Conference Strategery: Banffing It Up

After the conference in Calgary, I drove to Banff, which serves as a base area for my forays into the mountains--skiing, that is--at Lake Louise.  As with everything, it was a learning experience.  I shall listicle since that seems to be my twitter tendency this week.

1. Flat light is bad when there is clumpy snow.  I ended up having a few spills as I slammed into some unexpected snow clumps.
2. There is a reason we have chair lifts--the old alternatives sucked mightily.  I took a "platter" (seemed like a j-bar) to me up the highest peak.  I wanted to do one of the winding back of the mountain routes.  Which leads to the next lesson.
3. Trailed named boomerang will.
4. Chocolate milk remains superior to hot chocolate as the apres-ski beverage unless it is super cold and it was not.
5. When one is tired enough to nearly fall asleep on the chair lift, it is time to quit.
6. No need to let ego get in the way--many green (less advanced) runs can be much fun.  Lake Louise, like Whistler, has a bunch of fun green runs.  I spent most of the day on blue runs, but the greens were fun.  I didn't ski on any black runs, as I didn't run across any that were bumpless. No moguls for this guy's knees.
7. Banff has much to offer as well.  Lots of good restaurants, much souvenir shopping, some history as the local hot springs helped generate Canada's first national park, and, yes, more beautiful mountains.

I was here last year, again due to an academic trip to Calgary.  I didn't see much of the mountain or the views last time since it was snowing heavily.  This time?  Beautiful:

 As a friend of mine put it, I live a charmed life.  That I can do side trips like this is so very fortunate.  While my listicle might seen like a bit of whining, I really appreciate where my life is now.  

As Joe Walsh has said,