Under and Over with Denise Rossetti

Mountains are amazing.

Sound dumb? I guess it does, but remember I’m from a land so ancient it’s worn right down to a nub. We don’t have mountains - well, real mountains - in Australia. Not compared with the Rockies at any rate. I’ve always wanted to see soaring peaks, ones that fill the sky all the way to the clouds and beyond. Now I have. And that’s not all…

Two days ago, I walked on a glacier. Isn’t that incredible? It was more than a trifle chilly for my thin sub-tropical blood. As you see on the right.

We travelled by shuttle bus and then by special snow mobile trucks onto the toe of Athabasca Glacier. Each of the trucks is custom built and costs #1 million. They have huge fat, wide tyres, and six-wheel drive.

Yesterday evening, I lay on my hotel bed and looked out of the window at the exquisitely beautiful Lake Louise - all the way to the ice of the Victoria Glacier. It was an equally amazing experience, but much more comfortable. There are a squillion pictures of Lake Louise out there, but none of them can truly capture its beauty. It’s almost too lovely to be real. So here’s mine - you get two Lake Louises, plus the vivid enthusiasm on the face of the ranger who was giving us a talk. A man who truly loved his job.

So here are a few random observations about mountains and about Canada -

1. You need to treat the mountain gods with respect. Also the weather gods. Two days before we hit Lake Louise, which looks so idyllic here, a vicious storm blew up. Twenty two canoes on the lake capsized. (The water is 4C even in summer!) One person had to be air lifted to hospital with hypothermia. In a neighbouring lake, some poor soul drowned. All they were doing was enjoying themselves on a summer’s day.

2. You treat the animals with respect too.

A member of our tour party was feeding a squirrel chocolate (which is not only stupid, but illegal - for very good reasons.) The squirrel became either excited or confused and mistook the guy’s thumb for the choccy.

Today, My Beloved and I went for a walk in the marshland near Banff. We saw a girl elk munching bushes on the other side of the river. So we stopped to watch in great delight. We were safe enough - there was a river between us, right? Wrong! Ms Elk walked right into the water and began heading straight for us. Erk! Rapid retreat of two concerned Aussies. The elk was completely unperturbed by the encounter, but you never know. It’s still a wild animal.

3. It ain’t easy keeping the people-animal balance, it’s an ecological tight-rope walk. But the Canadian parks people really do try. This overpass on the highway for bears (and other animals) cost almost $2 million dollars and at first, the bears wouldn’t use it!

4. Never in my life have I seen so many people doing so many outdoorsy things with such determination - muddy mountain bikers, hikers, climbers, canoeists, kayakers, cross-country roller bladers (or something like that anyway).

5. All the resorts in Canada are full of young Australians on working holidays. They’re nice.

6. I like Canada and I like Canadians. And I now know more about the Canadian Olympic team than I’d dreamed was possible for an Aussie!

7. But I don’t think I want to spend a winter here! It sounds absolutely dreadful. Especially the bit where your breath freezes.

Sorry there’s been a gap in communications, BTW. Net access has been a bit - ahem - fugitive. I also find that long days spent admiring snow-clad peaks, followed by souvenir buying and huge dinners, lead to early collapses in comfortable hotel beds. *sigh* I’m hoping it’s the mountain air that’s shrunk my jeans, but I don’t theenk so…

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