November Training

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of a new ski season, and I'm kicking it off in the snowy Banff, Alberta.  It's been dumping north of Whitefish this past month, and many of the ski resorts here have been having record early opening days.  I will be training slalom at Mt. Norquay with Banff Alpine this weekend, next weekend, and then the annual Thanksgiving camp from the 19th to the 23rd of November.  I could be racing  at Norquay in month from now, but I'll decide whether or not that's going to happen after some training, and after I find out what the points are expected to be like.

It turns out the most economical place for my dad and I to sleep is in our fifth-wheel camper, which is a real bruiser when it comes to blizzards and sub-zero temps.  A couple years ago, the "Arctic Fox" stayed nice and toasty inside for a week when the highest temperature was -5 degrees, and the morning lows were in the -20's, so in other words, we're not worrying about the current 15 degree highs.  Plus, we get awesome views from the campground...

This morning

Banff National Park is a beautiful place; the only thing I can't stand about it is all the deer and elk running around.  I'm missing out on the last month of hunting season in Montana, and here I'm taunted by big bulls and bucks grazing taciturnly through downtown.  Here's a picture of a bull I saw in the campground last year.  Barely any zoom was required; it allowed me to walk within twenty feet of it.