Flat Susan had already been to Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Hinton, but there was one place on her list that she didn鈥檛 want to miss: the Jasper SkyTram.
The 12-inch paper cut out was spotted having a gander at Pyramid Mountain on March 23 with Roger and Shirley Roy.
Had the Hinton couple visited the Whistlers Mountain attraction 24 hours later, they could have snapped a selfie with their great-niece from Tisdale, Sask., who sent the cutout to them as part of a social studies project, from the summit instead of the base.
Unfortunately, that wasn鈥檛 in the cards.
On March 24, the SkyTram, which take visitors to the peak of Whistlers Mountain, opened its gates to the public, the earliest opening on record.
A day earlier as Flat Susan was packing up and heading back to Chez Roy in Hinton, members of the media and officials with the SkyTram and its parent company, Marmot Basin, hopped on the first flight of the year to the top of the mountain.
From there, it was into a set of snowshoes, available for rent at the top, out to the boardwalk and beyond the snow sculptures to Whistlers鈥� false summit.
The jaunt was a light one, friendly to visiting reporters with varying levels of alpine experience, however visitors looking to push their limits also have the option to venture further afield to avoid the mucky stage the valley bottoms go through in spring.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an activity you don鈥檛 really get to do in the alpine very often,鈥� marketing executive Erin Reade said. 鈥淚t takes a lot of effort to get into the alpine if you鈥檙e a good snowshoer and here, that鈥檚 where you get to start.鈥�
Jasper SkyTram general manager Todd Noble said the snowshoes give hikers the confidence to reach the true summit at 2,463 m above sea level even in the shifting conditions during the transition between winter and spring in the alpine.
鈥淭here are extra markings, bamboo, we put up to help you find the summit and stay on course, and there鈥檚 a summit marker,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s the snow disappears later in the season, a lot of people will start to use the trails from the upper station to access the Tonquin.鈥�
Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
