Smithers

This dude greeted us at the airport. Wouldn’t want to meet him out hiking.

We arrived last night here at Smithers. Getting here involved driving from Red to Kelowna - 4 & 1/2 hrs with stops, hanging around the airport waiting for the next flight to Vancouver, and then flying from Vancouver to Smithers around a 90 min flight and picking up the rental car. I think it took longer to get the car organised than to fly from Kelowna to Vancouver. So all and all it took like 12 hrs to get here. Whew.

There is is Hudson Bay Mountain. Don’t worry the ski area is lower on the LHS - so we should survive.

Smithers is around 650km north of Vancouver. A quick hop up on a small plane from YVR. Yesterday was a lovely clear day so the views from the plane were stunning, even if the wing and propeller were somewhat restrictive. So many Mountains and trees. (it should be disclosed that AJ specifically asked weasel no. 1 to select seats further up the plane).

With a population of 5,000 people and centered in the middle of the Buckley Valley, Smithers seems to be somewhat of a service hub for the area. There sure is a ton of traffic compared to Rossland and Trail. It does remind Weasel No 1 of Whitefish in Montana. Smithers has embraced the pseudo Austrian/Bavarian theme and even has a clock. It does add character to everything. The morning was spent checking out every interesting shop in the main shopping area down town. Out door activities are big around here - Hiking, biking, cross country skiing, ice skating and most importantly down hill skiing, which we of course are here for. The valley around here also has lots of local artisans making soaps, jellies, honey, wood work and general crafty stuff. Very cool. A good coffee shop has also been discovered and the town has a wide variety of dining venues which will get us thru the week.

No Bavarian inspired town would be complete without a clock.

We will be hitting the hill tomorrow - wish us luck as the snow here has been abysmal this year as you can see in the photo above. Usually the roads are still covered by snow at this time of the year.