This remote stretch of highway from Jasper to Lake Louise rolls along for hours as though you are traveling through a painting. It’s been a big winter in this area and on our nearly four-hour drive we see only a handful of other cars and one “scraper,” which is apparently Canadian for “snowplow.” Fortunately for us it’s mostly sunny on this late afternoon and we stop — frequently — to take pictures and wonder at it all. Winter is definitely the time to see these national parks that teem with crowds and tourists all summer long. We’ve come for a 10-day adventure through the heart of the Canadian Rockies and it’s clear that it will leave a deep imprint.

My journey begins like any other before it quickly departs from the ordinary. I’ve started in Edmonton, a town with a relaxed yet energetic vibe. It’s been a long transformation to a metro area of one million for a former fur trading post in the Alberta prairie. This city serves as both a far northern center of oil companies and as the jumping off point for supply routes to the far north of much of Canada.

I’ve headed downtown to meet with Mark Stein, director of the Edmonton Ski Club. He’s just come from testing skis in British Columbia, and instead of being tired he is clearly jazzed to discuss both Alberta skiing and life in Edmonton.

“Life here revolves around the river valley,” Stein explains. The river valley makes up one long continuous set of parks that lie smack dab in the heart of the city, such that we can see the ski club’s couple hundred vertical feet of race training lanes from the windows of La Ronde, a revolving restaurant on the 24th floor of a skyscraper on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River valley. “The people here really embrace winter,” Stein clarifies.

It’s just the right mood to start a long adventure.

Edmonton might seem to some an odd spot to start a ski adventure, as it’s situated several hours out onto the plains from the Rocky Mountains. But the adventure truly begins the next morning as I take Via Rail to Jasper. I’ve never before ridden the train to go skiing, so it’s all new to me to have checked bags on a train. I can tell you that much less of a hassle than checking bags on an airline as there are no extensive walks or long lines to deal with. Unlike a flight, many of your fellow passengers are already on board and have many different pick up spots and destinations on their itineraries. On this trip I first bump into a teacher traveling across Canada on his own adventure, ending one gig in Asia and moving to Vancouver…but not before a little travel adventure across his native country.

It’s the perfect day to take the train. It is snowing and blowing outside, and while the train does take five hours instead of the four by car, I can relax and enjoy perks like a leisurely brunch in the dining car and chatting with passengers instead of maintaining a death grip on a steering wheel while trying to make out the next turn in the road. Trains provide a unique perspective on the landscape. There are no road signs, no billboards. Time seems to mean less as you gently sway back and forth in a more lofty position, letting you see the finer points of the landscape or move about as you wish.

It turns out that we are also fortunate for after several hours of watching it snow in fields and forests of the plains, the sun breaks out just as we hit the entrance to Jasper National Park. This is another bonus of riding the rails, to really get a chance to see the scenery and the wildlife, such as the big horn sheep that greet us just inside the park. Everyone jumps up into the bubble car for this part of the journey. This portion of the trip and beyond is the scenic jewel of the Via Rail route in western Canada and we’re all a bit disappointed when the conductor announces the station arrival, wishing for a few more curves and vistas.

We’ve come here to hit five of Alberta’s world-class ski resorts, four of which are situated within Canada’s National Parks. The concept of ski resorts in National Parks is nearly completely foreign to those of us in the United States. There are ski resorts, and even entire towns such as Jasper and Banff located inside the parks. Development, however, is very unlike that in the U.S. Under the exacting and watchful eye of park administrators, you need to prove a need to be in the town, and have a job, before you are allowed to even consider purchasing real estate. Growth and major changes at the ski resorts are exacting processes, and over the course of the trip it becomes clear that while difficult and at times almost painful for the resort owners and staff, everyone is very satisfied at the end of the day that great care is being taken to preserve the overall integrity of the ecosystem and that they will have “million dollar views instead of million dollar condos,” as Sandy Best of Lake Louise likes to say.

For More Information:

Travel Alberta – www.travelalberta.com 

This is the first installment in a week-long series of feature articles on Alberta’s major ski resorts. Next up tomorrow: Marmot Basin

More Photos:

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