real one in Galaxyland, having just had breakfast. It went for 7 minutes and was well worth the $15. The pod rocked when rocks came down in front of the roller, and the feeling when the roller went straight up or straight down felt quite realistic. There were a number of other rides especially for kids, as well as a haunted house. Most of the rides also had demons or devils that you could use the joysticks that you held to play. It was great fun, and I can see this rolling out quickly in Australia, unless it is already there.

There was also a $550,000 Ferrari Aventador being raffled off for $20 per ticket. I would have bought one if it wasn’t left hand drive.

It was pretty good fun and I racked up about 9 kilometres walking through the mall. It was time then to head back to the hotel so I walked to the bus stop, on the other side of the mall from where I entered. Herewith a photo of this side as it got dark, where the large skylight for the World Waterpark is situated.

The bus took about 25 minutes to come, so luckily I was rugged up. I then went to Wendy’s across the road for dinner (it wasn’t that great), and went back to the hotel to bed. I took a couple of vitamin C tablets given the number of people at the mall and about with colds, just so I don’t get it.

I got up at 6am, reset the bed to a lounge and showered. The first breakfast announcement was called for 7am so I headed over for that. The omelette was delightful. It turns out that we were around 9 hours behind schedule and so expected to reach Edmonton around 3.30pm.

So I settled in for a day of listening to my audiobook (Tom Clancy novel) and a bit of sporadic photography from the dome carriage and my compartment. The landscape was delightful, being the prairies of middle Canada. It would be great to see in the late Spring, although then I’d want to spend more time in the Northern Territories as the ice melts and the animals come out of hibernation. Anyway, I enjoyed the small towns as well as the fields we passed.

A few photos from the train:

And this last one is as we are coming into Edmonton Station.

The source of the information below was my Lonely Planet Canada guide.

Edmonton has a population of around 730-800,000 depending on the source. Edmonton is Alberta’s second largest city and is a government town. It is also called a frontier town, with a vast and empty northern landscape. It does not have the same number of tourist sites that even cities like Winnipeg have. The biggest tourist attraction seems to be the West Edmonton Mall, which is the largest in North America.

The indigenous history is traced to the ancestors of the Blackfoot and Cree tribes back by around 5000 years. In the 18^th century, Europeans first arrived in the area, with a trading post and then trappers and various traders. In 1870, the government opened up the area by pioneers. The railway arrived in 1891, and growth sped up.

The aboriginal tribes transferred their land rights to the government in a series of treaties between 1871 and 1921 in return for money, lands for reservations and hunting rights.

After arrival at the railway station, I got my bags and by 4pm I was in a taxi to my hotel, being the MacEwan University Residences. It’s a pretty smart idea to hire out unused rooms at the university to tourists. There are a few multi storey university buildings around, as well as a large number of condominium blocks within close proximity. There are also a number of fast food and not so fast food restaurants close-by, as well as many shops. I headed out to get some groceries, and then unpacked, browsed the local newspaper and went to bed.