Home in the frozen north

[Kugelblitz]

Hello all.
Just got back from a three week stay in my homeland of Canada a few days ago. Unfortunately I missed out on comet Lovejoy and any of the aurora thanks to clouds and blizzards, as well as -37°C temperatures killing the battery life of my camera.

On the upside, Alberta and British Columbia in the Winter are absolutely beautiful places to be.

Photos are of:
-Big male elk walking on a frozen lake.
-Rocky Mountains seen from above.
-Mountains leading into Jasper.
-Red squirrel I chased for an hour trying to get a good photo of.
-Scenery from Pyramid Lake.
-Pyramid Mountain from as seen from the Jasper Park Lodge.
-Smiling Beluga whale :) (Vancouver aquarium)

[Retrograde]

Very nice!

[Ric]

Nice images Marcus

love that squirrel shot, it looks like he's really wishing spring would arrive.

Cheers

[astronobob]

Very fortunate to be able travell OS, I cant imaging whats like in Snow/frozen parts, -37 Faar out...
The arial over the Rockies would be an unltimate experience !!
All Very Coool captures :cold:

[rcheshire]

Wonderful. Quite a contrast to July. Around 30C in Jasper. It's just a superb place to visit. Nice to see it in the winter.

The Belugas and Dolphin were a delight. An Australian couple nearby were saturated, much to everyone's amusement. But I understand these are rescue animals and unlikely to thrive in the wild.

The squirrels came within inches of us during a mountain bike ride near Banff. The Elk were rutting. It was all new and exiting.

[Kugelblitz]

Thanks guys.
I don't think the squirrel was the only one wishing spring would arrive (amazing amount of upside down/stuck cars on the way into Edmonton).

At temperatures below -20, you'd get some pretty interesting and annoying phenomena. Mucus in your nose freezes, tripod joints freeze up and on a couple nights there was this weird ice fog that created neat pillars of light above streetlights, kinda like these; http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131218.html