Here’s an idea - rent a car and drive around for a bit. If you’re anywhere near the Canadian Rockies then amazing scenery is guaranteed. Additionally, just down the road from Jasper is the Colombia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier - where, for a few dollars more, you can take a rather funky 70’s style space bus on to the glacier itself.
Most sensible people do this in the height of summer when it’s a peachy 20 to 30 degrees - and marvel at the novelty of standing on ice in t-shirt and shorts. However myself (and train friend Jed from Australia - who I introduced to the delights of Sake) decided to do this when it was about -10 and with a strong northerly wind and flurries of snow in very early spring… Chilly. However, this being the first day of the season meant we had a tour all to ourselves - so we donned Arctic warrior gear and conquered the glacier with aplomb. It’s a glacier - it should be cold. Photos resulted.
And to think, only a bare week before I had been surfing in sunny New Zealand.
Further shenanigans occurred on our impromptu road trip as we stopped nearly every mile to gawp as the incredible views which only became more spectacular as the sun shone fiercely through the slowly dissolving cloud. Stop off’s at defrosting waterfalls and rivers peppered our journey up and down the Icefields Parkway. An epic in one day.
We even managed to build a snowman. An abominable one of course.