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Today we went to a real mountain. Julie and Will impressed upon Sue and I that Fairmont is just a hill really and that before we finish our trip we have to ski a real mountain. The mountain of choice was Panorama. Will was telling me about how cool it is if you stay on the mountain in a time share. You can walk from your door to the lift, and there is gondola that takes you down to the shops and back. The nice thing about this is you don’t have to drive anywhere.
The temperature was cold again in the morning about -13 C and the Panorama website was reporting the same conditions they’ve had for a week. No new snow. After the comments from the people at Fairmont resort I was a little leery. Fairmont had been ok because of the groomed surfaces, but I was dying for some deeper softer snow to fall on.
We decided to leave around 11:30 and hit the slopes of Panorama for a half day.
The half day starts at 12:30, and we made it there right on time. The drive from Fairmont to Panorama was a pretty one. We headed toward Invermere then veered off the highway just before to make the trek through the mountains to Panorama Mountain Village.
As we neared Panorama you could see the snow getting deeper along the highway and it looked like it had a nice top layer of powder. The roads were very clear and Julie had no problem with the roads.
We arrived at Panorama around 12:00pm, unloaded our gear from the truck, and donned our boots and helmets etc. It was a short walk up a few flights of stairs to reach the lift ticket booth. This served as a warm-up for my already exercised thighs.
Panorama Mountain village has everything to offer the vacationer. Besides 120 runs on a 4000 vertical foot mountain, there are places to shop, restaurants to eat in, pubs to tell tall tales in and hot tubs within easy access of your rooms to soak those tired muscles after a day of skiing. They also have packages for multi days of skiing that work out to be a better deal than purchasing individual days of skiing, in fact they work out to about half or less of the price multiplied by the number of days you want to ski.
Lift tickets purchased (Half Day is $56.00 per adult) we headed for our first run.
The chair lift was a 1 mile Quad Chair that makes it to about the half way point up the mountain. Panorama is utilizing today’s technology to gather statistics on their visitors so they can tailor their services to meet demand. Their lift tickets have two pieces. One piece is a barcode that rips off the bottom that you can hang onto just in case you loose your lift ticket from your jacket. The other piece has the same barcode and a punch-out where it can be attached by means of a vinyl strap to your zipper for display and scanning by the chair lift attendants. I guess with the strap instead of the typical wire that is sandwiched between two folded glued edges its easier for the ticket to come off when you wipeout, so they advise you to sever the bottom barcode and hang onto it just in case you loose the main part so you can have it replaced if necessary. (Quite smart really)
After being scanned we lined up in gates to board the quad and begin our ascent to the first level of runs. The lift is much more comfortable than the 3 person lift at Fairmont and has a padded seat and slows down before you get in so it’s easier to board.
The lift flies up the hill at a good clip and the protective bar that comes down has a place for your feet (and skis) to sit. I learned you should hold your poles outside of the bar and bring the bar down inside the poles otherwise you get sandwiched and have to lift the bar again to get them out. Will learned to move your arm fast before the new guy tries to close the bar on it…Sorry Will.
We arrived at the end of the first lift and opted for a green run down to warm up our legs. Julie and Will did the blue to the right of it.
It became immediately apparent that all the talk of icy conditions at Panorama and how Fairmont had the best conditions, was overstated but that the ice was present in some of the more challenging runs at the black level. For the novice to intermediate skier, the conditions were great. The run down was awesome. Using my new found skills I easily shooshed my way down the hill. The base was much softer with a few inches of softened snow to make turns easier and only a few icy spots to watch out for. Julie and will played in the moguls on the blue run to the right of us on the way down the first run.
First run completed I was feeling confident and ready for the summit.
After being scanned by the handheld telxon or symbol scanners we boarded the 1 mile quad again and went back up. Once leaving the quad we had to go to the right and ski down to the champagne express quad, then get off that and ski down to the summit quad. Now this is a long way up.
The view atop the summit was almost indescribable. I guess the best description that comes to mind would be breathtakingly awesome. You had the view of 1000 peaks in one direction and mountains in every other direction as far as the eye can see. Clouds danced about the mountain tops obscuring the view of the mountains behind. The roads at the base of Panorama looked like pencil lines drawn on a map.
A few pictures for posterity and a look down the Double black diamond runs (and a shiver of fear) was enough to prepare us for the decent on the non-black slope. I found the run I wanted. It was aptly named “Get Me Down”. This is a blue run that is basically a 12 foot wide road that wound its way down the mountain switching back from time to time.
