Nakiska, Kananaskis River, and Canmore

Is it just my luck or what?  Nakiska was a ghost town today.  Eerily quiet.  The sign in the ticket window said: "Closed due to extreme weather."  Extreme?  Not really.  It was sunny and calm. No wind at all.  Yes, a bit colder than usual, but I walked around in just my base and middle layers of clothing, with no jacket, no hat, and no gloves, and I felt perfectly comfortable.

At Nakiska, all the ski racks are empty.  There is nobody here.  A ghost town.
I am not wearing a jacked otr a hat, but I was perfectly comfortable. Lots of sun, but no wind.

The temperature was around -17ºF, which is -27ºC.   It sounds worse in degrees Celsius because it's a larger number.

I also chatted with an employee who happened to pass by, and we stood there engaged in conversation for nearly half an hour, and I still felt perfectly OK.  Only my bare hands got a little cold so I kept putting them into my pockets to warm them up every now and then.  Why were we talking for so long?  We were comparing notes, because it turns out that both of us had skied at numerous ski areas all over the American continent.

I liked to the look of the ski area.  You could see many of the trails from the road as I drove up. It offers 2,400 vertical feet, served by 3 high speed quads and one double chair.

So, what to do?  I have already skipped Marmot Basin, which was closed due to the same Arctic cold blast.  I really don't like skipping Nakiska too.

The employee I talked to assured me that Nakiska will be open tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 6), because the temperature will rise to around  5ºF (or -15ºC). But I am on a tight schedule.  I had carefully planned an itinerary to  visit all the ski areas when they are open.

As I drove out of Nakiska's parking lot, I saw this sign.  Well, when they ask me so politely to come back, how could I refuse?!!!

NEW SCHEDULE, NEW ITINERARY
So it's time to improvise and rearrange my trip plans a bit.  My trip will still be the same 10 days, as originally planned.  But, I will stay here one more night and ski Nakiska tomorrow (Wednesday).

Then I will shift all the other ski areas on my route by a day.  As it turns out, there will be no conflicts with visiting the other ski areas in Canada along highway 3.

But I will have to skip the two small ski areas I was planning to ski at on the last day of my trip in Washington, on Sunday, February 10.  The two are:  Sitzmark (east of Tonasket) and Echo Valley (west of Chelan). Both are very small and I was planning to ski them both on the same day, with just a couple of hours at each.   But, giving them up for now is not a difficult decision because of the following factors:

1.  The two are closer to home than all these Canadian ski areas, so it should be easy to visit them at some future date.

2.  Sitzmark has announced (just a few days ago) that they will not open at all this winter. Interestingly, their normal operating schedule normally ends right after Presidents' Day (middle of February).  But this winter, they simply didn't get enough snow till now. January was too warm and dry.

3.  So, I will only skip Echo Valley.  Essentially, I am trading Echo Valley for Nakiska.  Nakiska is so much larger, so there's no contest here.   I'll stay one more night, this time in Canmore, the closest town to Nakiska, and I'll ski Nakiska tomorrow.

WHAT ELSE TO DO? 
Since there was no skiing today, I used some of my time to do some sightseeing.

I had noticed on Google Maps that there is a section of the Kananaskis River, right by the road to Nakiska, that is called the "Widowmaker".  Interesting!  I have to see that!  It's probably a lot of turbulent white water.

So, I parked my car in a snowplowed parking lot at Canoe Meadows and went for a short walk.  Interestingly, a Japanese (or maybe Chinese) couple did the same.  They were quite adventurous to follow a path that was covered under some 3 inches of fresh snow.  They were just slightly ahead of me. The path led down to the Kananaskis River.  I was still descending when they started climbing back up.  They were boh cold, and he was visibly shivering, but I was actually quite comfortable, though I did notice that the temperature seemed to be colder down by the river.

Kananaskis River

This is what it looks like in Summer

But no white water at all, at least not at this time of the year, in the middle of winter.  I am sure that more water rushes down in the Spring and Summer.  But, right now, the water level was very low and the river was quiet and peaceful, and very beautiful.

There are some permanently attached cables across the river.   Hanging from the cables are some tubes that can obviously be moved along the cable to hang above any section of the water, thus forming something similar to slalom gates, where kayakers can prove their mettle by negotiating this slalom course..

Overall, a very beautiful and peaceful scene, with even a rocky kind of beach.  If it hadn't been so cold, I would have loved to jump in for a little swim!

This is how it looks right now, in Winter.

Then I drove to Canmore, a town between Calgary and Banff.  Canmore is in a valley surrounded by mountains, just like Banff.  I am staying at the "Rocky Mountains Ski Lodge", which has reasonable prices and even offers a hot tub.

This is part of the Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge. My room is right behind this minivan's hood.

All around town are giant rocky peaks.  From my room, when I look through the window, this is what I see:

This is Canmore.  My room is away from the street.  I cannot see or hear the traffic.  But I see those tall mountains!

 I'll try to catch up on my sleep tonight. Tomorrow, it's back to Nakiska.