On December 1, high above the town of Jasper, a small group of local skiers and snowboarders were unloading from Marmot Basin’s Paradise chairlift. It was a chilly morning, there was a trace of new snow on the ground and a quick glance at the ski tenure below indicated that the groomed runs were in ...

//Alain Denis I first ran into Fred Beckey at the Banff Book and Film Festival in 1994, where he tried stealing my girlfriend (something he was known for). By David Harrap I met him again 13 years later. It was late afternoon and he was coming out of a Jasper bakery. A scruffy stooped figured, raw b...

“When was the last time you did something for the first time?” The catchphrase at the bottom of Joe Storms’ business card is a challenge in no uncertain terms. And so, with an invitation to experience canyoning with Storms and his nascent Jasper National Park company, Rocky Mountain Canyoning, I too...

Talbot Lake is ultra-clear, shallow, and full of fish. Located 30 kilometres east of Jasper, Talbot offers the ideal day trip for a fishing adventure of the toothy kind. And while the park is chalk-full of opportunities to catch all manner of trout, Talbot represents the only readily accessible body...

By Doug Olthof Standing at the top of Sunset Peak, the Queen Elizabeth and Colin ranges pouring out in front of us and bathed in the soft, oran ge light of a summer sunset, I had no doubt that our decision to walk off the trail near Snow Bowl c ampground had been a good one. The mosquitos in camp we...

One of Canada’s premier fishing experiences is Maligne Lake. Surrounded by snow peaked mountains, Maligne’s glacier-filled waters boast an abundance of mint-silver rainbow trout and highly colourful eastern brook trout. The fishing can range from challenging to magnificent, and the relationship betw...

Every year I anticipate the May long weekend fishing opener in the Mountain Parks. While there are a number of optio ns available for fishing, my sights are always set on one place: Pyramid Lake. There are so many things that draw me there. I love that Pyramid Mountain stands sentinel directly to th...

Peter Amann doesn’t have a bucket list. The 62-year-old mountain guide doesn’t have a catalog of peaks he needs to climb to feel like he’s been successful in the mountains. He doesn’t concern himself with all the 11,000 foot summits, for example, and he doesn’t care much about what others regard as ...

He may by hard of sight, but after 88 years in Jasper, Jack Pugh has seen it all. Jack Pugh’s father, George, was 18-years-old and newly arrived from England when he disembarked from the train in Stony Plain, Alberta. It was March 1906, 20 degrees below zero, and Stony Plain was the end of the rails...