Kicking Horse - New Year's Eve

[Photos above: Craig and Bruce before diving in; Pat and I at New Year's Dinner, the scene on Banff Avenue at midnight]

The High Park trip included five days of skiing at your choice of Lake Louise, Sunshine, or Norquay. For most that was all the skiing they planned to do. I however did not come all the way to Banff to visit souvenir shops. I'd rather be making some souvenirs (memories). With that in mind, three of us - Craig, Bruce, and I - booked a day trip to Kicking Horse in Golden, BC. It was $91 for the door to door coach and lift ticket, pretty good considering a lift ticket alone is $67.

The trip to Kicking Horse took about 2 1/2 hours with pick-ups. As it was still dark when we left at 7:00 pm, we didn't see much early on but the scenery was stunning as we got close. I was glad I was on a bus as I sure wouldn't want to drive that highway! It snowed hard all day which made for awesome snow conditions but not great visibility which made the tougher runs a challenge. The most interesting run we did today was one off Redemption Ridge. We had to follow the ridge down a way to where we wanted to ski. The downhill traverse kept us on our toes as a lot of wood and rocks were still uncovered this time of year. But once we dove down it was deep, deep powder.

We had planned to eat at the Eagle's Eye restaurant on top the mountain but as visibility was so poor we elected to grab a sandwich at a coffee shop at the base of the mountain. It was delish - probably my best sandwich since the bakeries in New Zealand. Appropriate as almost everyone working in Banff and Kicking Horse seems to be either Kiwi or Aussie. We then skiied hard all afternoon, just taking a brief pause at the end of the day to get a gluewine (Yes! They even have mulled wine there) and a cute Kicking Horse t-shirt. OK, so I did get my souvenir after all!

As today is New Year's Eve, once I got back to the hotel o had to quickly get ready and hightail it over to the pre-arranged New Year's party. Really, who plans a formal in Banff!?! Dinner was fantastic. I ate several different things than usual - beef carpaccio (me and basically raw meet?), scallops, and bison. The creme brule dessert had saskatoon berries in it so I explained to the easterners what they were. It was not a very wild crowd with most departing before midnight. For those of us who hung in we were treated to a huge fireworks display for the gigantic crowd on Banff Avenue. Rather than watch from above, we joined the crowd in the street. It was fabulous. Happy New Year!