I started out snowplowing my way down, and then my thighs were getting tired so I began to practice my shooshing and controlling my speed.
At various points down the run there were blue and black slopes cutting across the road and down to the next intersection of the road and the slope. Will found his spot early on and he was off finding his way through the trees and moguls down the hill on the intermingled black runs. If I had done them they would have been black and blue runs…ha!
Julie stayed with Sue and me for the most part, venturing off the road here and there to hit the moguls and shortcuts meeting up with us again at the various intersections.
Sue skidded out on one turn and ended up on her but, then struggled to get up and get moving again. I was already ahead by a bit so I waited and took the opportunity to change my lense in my goggles from the tinted lense to the clear lense. The sun was disappearing and reappearing and I was finding it hard to see with my tinted goggles but it was too chilly on the face when you were moving to not wear them.
I managed to get the lense replaced and sue managed to get up and ski down to me. We set out again and met up with Julie a short while afterwards. We stopped to wait for Will as we hadn’t seen him and Julie had lost him too. In the process of lining up beside each other to wait for Will I managed to trip and toppled over into Julie so she went down like a domino and we ended up lying in the snow laughing about falling when we weren’t moving. I was laughing at Julie trying to get up. You can tell she doesn’t fall much because she’s out of practice getting up. I on the other hand had mastered both the art of falling and getting up with skis on.
We continued on down the run in the same manner as before. Sue and I decided to take a mogul run in once spot that skirted across the ski road in a couple spots. This was cool. I almost lost control having a hard time turning in the moguls, but regained control and stopped slicing the top off of one.
We met up with Julie again just before another 3 person lift that took us back up the hill a bit where we could ski down to the 1 mile quad and then down from there. We skirted across the infamous Fritz run then down one of the blue runs near the one mile quad.
We found will at the bottom. He said his legs were wiped and that he had ended up in ice in various spots and he really had to work not to wipe out. He decided to go into the T-Bar Grill and order some Beverages for us while we did another run. We checked our watches and our lazy decent stopping to gab and look around had taken us 2 hours and 45 minutes. Wow now that was skiing.
Back to the 1 mile quad and backup to the first level, and then back down a blue run again.
Sue and I thoroughly enjoyed these runs; we all found the surface much better than what we had been skiing on at Fairmont. You could feel the cushion under your skis more and it was easier to turn if you looked for powdery snow.
I started practicing the quick turns two and fro and shedding my speed that way rather than long S turns across the slope. I finally had it down and had my balance.
Sue had one spill no the way down, so I stopped to make sure she was ok before proceeding. It wasn’t a bad fall, so she only got a two rating for that one. (We had been rating our falls on the Julie scale from 1-10. I had a 7 a couple days ago, but thankfully that was as high as I got because I think a 10 meant something got broken.)
We decided on one more green run so we boarded the 1 mile quad again and made our last decent. My legs were feeling fatigued so I stopped quite a few times down on this one so as not to get too weak and risk ruing my perfect record today.
After finishing the final run we removed our skis and headed to the T-Bar grill to recant our experiences while enjoying a refreshing beverage. My beverage of choice is usually Guinness. “Let Darkness Reign!”
We ordered a nice artichoke and crab dip that came with small sliced up soft tortilla and a plate of nachos.
I met a couple nice chaps from East Anglia in England (just North West of London) and found out one of them had just arrived for a two week vacation from England. The other, his friend was working at the resort and had been from the beginning of the season. He was a snow board instructor and told me I had to give it a try if I had ever skate boarded, water skied, or wake boarded behind a boat. I told him I had all the learning I could take for one season, but next year if he was still there, I would look him up.
A few beverages later and our bellies full from the tasty snacks we headed back down to the truck, loaded up our gear, and made the journey back to the time share.
The drive back was pleasantly uneventful and before you knew it were relaxing and playing Euchre till we hours of the morning. Thus ends Day 6. In my opinion this was the best day of skiing we had for the whole trip.
Tomorrow we begin the journey home.

Today Started off really cold. -15 C and all the resorts were reporting icy conditions. We decided to wait till afternoon to allow the temperature to come up and soften the snow a bit. We had been planning to do Panorama today, but opted for Fairmont instead because of the ice.
We arrived at the hill about 12:30pm ready for the half day. Lift tickets purchased and skis on we dawned the chair lifts.
I started off on the green run to get my legs back. I found it much less difficult and that I was able to control my decent much better. My muscles were a little sore, but not so much as to hinder my skiing.
