I arrived in Banff almost three weeks ago but I already feel like I’ve been here forever! After a late flight and a two-hour bus journey from Calgary, I rocked up to Cedar Chalet and luckily two of the boys were still awake to carry my bags up to my room – which was pretty sweet!
Banff is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We are living on Otter Street which is about a five minute walk into town and really close to all the other Gap Year Canada houses.
After arriving and spending a few days settling in and meeting each other, we started to become tourists in Banff. We went to a programme that made us Ambassadors for Banff and got us a tour of Lake Louise for $5 instead of $55. We drove up the Bow
Valley Parkway, stopping at various points on the way to look at the view. Banff really is amazing! We have seen a few Elk and lots of deer, the deer especially like chilling in our garden.
When we got to Lake Louise we could really notice the change in temperature and the lake looked really clear and the mountains were amazing. On Friday night we visited Mel’s, which is sort of a local for Sunshine Staff, cheap drinks and free popcorn so you can’t really go wrong.
I started work last Friday as a liftie up at Sunshine Village. It was a pretty cold start and we have mainly just been training and getting to know how the lifts work. Although there is a bit of snow up on the hill, there still isn’t enough and they think that the opening date will be delayed for a week which is a shame as we can’t wait to get out there and ride. Saying that however, today we are getting snow in Banff town for the first time and they are expecting 15cm!
So Thursday was Halloween in Banff. Coming from the UK, where Halloween is typically just dressing up as something scary on a night out, I couldn’t believe the effort people went to in their costumes and decorating their houses! My costume was just a Canadian hockey player, but I put the least amount of effort in and a selection of costumes in our house included Snoopy, Ghostbusters, Ke$ha, a pirate and Angry Birds. Cedar house had some drinks before making our way over to Wolfpack for pres. It was really good, lots of people and booze before we all made our way out at about 11pm. As we were unorganized, none of us had tickets and everywhere was really busy. A group of us went to a club called Auroa before decided it was too packed so took the party back to Cedar house!
The rest of the time we have mostly been watching movies, chilling out and preparing for when we can get out on the hill. We have already met some amazing people from Gap Year, old Gap Year and others from all over the world. Banff really is an amazing place and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be spending the next year here!
Written by Elle
Photos by Ed
