Frozen lakes and ice-capped peaks - February 2020

Steve and Jo at Lake Louise
Photo © Jo Hackett

Cascade Mountain
Photo © Jo Hackett

Following a flight from the Arizona desert to snow-covered Calgary, Jo and I joined our mountaineering pal Andrew for a trip into the Rockies...

Driving into the mountains felt like entering a totally different world. Those breathtaking snow and ice covered craggy heights rise out of a wilderness of conifers inhabited by many creatures, including bears and cougars... Individual mountains have their own names and character, like Cascade, Castle and Rundle that looks like a massive tilted blade. Andrew, who had climbed several of these peaks (as well as many others, including Everest), pointed them all out to us.

We briefly stopped in Banff for a coffee, before heading for Lake Louise. Normally a beautiful turquoise coloured lake, it's currently iced over, creating a fantastic ice skating rink. Behind the lake rises Mount Victoria with its impressive glacier. People have carved extraordinary ice sculptures beside the lake, and the whole magnificent view can be seen from a remarkably characterful old hotel, where we all had lunch.

We wove our way along a partially ice covered road further up into the mountains as far as Bow Lake, getting a real sense of that wild interior, before turning back...

Thank you Andrew for such a spectacular journey... A day we'll always remember.

The tour kicked off with the Calgary show the following night, which had a great vibe, and I'm looking forward to Edmonton tonight!

Ice sculptures, Lake Louise
Photo © Jo Hackett