After one green run I was ready to go blue for the remainder of the day. Having perfected the art of falling and speed control it didn’t hurt so much.
Today I did more runs than I had either of the previous days and didn’t have any really bad falls.
Sue was starting to get her legs back and was going faster on the runs to the point where she was passing me. I could definitely tell she has been skiing most of her life.
One exciting run we both ended up on our butts. Sue higher up than me on a steep slope. She was just out of reach of her one ski. Two more experienced skiers went right by without stopping and we thanked them sarcastically. Finally a teenage snowboarder stopped and retrieved her ski for her. We thanked him sincerely and continued on our way down the hill.
About 2:30pm we stopped for a hot drink and a break then hit the slopes again.
I had one more fall, but it was more funny than painful. I missed a turn and flopped into the powder under the lift. It made for good entertainment for the skiers on the lift and one German fellow commented that I did a good Yahoo as he passed over me laying spread eagle in the powder laughing.
We met up with Julie and Will a couple times and watched them doing moguls and the trail below the lift as we made our ascent.
Julie mentioned I needed to bend more and so I did and found it less stressful on my sore muscles and improved my balance considerably.
The rest of our runs were pleasantly uneventful yet thoroughly enjoyable.
We came back to the time share and relaxed for an hour or two then headed over to the Farside Inn restaurant for beer and wings.
Our bellies full and our muscles sore we headed to the Hot Springs for a soothing soak.
It was colder so it made for a chilly walk from the change rooms. We all declined to follow the “All bathers must shower before entering the pool” rule because we figured we’d freeze before hitting the springs if we did.
Soak complete, we ventured back to the condo, and all of us turned in for the night.
Sue and I fell asleep watching Myth Busters and woke up later to turn the TV off.
Tomorrow we hit Panorama for a half day in the afternoon. The weatherman is calling for light flurries, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Today was a healing day. We woke up to a crisp -12 C morning with the sun already shining on the mountain. We didn’t have much on the agenda today but to rest up for another day of skiing tomorrow. We lounged in the morning and watched a James Bond Movie after managing to get the TV out of the snug area it was built in to so that I could hook up a video cable to the laptop. I took a soothing soak in the Jacuzzi tub to help relax my muscles and remove some of the stiffness. I noticed several large bruises on various parts of my legs and that my left knee was swollen a bit with an 8 cm diameter bruise below it. No wonder that hurt so much.
After the soak in the tub my body felt much more mobile and moving didn’t hurt as much. I took some Tylenol to help ease the aches and pains and after a nice brunch/lunch of pasta and spicy sausage with sauce we headed into Invermere to pick up a few supplies.
We stopped at a bakery to pickup some fresh bread and I noticed they had a cappuccino machine, so I couldn’t resist. I had been looking for a real cappuccino since we left but could only find those ones like Tim Horton’s serves.
We found a cool little place called Dave’s book bar that had all kinds of books and crafts and sold cigars etc. We stopped at the local TV appliance store that also had a Source by Circuit City franchise to see if they had I- Phone AC charging cables, but alas they didn’t. I’ve been using Julie’s USB charge cable because I left mine at work. After the smallest Circuit City I’ve ever seen, it was over to the Sobeys for some snack food, Naan and Ibuprophen.
Invermere on the Lake is a small resort town nestled on Lake Windermere between the Purcells and the Rockies. It has the quaint ambience of a small mountain village. There is a large number of condo’s being built near the lake’s edge which will be quite nice and have a breathtaking view once they are complete.
Invermere was established in 1810 as a trading post and now has a population of 3470. There’s a wide variety of activities for travelers seeking a relaxing mountain retreat or for the athletic and thrill seeker alike.
Eagle Ranch Golf Course is well known for its par 71 – 6400 Yard course that is built around the ravines and canyons with greens high atop bluffs offering spectacular views along with world class golf.
Supply run completed, it was back to the condo for a wine tasting at the resort that included some local trivia and prizes along with the usual sales promotions, and then a relaxing evening. Sue made an amazing Quorma curry chicken with rice spiced with cumin, coriander, and cardamom served with peas on the side.
Our bellies pleasantly full, we played a little Wii and gabbed about everything under the sun until bed time around 9:30pm. Will and I planned recording and sending music back and forth to overdub tracks.
We’re hoping for snow tonight so we can hit one of the other mountains that are currently ice covered and haven’t had snow for a week. The weather forecast calls for snow tomorrow, but we’ll see….tomorrow.

Today we woke up early and after the usual coffee and breakfast, we headed over to the ski hill to get an early start.
