Freaky Weather
Trip Start
Feb 16, 2011
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72
113
Trip End
Jun 11, 2012
Banff, Alberta, Canada
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Everybody thinks that Canada is cold and covered in snow and ice at the moment because it is winter, but that isn't always the case.
The ski season here was delayed by a week in mid-November because there wasn't enough snow. Then it opened a day earlier than the official date. At first there were two good dumpings of snow, but for the last 2-3 weeks there hasn't been much at all. Yesterday there was a warm chinook wind that come up from the south west that brought the temperature up to +7 degrees Celsuis which started melting all the snow and ice, whereas a month ago we had a morning which was down to -26 degrees Celsius.
Because of the chinook, this morning when I walked home from work at 7am the pavement was covered in melted ice slush. When I woke up at 3pm there was a good 5-10cm of snow covering everything. And that was just in the middle of town! So what did we do? Shovel the footpath free and make snow angels!
Tonight I volunteered as a 'meet and greet' at the Banff Life Christmas Dinner where we served about 300 people over the course of 3 hours. It was really good to see so many people come along and get festive. This week is also our staff Christmas dinner plus there is a Weihnachtsabendessen on Christmas Eve and another dinner on Christmas Day. I definitely won't be going hungry!
So with a week left until Christmas my thoughts are turning to those who I care about living back home in Australia. Christmas will definitely be different this year: no sunshine, beaches, warm nights or sunburn to worry about. I feel very blessed that I have met so many people here in Banff that I can share my White Christmas with this year. So while you are all revelling in your Christmas festivities, spare a thought for an Aussie guy working in a hotel at night in a mountain tourist town, telling drunk, grown adults to keep quiet.
Daniel xoxo
