Lake Louise: The Fairmount Chateau

Once again Randy has taken me to an interesting event. My husband was picked to judge a major ice sculpting competition in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. Let me begin by saying I love Canada. I love the flag, the national anthem, maple syrup, hockey, the one and two dollar coins, and of course the Tim Horton's. There are a lot of things to love about our neighbors to the north but the temperature is not one of them.  They obviously can't help their climate, however it does create an opportunity for fantastic winter sports, which in my opinion are the best kind of sports.

Lake Louise is nestled in the Canadian Rockies. It has powerful views of the mountains and the lake is basically all glacial run off. I hear in the summer it is a beautiful aqua blue color, but while we were here it was obviously frozen and becoming a polar bear's dream. There was ice skating, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, horse drawn sleighs, dog sled tours, and at the end of a 2 km on a path there is a frozen waterfall. I don't know how a place gets much better for winter excitement, that is until you see the inside of the hotel Fairmount.

The Fairmount, has an amazing spa, great food, friendly people, and lots of lovely indoor views of the mountains if you don't want to venture out into it. It is a very relaxing place.  The  spa offers a great deal of services, manicures, pedicures, facials, hydrotherapy, aqua jets, and massage. There is also high tea everyday from noon to four. The menu looked extraordinary, including a "flight of strawberries" but sadly I did not get to experience this.  If you would like to go outside, but are not a huge fan of sports or exercise they also have a sleigh drawn by horses to take you around the lake.

The Chateau is in the midst of Canada's first national park, Banff, this is why it's an ideal location for housing all of the outdoor winter activities. Everyday there was fresh powder. When the sun peaks out the glacier becomes visible on the mountain.

When booking your vacation line your activities up in advance, especially the dog sled. It was completely booked up. The sleigh ride occurs at various times throughout the day, it goes around part of the lake. The ice skating has a really cool ice castle built in the middle of it. 

You can rent skis, ice skates, snow shoes, from the hotel, but it's always good if you can pack your own. The 2km walk included an amazing frozen waterfall, it was massive. There were several off path trails to take that scaled the side of the mountain. Using snow shoes you can go pretty far out into the park. There are bears though, they mostly sleep in the winter, but bear bells are a good idea. 

The finished ice sculptures stay up for about two months every year. So, if you vist the Fairmount the ice will still be viewable for a while. 

This is where we went: 

http://www.fairmont.com/lake-louise/ 

http://www.banfflakelouise.com/Area-Events/Festivals/Winter/SnowDays/Ice-Magic-Festival