The morning started out chilly about -12, but warmed up to a balmy -2 C later in the day. The sun burned through the clouds and the conditions on the hill were great.
Fairmont is not a large mountain compared to the others in the area, but this year it worked to their advantage. Due of the shorter and lower number of runs, Fairmont Ski Resort staff are able to groom all the runs daily.
We were told by several people that all the other ski hills had icy conditions because of the lack of snow recently and a thaw that had created a base of ice that continues to make skiing at the other places not so great.
Julie and Will were ready to ski today, having sat it out yesterday. Will had a brand new set of atomic skis that he was trying out for the first time.
We got our lift tickets and were ready to go.
Since it was only my second day, I started off slow on the beginner’s hill, but after a couple runs I felt confident to venture to the top of the mountain on the chair lift. (No more evil poma lift)
Julie and Will had already hit the runs when Sue and I ventured to the chair lift for the first time post bunny hill.
Boarding the chair lift was much easier and less work than using the poma lift and before I knew it I was standing atop the mountain looking graced with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.
My first run down the easiest of the two greens was somewhat harry. I had to learn to turn up hill more to control my speed. It was exhilarating for a first run from the top, but the second time I was able to control my speed better. Sue was looking like a pro all the time.
After two runs down that green I was ready to try the green that Sue had been down the day before and said was more challenging.
This other run was a bit steeper in spots, but having learned how to control my decent better I was able to reduce my number of falls to only a couple.
We met up with Julie and Will at the bottom and they convinced me to try a blue run. I started on the green then branched off to the blue part way down, fell a couple times, but made it.
A few more blue runs and Julie managed to get me to try the black diamond run. I say “the” black diamond run because there is only one at Fairmont with a couple branches here and there.
This one was much more challenging for a novice like me and for a part of it I made it down before my skis. I slid on my butt for a couple hundred metres. I was reminded of tobogganing on McCauley Mountain in Picton as a child.
We stopped for a break around 1:00pm and enjoyed the relaxing chairs in front of the fire in the chalet, a couple pitchers of beer and some munchies before heading back out.
I did a few more blue runs and fell a few more times and by about 3:00pm my legs were giving out on me and I was sore from falling.
I decided to call it a day and Sue had had enough too, so we waited at the chalet while Will and Julie did a couple more runs.
The hill closes at 4:00pm although someone told us 5:00pm so we met back at the chalet and then ventured to the condo to recant our experiences and for me to take Tylenol and try to put left foot before right and get my legs to work.
We waited an hour and changed out of our ski clothes, then ventured to the hot springs for a soothing soak in the healing waters. A dip in the hot springs comes included in the $37.00 per day lift ticket fee. Without the lift ticket it would be a $10.00 charge. Julie and Will had to pickup bathing suits having forgotten theirs, but not long after we soaked for about an hour and it felt awesome. My muscles thanked me profusely.
We came back to the condo and had a delicious dinner of fillet mignon with Julie’s version of scallop potatoes and beans.
We decided we would take Tuesday off to give me time to heal. We’re to venture into Invermere and checkout panorama to see if it’s a skating rink like everyone has been saying.
After dinner I was beat and went to bed about 9:30pm. Everyone else was tired too, so that was the end of the evening.
That’s it for today, peace, and rest.

Woke up about 9:15 this morning. We were all a littlie groggy after our evening of wine and card/board games. The smell of Julie’s Tim Horton’s coffee was a welcome one. A fresh mug of warm coffee on the patio gave way to the beautiful sight of Sunshine on the mountains. John Denver’s song was playing through my head as I soaked up the scenery and the atmosphere.
Sue made us an awesome brunch of Bacon and eggs then it was time to get ready for the trip to the ski hill.
A couple of coffees later and we were all showered, packed, and ready to rock. We hopped in the Ford Explorer and headed up to Fairmont Ski Resort.
Conditions were pretty good. Nice and warm, hovering around 0 to -2 C, Sunny and Bright. No New snow unfortunately, but the sun melted the top layer of snow to give us a decent surface.
First stop was to the ski school to sign the newbie (me) up for a lesson. It ended up being a private lesson, so that worked out well.
After getting the lesson booked for 2:45 we headed to the ski shack to get our rentals. We decided to rent for 3 days instead of having to do this every day and the prices were great. $77.00 for 3 days then $22.00 per day after that if we kept them longer. Just bring them back when we’re done and pay whatever balance isn’t paid for. Great arrangement.
