You're watching Vagabrothers,
and this is the Icefields Parkway in, Alberta, Canada.
Just touch down in Edmonton.
First stop: smallest distillery in Canada.
This is Strathcona Spirits Distillery.
Like Alex said, it's a very small place.
It used to be a music venue called the Baby Seal Club and like all of Edmonton in general,
this place is small, but it's got a lot of things going on.
It punches above its weight for food and drink in this city.
We're going to sample some of the local spirits and then start off an evening.
This is going to be an epic trip.
Edmonton...everything is for us by us and
the art scene is so....
It's like an incubator. It's so well collaborative in nature.
It's not competitive like all of the different spirits companies,
we feel like we're all in this together.
It really is us again the big guy.
...I think there's just this kind of.. we're all in it together vibe..
All right, so it's our first proper night in Edmonton.
We've been to Alberta two times before:
in the summer, in the fall,
and now we're about to do it in the winter.
We're going to be driving all the way down through the Icefields Parkway,
through Jasper Banf, Lake Louise, and down to Calgary..
But first we're experiencing some of the great things here in Edmonton.
I love Alberta.
I think that Canada in general is an amazing country.
But there's something special for me about Alberta.
I love the fact the Rocky Mountains are here, the prairies.
Kind of reminds me of Colorado's good vibes all around.
Canadians and Albertians in particular are a unique breed,
and I'm really excited to do this road trip again.
I think that road tripping through the Rockies is a pleasure any time of year..
Snowboarding, I think we're going to go dog sledding,
and there's just a lot of really cool things.
Well, we have made it to dinner.
We're at a restaurant called Woodwork.
The chef here is named David Leader.
The food so far has been incredible.
and we are only really getting started.
Got some cocktails.
But right now we have a little potato gnocchi with fresh truffle. The main show, Alberta steak.
We have been driving for the better part of the day.
We left Edmonton, and we've been on the road for about four hours now,
but we're finally starting to get into the Rocky Mountains.
Jasper is about 45 minutes away.
We'll be hanging out at the Jasper Fairmont,
and we're going to be doing some snowboarding, exploring the Jasper National Park.
But it's so cool because we've driven this same stretch of highway,
but in a different season.
The last time we were here, all the trees were turning
so they were yellow and there was no snow on the ground.
Sunlight breaking through the clouds,
and I'm just super excited.
The Canadian Rockies are gorgeous,
and we're going to be going down the Icefields Parkway
It's essentially a scenic freeway that connects Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff.
We'll be coming around and exiting out by Calgary in a couple of days, but
today and the next couple of days we'll be based out of Jasper.
It's a national park.
There's a wilderness lodge that's very famous, very historic.
We'll be staying there tonight, going up to Marmot Basin tomorrow to go snowboarding.
Well, we've just passed into the park,
and we've been greeted by a huge herd of bighorn sheep
So cool to see these animals out here.
It's actually pretty difficult to imagine how they survive,
but I'm sure they have a nice thick coat of fur.
But it's crazy.
They're just climbing up these vertical cliff walls,
and they're doing it so easily.
We are visiting their world, not the other way around.
When you're driving through here, you know, this was like an Alberta roadblock.
They were all in the middle of the highway, yet semi trucks pulling over to stop
and let these animals pass, and that's a beautiful thing.
We have just arrived to our hotel, the Jasper Fairmont Lodge.
The view out the window is spectacular..
There's just beautiful light on the mountains right now.
The sun sets pretty early around here in the winter time.
I think it's like 4:30 or 5:00 when the sun goes down,
but you can get some pretty spectacular sunsets.
All right, good morning from Jasper.
It's 7:45 in the morning.
We're down here at the Orsa Trattoria in Fairmont, and
we're having an incredible breakfast buffet.
We'll fuel up, warm up, drink a bunch of coffee, and then head up
to Marmot Basin to go snowboarding.
Whoo, Marmot Basin.
First day, first run of the day,
and this is a beautiful mountain.
We are surrounded by the beauty of the Rockies,
and we're here with Joe who works here
and is going to show us some of the routes on the mountain.
Yeah. What are we in for today, Joe?
So whatever you guys want, really.
