Hater Quest 2011 - Day 1: Calgary to Revelstoke...the long way

So we made it and it was a struggle. We got into YYC at 10:30 but arrived in Revelstoke at 10...all because of avalanches. A smooth sceneic, 5 hour daytime drive turned into something like 7 hours
in the dark.

The day started off well enough, but with a super early departure...



After some shopping in Calgary for some essentials and a new camera we made our way to Banff. The drive was smooth as silk and the weather a cool 3 degrees. Driving on a 200km straight line stretch is a two person effort don't you know... Brand new Chevy Malibus are crap.



Made it to Banff in record time.



Quick stop off at Lake Louise to catch the view...



We wanted to go to to Moraine Lake but the 18km hike was too intimidating...



Driving to Revelstoke became a shit storm as the highway between Lake Louise and Golden got closed due to avalanches and would not re-open until after 7pm. So the 3 hour drive turned into nearly 5 as we had to backtrack all the way to Radium Springs, then head up north to Golden from another direction.

Once we got to Golden shit got too real as the roads were pure nightmare in the dark. We also found out the highway to Lake Louise was still closed around 8. Now the last leg to Revelstoke...Imagine 20 foot high snow banks, slush on the road that froze over no light form anywhere. That last leg was killer and took twice as long.



Anyway we made it and Revelstoke is a pretty big town compared to Golden at least.

Funny enough there's a Denny's attached to our hotel...I can see this getting even more real unhealthy real fast. It's 11pm now and everyone else has passed out.



Tomorrow we get up early and hit the Stoke.