Ice, snow and mountains

One of the highlights of our trip to Canada so far has been a drive up the icefields parkway from Banff to Jasper.  We had planned the day carefully picking the day with good weather forecasted and a night with a good chance of seeing the northern lights forecast.  (How do you get a northern lights forecast, you ask - go to www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast)   When we woke up in the morning, however, we couldn't see the mountains surrounding Banff at all and the snow was coming down.  Our expectations for stunning views thus lowered we set off anyway.   Luckily by the time we got to Lake Louise we had left the snow behind us and the views were looking good.  It ended up being great weather for the trip.  There were occasional snow showers but at all the major lookout points we had great views.   One place on the drive is called the weeping wall which in winter is one massive sheet of icicles.  We were happily gawking at this wall and taking photos when suddenly I realised there were 4 ice climbers on the wall.  The fact that we didn't notice them gives you an idea of how big this wall is.  Sure enough a quick look back at the photos showed that they had been there the whole time.    

The hotel in Jasper was absolutely lovely and we went out for a nice dinner to celebrate Jason's birthday whilst we were there.  Then at 11 pm we wondered out onto the street to see the northern lights... which weren't there.  Hmpf.  We have looked out most nights in Banff as well, but it seems that the combination of not being far enough north, being in the mountains and it frequently being cloudy mean we aren't going to get to see them on this trip.