Hopefully maybe try to find some fresh tracks. So we're going to be covering up
yeah, just a little warm-up this morning, maybe rip through some trees and
then once we get going, we'll maybe take a hike up and see if we can find some fresh powder.
We're climbing up along a ridge line
to get some access to some fresh powder.
It snowed a couple days ago here.
I'm just going to try to get some fresh tracks.
This is cool. It's my second run of the season.
We've done a couple of runs and now we've just linked up with the ski patrol,
and they're taking us to a little back bowl
that hasn't been opened in a while.
So there's some fresh snow,
but we're going to let Cam here
tell us what we're about to get into.
My name is Cam McClellan.
I'm the assistant director of public safety here at Marmot Basin, and we're about to head into
some of our newer terrain, Tres Hombres.
It's been closed for the last couple days because some
recent cold temps, wind, and a bit of new snow.
It's a fairly large Alpine feature that we have access to,
thanks to the use of explosive control work and our avalanche control team.
Looking to have a good time with you guys down here. Here we go.
Switching to GoPro?
GoPro on.
That was an awesome day on the mountain.
Definitely a first that you can't beat the scenery, honestly.
Looking out at the valley, just absolutely gorgeous,
but I think it's time to warm up.
A little apres? A little apres.
The only thing better than ski is the apres ski,
so we're going to go ahead to Jasper, which is a beautiful town and
have some dinner and some drinks.
Alright ladies and gentlemen, the sun has gone down.
It's time to eat.
We've come into town here in Jasper,
and we're going to the Jasper Brewing Company,
a local craft brewery,
to grab some beers and some dinner
and cap off a really good day.
Alright, so we're now inside the Jasper Brewing Company, very cozy,
warm spot from a respite from the cold and I've ordered a flight of six beers.
There are six best beers good way to have a little sample of what they have,
and they also have got all this wild game on the menu,
so we're going to get some wild boar ribs and some elk meatloaf.
See how that goes.
The food has arrived. We have a big slab of ribs, some mac and cheese.
Mark has an elk meatloaf.
Hopefully it's not the elks that we saw outside earlier today.
Beautiful morning here in Jasper National Park,
but we are heading south, down what's known as the Icefields Parkway.
It's a scenic highway that connects us all the way down to Banf,f and
it's got some of the most beautiful scenery in all of North America.
Well, we just pulled over on the Icefields Parkway.
We haven't made it about an hour outside of Jasper,
but there's just so many scenic overlooks here. It's insane.
Very few places where you get this pristine mountain landscape.
Behind me you can see the Columbia Icefield.
There are huge glaciers stretching all the way up this little valley in between these peaks,
and all the peaks surrounding us are covered in giant ice floes, giant glaciers,
you know ice that's thousands of years old and
right now we're like the only people out here, so it's pretty incredible.
It's definitely a humbling feeling, but for me personally,
I feel recharged when I go to nature.
So coming out here being surrounded by this beautiful silence,
it's just the best way to do it.
Right now we're finishing our day on the Icefields Parkway in a truly incredible place.
It's called Abraham Lake,
and although there are many lakes up here in the Rockies,
what makes this one distinct is the bubbles that form in the ice of the lake.
We're actually standing on top of the lake right now.
All the way behind me is the lake and
what's happening essentially are these bubbles rising up from methane.
So the air around the methane is frozen, trapping the bubbles in the lake,
and the minerals from all the glaciers and from the minerals in the water
and so what also happens is that the wind blows off some of the excess snow drift
and you can actually see the ice of the lake.
So I have this little windshield wiper.
We're going to wash off a little bit of snow and take a look at this natural wonder.
This is crazy. I've never seen anything like it.
You have these big frozen white bubbles inside of the ice, and
I think as a Californian, it's kind of strange to be standing in the middle of a frozen lake.
We always hear like horror stories about people falling through the ice here in Canada.
The winters are long and they're cold,
and so the ice is very, very thick,
but this is definitely a unique geological phenomenon,
and I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Well thank you for watching.
It's been a fun trip so far through the Icefields Parkway.
Jasper was great and this place is pretty incredible.
Just incredible scenery, beautiful vistas,
super friendly people, and
as always Alberta does not disappoint.
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And in the meantime,
stay curious, keep exploring, and we'll see you on the road,
the Icefields Parkway.
Peace. Later