I was outfitted with a set of 160cm Rossingnol skis, a pair of boots and a grey helmet to match my grey and orange borrowed ski suit (thanks Will, the other Will, I’m not talking to myself.)
Since we had an hour and a half to kill before my lesson, we ventured up to the beginners hill and started at the first level, no 2. My introduction to the Poma Lift was interesting. I somehow managed to get my skis crossed and took a header into the ditch between the lift and the hill. This was good amusement for Susanne, Julie, and Will. Since it happened right near level one on the hill I decided to start there and get my legs. I could tell that Susanne had been skiing before since she was stable and knew how to walk with skis on. I on the other hand not so much. I managed to get down the hill from there with only one wipe out (not including the Poma Lift).
After that, it was back on the lift to level no. 2 this time, to scare myself further. After a “successful tow” I made it down the hill with only one fall. (Stopping was fun) Getting up was even more fun, but I figured it out with Sue nagging me to get my skis across the hill before standing up. (Good advice)
A few more runs from the second level and a few falls later, I ventured to level 3. 3 runs down from level 3 and only one fall, I was ready to go to the top of the bunny hill (I’m so brave). I found out this was called the cowboy run when I got to the top. (Yippy Kay Yi Yay)
A couple successful runs (no falls) and it was time for my lesson.
I met my instructor David at the designated place, and as I had been successful in making it from the top level a few times, we started there.
I found out that I was paralleling (if that’s a word) and not snow plowing and that that was pretty good for a newbie.
David watched make a couple turns then gave me some excellent advice on turning and instructed me in the benefits of a really wide snow plow on steep slopes or when you really need to shed some speed/be careful. I learned the right way to turn and how to use the ski edge etc and in no time I was shooshing down from level 4 quite comfortably and feeling much more stable.
I had one more run in with the evil poma lift when one of my skis decided it wanted off and I had to do a wide snow plow down the side of the poma lift area without killing anyone. It started out a littly scary and out of control but I recovered and continued from level 3 down.
So endeth my lesson and my introduction around 4. David told me I would be ok for one of the other green runs tomorrow after practicing on the beginner’s hill for bit again.
I found Julie, Will, and Sue back at the chalet on the deck and found out that Sue went down one of the other green runs and loved it. She took the chair lift. After that it was back to the condo for a break and a Guinness.
Its about 7:00pm Mountain time as I right this and we’re just thinking about rustling up some grub, then we’ll likely play some cards or a board game again.
More to follow in tomorrow’s blog entry.

Its 9:52am Calgary time and we’re sitting at Julie and Will’s kitchen table talking about skiing and catching up. Sue and I woke up at 8:15 because it was after 10:00am according to our systems. A fresh pot of Tim Horton’s coffee (would expect nothing less from Julie) and a slow morning is in order.
We’ll be heading out later today for B.C. Check-in late afternoon at the time share at Fairmont Hot Springs.
After coffee and a nice relaxing morning we packed Julie’s and Will’s Ford Explorer and loaded our bags into our rented 2009 Honda Civic, then it was off to get supplies for the week. 3 short stops later we were on the road to Fairmont. (2:20pm)
The sun was peeking through the clouds and the temperature was around zero Celsius while we wound our way through the foothills toward the mountains.
About 45 minutes later the mountains revealed their majesty and we began the trek through Banff National Park. We stopped in Banff National Park at the halfway point for a “Bio Break” then headed out of Banff national park toward Radium Hot Springs.
Radium is a small town that looks like it’s carved out of the rock and the buildings blend in with the surroundings lending itself to the look of a quaint mountain village like those seen in stories set in the Alps. The spring which gives Radium its name flows under the road into several beautifully maintained pools where people collect to bath in the radiance of natural energy. You could feel the humidity in the air and a slight temperature decrease mostly due to the absence of the sun being blocked by the mountains.
There is a spa at Radium that offers to pamper anyone needing a relaxing break from their daily stresses.
When we left radium we were graced with a breathtaking view of the sun beaming through a 70 foot high rock cut where the road winds its way out of radium towards Windermere.
Just past Radium a bighorn ewe and lamb stood munching pine needles posing for all passers by.
We continued on through Windermere and Invermere then to Fairmont Hot Springs our final destination for the day. The check in at Fairmont Vacation Villas was painless and not long after we were unpacked and enjoying a glass of wine to end our day of travel.
We continued enjoying wine and beer into the evening playing board games and euchre till the wee hours of the morning. What a perfect day!
Tomorrow it’s off to the ski hill for lessons as the adventure continues…