Awestruck by the Rocky Mountains

Living in Moose Jaw means we are only about an eight-hour drive from the spectacular Rocky Mountains,

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Every time we drive to see this magnificent scenery, I am awestruck as the mountains suddenly emerge behind the Calgary skyline.

We've visited many times in the summer, which is always beautiful, but visiting in the winter offers a completely different experience.

We recently travelled to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Banff National Park, Alberta, where you have access to three fantastic ski resorts as well as a wonderful town in an unbelievable setting.

It's very different to skiing in Europe, which tends to be on a ski-in ski-out basis and while Sunshine Village does have Banff's only hotel on the slopes, which looks very luxurious, I enjoyed being able to experience the town in the evening.

We could wander around the shops and try out the restaurants and bars all against the backdrop of the beautiful, snow covered mountains and knowing we would be back at the top again the next day.

On our first day, we visited Mt. Norquay, which might be considered more of a local resort but certainly should not be overlooked.

It has some great, short fast runs and lift passes are cheaper than the Lake Louise Ski Area or Sunshine Village and the resort is also a lot nearer to the town of Banff — about a five minute drive.

I really enjoyed Mt. Norquay as it's quieter and there's a lot of great intermediate runs.

We also visited the Lake Louise Ski Area, which obviously has a beautiful setting where you can catch glimpses of the frozen Lake Louise.

You miss seeing its amazing blue colour on a winter trip — but there's the added advantage you can actually walk on the lake.

The ski area is about a 45 minute drive from the town of Banff but well worth getting up slightly earlier to hit the slopes.

The resort is spread across four mountain faces and has some lovely long tree-lined runs.

On one of the last runs of the day, I had to stop mid way down a run to take a stunning picture of the sun just lowering in the sky, sprinkling glitter out over the slopes and looking like the Star of Bethlehem.

I was also able to take part in a torch light dinner and ski, which was an amazing experience. I was a little scared at the thought of skiing down the mountain in the darkness with only a small headlight to guide me.

But it was a magical adventure — and I actually think I skied better when I couldn't see where I was going.

Watching for the lights of the guides and hearing the swish of skies all around me was a very intimate experience while knowing the wilderness of the slopes was out there in the shadows.

I have to admit though that Sunshine Village is my favourite resort. It's about a 20 minute drive from Banff and has amazing slopes where I can either challenge myself on the blacks or pretend I'm a brilliant skier on the blues.

There is so much powder at Sunshine that one day I even uttered the unbelievable words "there's too much snow".

It certainly made my husband laugh but I just meant I was finding it harder to turn and decided to head for more groomed runs.

While staying in Banff, I found out Sunshine is actually on a different weather system to the Lake Louise Ski Area so it's certainly worth checking out the forecast before deciding where to go.

Sunshine Village prides itself on the fact it never needs to make snow and instead concentrates on snow farming.

You can see fences set up on the windswept peaks to keep the snow in the right place on the slopes.

My favourite area at Sunshine has to be Goat's Eye Mountain as it has some really fast and fun runs, as well as some challenging blacks, which I was proud to do from the very top of the mountain to the lift without changing to a blue run half way down.

On Lookout Mountain, you can actually ski in two provinces on one run, which is quite fun.

But when we hopped into British Columbia, it was quickly pointed out to us we would have to pay more in taxes so we turned back to Alberta, where there's always plenty more to explore.

As we drove back to Moose Jaw at the end of our trip, we quickly swopped the mountains for the flat land of the prairies, which is equally impressive in its own way.

But we know we'll be back on the slopes again soon.

With such easy access from Moose Jaw, I'm not putting my skis away for the season yet.