Heard a saying on the radio today that so well describes the weather conditions here in Calgary – ‘the season that has formerly been known as Spring has been renamed to Sprinter’. All throughout March, I was amazed at the amount of sunshine here in Calgary and was convinced that spring will be here soon. As soon as the Easter weekend was over the winter returned. There was one day where the temperature was suddenly +19C, but after that it has been snowing or raining the whole time.

That does not mean that we got to ski when we thought of taking advantage of the late winter and went to Lake Louise last weekend. Even though the forecast had promised snow, it was actually raining when we got there on Saturday, it proceeded to snow later in the day, but the visibility was zero. Instead of skiing, we went for a walk around Lake Louise. It was quite slippery since we did not have any special shoes on, but we had fun coming down the hills – either running or on the bum. We did not make a whole round around Lake Louise, though, since the road was filled with lots of ice and snow from an avalanche earlier. We enjoyed being outside and walking in the forest.

After the tour, we went to our hotel – we thought we try something different and stayed at HI Lake Louise – it is close to the cross-country ski trails and known for easy access everywhere. The room was small, but tidy and we shared a bathroom with the neighbours. The real hit was the sauna – it was a proper sauna like you’d see anywhere in Estonia. It was hot and we could throw water on the heater. We shared the sauna with a very talkative Frenchman and a local who told stories of bears being real pests there at Lake Louise and how to keep them away. The only thing we missed was the beer.

We had booked ourselves a dinner for Saturday evening at Post Hotel and Spa based on a recommendation from Tripadvisor. We were very impressed indeed by the quality of the food and also the impeccability of the service. When entering the Post Hotel & Spa, we sat first at the pub with an open fireplace with real wood fire (the first we’ve seen in Canada – the rest are all gas fires). The whole ambiance was wonderful and we watched the wet thick snow coming down from our comfy chairs. Then we were led to our table with white tablecloth by the window. The menu was full of nice things to have, but I took the recommendation of the waiter and ordered game terrine for starter and caribou for the main course. My husband took foie gras for starter and cod a la miso for the main course. The food was amazing! The terrine was complemented with glazed apple and accompanied by a small bouquet of carrot, asparagus and lettuce. My mouth still salivates when I think of the caribou, though. It was the most succulent meat that I have tasted – dark, tender and with a slight taste of game. It was served with a cherry and wine sauce and with chestnuts and grapes, accompanied by mushroom dumpling cakes. Truly something to remember. My husbands cod was also superb and so were the rest of the dishes, but since the caribou was so exceptional, I might not do them justice they deserve.

Looking out from our comfy chairs at Post Hotel and Spa

The restaurant also has a huge wine cellar, but the prices of wines were too ridiculous. Even the cheaper ones were twice as much as what you normally see in the restaurants and that put us off. We would have probably enjoyed more wine with the fantastic food, but it really was too much to pay. We are not complaining about the price for food, though – it was totally justified.

After the superb dinner we went for a walk around the village of Lake Louise – there is not really much there – one street and one centre. We found an interesting bar that was obviously for locals – they were hunting – shooting moose on the game machines and the drinks cost very little – for a glass of wine and a shot of Ballantine’s (the best whiskey they had) we paid just 11 CAD – less than for a glass of wine at the Post Hotel and Spa restaurant.

Most places seemed to close early and stopped serving food at 8pm. April is not really a high season anywhere in the mountains as we learned as well.

Johnston’s Creek

Sunday greeted us with sunshine and some degrees below zero. It would have been too icy to try to ski, so after very nice breakfast at our hostel, we ventured off to see some other place to explore and ended up at Johnston Canyon. It was a nice hike up the hill next to the Johnston’s creek that had frozen mostly coming down the mountains and formed beautiful blue ice-sculptures. We started uphill before 10 am when it was nicely cold and there was only one group of people before us, but by the time we were coming down – the path started melting and there were lots more people coming uphill.

We finished our intended ski-trip in Banff with lunch at the restaurant that we had visited last time were there – the one that served fantastic pizzas. We ordered pizza, of course, and enjoyed watching some golf on telly, commented on how we did not understand baseball and chatted with the bartender who was from Winnipeg and said that the cold here is really nothing compared to his home town. He said that the temperatures at Winnipeg fall to -60C at times where any body part not covered would freeze in a matter of minutes. He also warned us that Banff will be really crowded in August, when most people come for the summer holidays and it is normally impossible even to walk on the main street without bumping into people.

Driving back winter beat spring again and it started snowing. It has snowed every day ever since. Even today that started with sunshine, the flurries have been coming down silently for the past half an hour. Looks like sprinter will continue this weekend and next week.