We did our first day's skiing today (Saturday 12th), the day after John's birthday - and for his birthday he also got a 30ft motorhome! We drove to Banff in the middle of the Rockies, which is absolutely stunning, just jaw-dropping mountains and lakes, covered in snow and huge trees. Bee-yoo-tiful. The haipin mountain paths are a bit tense though - also we cannot really turn the thing round, so once we are going in a certain direction, we are going that way and there is no stopping us.

We're staying just outside Banff and we skied today at the 'local hill' (a mere 30 runs or so of blacks, blues, jumps and 4 chairlifts), called Norquay. Weirdly you say it 'nor-kway', not 'nor-kee', which immediately made it obvious we didn't know our way around the area. We are also staying just a few km from Mineewanka. (Sorry...but come on!!!)

We also saw a family of coyotes after breakfast today (just hanging out by our van in the park, looking....er, hungry really), a load of really large deer (one edging suspiciously towards the outdoor hot tub at a nearby hotel, and several jaywalking down the (narrow, icy, tree-lined, poorly lit) roads, with absolutely no concern for traffic.

Tomorrow we're going to drive to Sunshine, nearby ski resort, and have a go at that. It may or may not involve hairpin turns on cliffs with no railings and 200ft drops down canyons, but realistically probably will. We'll write it up tomorrow!

p.s. john is going to upload some pics in the next couple of days, some of which involve me, bum in the air going backwards down a mogul field. but some are of other lovely canadian panoramas.

Em