A few weeks ago, I headed up to Lake Louise for the day to check out the Ice Magic Festival, specifically the international ice carving festival that was being held. I'd never seen ice carvings in real life and was eager to watch the international competitors in action. Each team had 34 hours to create huge ice carvings related to the theme 'Carve a Song'. I happened to be there at the tail end of the competition when there were just two hours of competition left, so the carvings were nearly complete. And they were absolutely magical ... huge, glistening towers of ice so delicately carved into beautiful statues. I spent a couple of hours wandering around checking out each carving team in action and watching a carving demonstration before heading to the lake to watch families skating on the lake and playing 'shinny', ice hockey without the equipment and with modified rules.
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| Chateau Lake Louise in ice |
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| Beautiful day for ice carving at Lake Louise |
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| Lovely Lake Louise in the background |
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| Chainsawing the ice ... |
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| ... then ironing it! |
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| Ice carving demonstration |
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| Warming up next to the Stump Stove |
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| The ultimate Canadian Rockies winter experience ... skating on Lake Louise |
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| ... or playing 'shinny' |
After hanging out near the lake, admiring the carvings, skating and shinny, I took a free historical walking tour of the Lake Louise area where we visited the Chateau and Deer Lodge, the other accommodation option at the lake.
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| I'm fascinated by these big snow globs that seem to 'melt' over a post and then re-freeze |
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| Snow and ice at Deer Lodge |
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| Icicles on the Chateau |
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