Chapter 3 - from the Great Canadian outback

So we made it up to Jasper where our awesome bus driver John from the amazingly reasonable bus company Sun Dog (is that your dog) dropped us 20 paces from the front door. Here is where maps and town infrastructure really would have helped our choice on accommodation for our stay in Jasper. You see, had we known that the hostel was 3 km out of town and a further 3 km up hill into bundoo’s valley, we would’ve probably searched for ulterior rooms in town. Now before you think we were crazy and don’t do any research what so ever, we had phoned the hostel call desk to inquire as to whether there was any form of public transport to and from the hostel. We found out that they had a shuttle which ran free once a day to and then back later on. So we arrived at this completely different hostel in freezing cold weather where the first thing you had to do – basically outside in the freezing cold – was to take your shoes off. Man!!! Anyway, we successfully logged in for the night in a single room with no diseased Andrew. The only problem was we noted that the shuttle service was not available (Cancelled was the term used). The next best option was to put your name on a board to share a taxi ride which we did very quickly and thankfully had an Australian chick Kelly join us. I feel like I am forgetting some very important details to this tale – oh ja, the freaking taxi fare was $16 one way. I said ONE WAY! What?????

Okay, my freak out is over for now. So we spent most of our hostel evening re-sourcing new places within the town so we wouldn’t have to pay this in exorbitant amount of money. Waking up the next day – still feeling under the weather – we decided to risk it and head for town having phoned this one B&B who had some vacancy for the nights we needed it. Thankfully, we made it into town even though our taxi driver forgot to fetch us where we reached the B&B and found a safe haven for the next few days. We spent the rest of our afternoon exploring Jasper which actually took us about an hour to walk the whole town. Since there wasn’t much to do around the town, we signed up for a canyon ice walk as our Big exciting adventurous activity. Returning to our new home, we met the real owner Sherrill who runs the B&B and has spent a load of her own life traveling the world exploring many destinations. We had some amazing conversations with Sherrill where she told us of her stays in Hill Brow in 1990 and of her hitch hiking tour of South Africa during the same year. She was quite a Brave – her term for nuts – lady who ran a really awesome and homely B&B.

Enough of that though, I’m sure most of you are very interested in this canyon ice walk and if you are not, shame on you but keep reading. So the greatest luxury of all with our tour was that the bus company actually came to our front door to pick us up. Never had that before! Our tour guide then drove us into town to their boot and ice cleat store where she got each of us a pair of Wellington boots for snow and water protection and some small ice cleats which attached to the boots. The reason I say the ice cleats were small was because Ang and I both thought we were gonna get the same cleats as we saw on some ice climbers in the canyon. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself now. So having been clobbered up with the right gear, we then headed around to the Maligne canyon where our ice walk expedition was soon to begin. For those French speakers among our readers, and for those who have some Belgium blood in them (weird sharing a border with the Dutch), the canyon was named by a Belgium missionary who came to the canyon to change natives lives only to be stumped by the powerful river which wiped out his horse and nearly killed him. So he cursed it, calling it the Maligne canyon meaning ‘evil’.

Our first activity was to step out on the swinging bridge and rock it until someone came close to throwing up. Not really but I did try! Having successfully caused enough turbulence on a swinging bridge we moved quickly up the mountain towards the canyon wall. Our guide was very knowledgeable of the wildlife and of the history of the canyon which came in very handy for us peeps who knew nothing. As we started our hike the river was flowing solid with no icing over and as we began to climb higher up we noticed that the river iced over very quickly. The reason, we soon learnt, was because the river at the bottom was being fed by a significant underwater current which gave it enough power to keep on flowing throughout winter – no matter what the temperature. Incredible!! Now generally, the guides prefer you to experience the view of the canyon from the base looking up and out but our guide was cool. She took us up to the top first and we got to look down on this magnificently created piece of art. What makes it so amazingly beautiful is the fact that it isn’t really a waterfall in summer – just a steady dripping tap of water which most people don’t even notice. But then in winter, due to the cold it begins to freeze and build up creating a huge ice waterfall inside this canyon. Now I have already mentioned that we got to see ice climber hiking up the side of this amazing architecture. I caught some of this on a video which I will try to load on.

Eventually we were able to go down and see the canyon the way it is supposed to be viewed. Here is where the saying, you had to be there comes into effect. I’m not sure how many of our readers have experienced walking on water (ok ice), but for those who haven’t, it is one of the freakiest things we have done. Basically, we had the knowledge that this ice we were standing on is generally a powerfully flowing river through the canyon in the summer time. Putting your mind through that brain teaser as we were standing on this solid surface really freaked me out. Anyway, we got over it rather quickly when we began walking and one of the sheaths of ice began to crack beneath us and we fell into water. Whoa!!! I bet you’re all thinking we fell into a huge pool of ice water and began to freeze. NOT!! The thin top sheath was only about 2 inches deep and as we began to walk on the surface it cracked releasing the pressure of our weights and sending us into the layer of water beneath it. This too was only about a foot deep before we were standing on a really solid piece of ice about 10-12 inches deep. For humans to be able to walk on ice, it has to be between 5-7 inches thick so we felt fairly safe – even though we had just fallen into water and freaked out big time because the ice had cracked. It is such an uncomfortable feeling hearing this noise and knowing that it should not be cracking otherwise this could be the end of the line for all of us. I think it was just our guide having some fun with us.

So eventually we made it to the first waterfall called Angel Falls. Magnificent! A photo will never capture the experience and the beauty of these waterfalls but I will put them on anyway. At this waterfall there was an enclosed ice cavern where we were able to throw two of our party inside to explore and get soaked inside a cave of ice. Weird! Wish I wasn’t so big otherwise I definitely would’ve cracked the nod to enter and explore. But we saved the best for last as we made our way up to the Queen – the big mama. As some of the photos illustrate, we had to wait for the ice climbers to finish their route as they usually sent a cascade of ice particles down the side of the Queen and flying to the ground where they could pip you on the head one time. Again, words are very hard to come by to describe how amazingly beautiful these giant handcrafted natural ice cascades truly are. One of the most exciting experiences of this hike was still to come. Once down in the canyon there is another layer of thin ice which you can walk on to get around the first bend where you can see where the river comes from. The scary thing is that as we walked in a line separated by a meter gap, we could still hear the ice beneath us cracking. This time though we were prepared for it and even though the sound made me nervous, it was exciting and adrenaline rushing to be walking on water. We would definitely do it again.

Unfortunately though, we eventually had to say goodbye to all this natural beauty and head back to town where our adventure would end. Again, the taxi made a stop 20 meters away from our front door. Incredible!! This was also to be the last action we would have in Jasper before we had to say farewell and board our Greyhound bus on our 9 hour journey through to Kelowna to our new home at the Chings residence. Thus ends chapter three of our adventure and means you will have to wait for chapter four to find out more.