We had breakfast at the hotel, and then had to make a quick stop at Sobeys for some supplies before heading to the mountains.

It was a rather snowy and windy day, and we encountered a number of accidents, black ice patches and white out sections along Hwy 1. We took it slow, and the weather started to clear as we were approaching Canmore.

As our check-in time in Lake Louise isn’t until later in the afternoon, we decided to stop in Banff and do some shopping. We picked up some more nice ski clothing (because you can never have enough!), and explored our favourite shops and art galleries on Banff Avenue.

After a quick lunch and exploring Banff for a few hours, we headed back to the van and resumed our drive toward Lake Louise. We have a nice Lakeview Suite here for the next 10 nights. It’s quite spacious, with a big bathroom, a great view over the lake, and lots of storage for our ski clothing.

Below is the separate living area off the master bedroom.  We had a lovely welcome amenity, with a large fruit platter in the living room that was replenished daily, and two platters of sweets in the bedroom.

Here is the view out one of the windows.

We have dinner reservations at The Fairview tonight, which is one of our favourite restaurants. Before dinner, we took some time to explore the Chateau grounds, which featured the many ice sculptures from the recent competition that is held here every January.

Here is the Chateau Lake Louise outdoor Ice Bar.

They moved the ice castle this year. Instead of being in the middle of the large skating rink, it’s in front of it, leaving a more open ice rink behind.

After a nice relaxing walk around the grounds, we returned to our room to dress for dinner.