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All in the wild at Lake Louise and Banff
Lake Louise and Banff amped up the winter wonderland concept January 18-28 with a pair of events based around snow and ice.
Set in the spectacular surroundings of Lake Louise, the Ice Magic Festival is a world-class event with over 20 years of history.
Ice artists from around the world skillfully combined grueling physicality with precision artistry in the ice carving competition, with this year’s theme: All in the Wild.
Placed throughout the lakeside grounds of the Chateau Lake Louise, the carvings provided different viewings throughout the day as lighting changed – adding some extra magic to the Banff National Park attraction, located 290 km north of Cranbrook.
This year carvers came from as far away as the Philippines, Russia and Alaska, with Cranbrook’s own Rusty Cox and Steve Buzak also taking part in the competition with their entry ‘The Last Frontier.’ It was the 17th time Cox, chef at The Heidout Restaurant and Brewhouse, has taken part in Ice Magic.
During the same 11-day period, SnowDays was taking part in Banff.
Visitors and locals embrace the cold, vigour and fun that winter brings, make the most of recreational amenities and watch winter artistry in action as large pieces of snowy art come to life on Bear Street.
Our two-day tour of Lake Louise and Banff was a perfect tonic to wintery cabin fever.
It always strikes me as interesting how East Kootenay folks love to escape to the Banff National Park/Canmore area and folks living there come to our neck of the woods to escape. Makes for a nice societal and economic symbiosis.
Lead image: The top of the The Last Frontier, by Cranbrook’s Rusty Cox and Steve Buzak at Lake Louise’s Ice Magic Festival.
Photos and video by Carrie Schafer and Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
https://www.banfflakelouise.com/ice-magic-festival
