Calgary and Banff

Downtown Calgary

I went to Calgary for a conference in mid-February, yes you heard that correct!  I was prepared for the worst, sub zero polar vortex type temperatures, arctic winds, snow up to my knees, etc.  In fact the weather for the most part was delightful as we caught the Chinook winds during the early part of the trip which kept the temperature above zero.   I had a great experience at the conference, hosted by the University of Calgary and Bow Valley College.  We presented on two projects we have going on at Vancouver Island University and the richness of the conference and connections made were phenomenal.

Since I had never been to Calgary I decided to stay the weekend following the conference with plans to look around a little.  I reconnected with my friend Vilayvanh who I attended Ryerson University with back in the early 2000’s.  We actually did our final year consultancy together so although we had not seen each other in a while, were able to reconnect having worked together quite closely.  She was a wonderful host, showing me around Calgary and then out to Banff on the Saturday.  Banff was pretty spectacular, as you leave the plains of Calgary and approach the rockies things get pretty dramatic.  However, I must say having lived on Vancouver Island I was not overly impressed overall, sorry I had to say it.  We took the gondola up to the top of Sulfur Mountain and did a quick walk around taking in the views of the rockies.  As the day went on the temperature began to drop and near end of day we were approaching -20 degree temperatures.

In the end I had a good look around Calgary, thanks to my dear host Vilayvanh, but I was ready to get back to island temperatures.  Little did I know that I was coming back to a snowpocalypse in Nanaimo as nearly two feet of heavy wet snow was coming down, a rare occurrence on the island!