In summer, Jasper, Alberta teems with tourists who come from around the world to hike, paddle and enjoy the scenic splendour of Jasper National Park — the largest of the four national parks that make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks.
When the temperature drops, this charming small town is transformed into a frosty wonderland where winter sports enthusiasts of all kinds, hailing mostly from Alberta, come to play in the snow, visit galleries, sip local brews, soak in spas and generally chill out.
The mountain town especially springs to life during “Jasper in January,” an event-packed annual festival that shakes up the town with culinary celebrations, street parties, winter games and events at Marmot Basin Ski Resort.
Here are a few highlights from my “Jasper in January” experience, keeping in mind that the festival offers new adventures every year!
(*Update: This year’s fest runs January 17 — February 2, 2020. Please note, as well, that the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge’s Orso is now open exclusively during summer months, with the lodge offering winter dining options that include The Emerald Lounge and Moose’s Nook Chophouse.)
Jasper National Park / Photo by Ryan Bray courtesy Parks Canada
THE DRIVE
The epic Icefield Parkway (Highway 93 North) between Lake Louise and Jasper is one of the most spectacular drives in Canada, a huge attraction unto itself.
Built as a Depression-era, make-work project in the 1930s — where two teams of labourers, one starting from Jasper and the other from Lake Louise, built a road up the spine of the Rockies and met in the middle — the Parkway in winter can be a bear.
Leave the white-knuckle driving to the pros. SunDog Tour Company‘s shuttle buses ply the routes between Calgary and Edmonton International Airports and Jasper, with points in between, and their drivers know the road intimately. They carry chains and satellite phones because you’re often out of cell range.
Sit back, ogle the icefalls, the glaciers, the soaring mountains and the occasional, attention-seeking bighorn sheep.
Bonus points: In a heart-clutching moment after arriving at my hotel, I realize I’d left my camera on the bus. SunDog staff retrieved it and dropped it off at my hotel early the next day. They’re that nice.
Icefield Parkway / Courtesy Tourism Jasper
THE HOTEL
Warm and welcoming, the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre Jasper at the east end of the townsite is popular with business types, families and snow hounds. It’s nabbed several environmental and management awards.
Owned and operated by the Sawridge Cree First Nation of Slave Lake, Alberta, which also owns three other hotels in the province, these accommodations pay subtle tribute to their First Nations roots with a natural yet modern decor featuring local wood and stone accented with fireplaces and Indigenous art.
Rooms are spacious and spotless, with lots of plug-ins at desk level for all of your requisite electronic devices. Friendly staff are there to answer your every question. And you can soothe your end-of-day sore muscles with a massage in the spa or spend time in the pool, Jacuzzi and eucalyptus steam room.
Bonus points: The dry mountain air leaves you parched but this hotel’s got you covered with complementary lemon water and iced tea in the lobby, plus a soothing line of peppermint-sage amenities from Mother Earth Essentials in the guest rooms. Mother Earth Essentials is the brainchild of Edmonton’s Carrie Langevin, who comes from a long line of Cree medicine women. A packet of wild rose and cranberry infused Epsom salts for the bath was especially welcomed after an active day spent in the frigid outdoors.
Ice sculpture / Sawridge Inn and Conference Center Jasper / Photo by Valerie Berenyi
THE BIG OUTSIDE
Parks Canada is encouraging people to embrace the winter weather with its Whirlpool Winter Hub, where visitors and locals can warm up in a shelter, enjoy a picnic and attend an interpretive program. Located 20 minutes south of Jasper on Highway 93A (the old Jasper-Banff Highway), this area is a mecca for cross-country skiing.
The 14-km Whirlpool Trail offers gentle terrain with river views, while the longer 23.2-km Cavell Road option gives advanced skiers a lung-conditioning 550-metre climb with the reward of breath-catching views. You can also snowshoe the 3-km Athabasca Falls River Route with its panoramic views from along the river’s south edge.
This year during Jasper in January, join Parks Canada’s senior interpreter Brian Catto at Whirlpool Winter Hub for a variety of programs, including a Dark Sky Snowshoe.
This night time snowshoe adventure is a chance to immerse yourself in the dark, far from light pollution, and experience the star-rich and moonlit skies of Jasper National Park. Catto will teach visitors about nocturnal adaptations that help animals of the park (humans included) see in the dark.
Bring your snowshoes, if you have them, or borrow a free pair from the Whirlpool Winter Hub.
Bonus points: The public can take a peek into the world of wildlife research in Jasper National Park with a wildlife snowshoe program that includes lessons on basic tracking, tools and equipment that parks experts employ and a visit to a wildlife camera site.
Jasper National Park / Photo by Adam Greenberg courtesy Parks Canada
THE MEAL
Sometimes, a little spoiling is in order after all that fresh air and exercise. The Orso Trattoria at the historic Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge knows how to pamper. And then some. Orso, or “bear” in Italian, replaced the venerable hotel’s more formal Edith Cavell dining room in 2015 with a relaxed, luxurious vibe and a contemporary take on Northern Italian fare.
The hotel’s executive chef Christopher Chafe imported what he describes as a beautiful but difficult Italian pasta machine (European wiring). They worked out the kinks and now all of the pastas are freshly made in house.
We indulge in a four-course dinner, including a sumptuous East-meets-West tagliatelle with lobster claws, lobster reduction and pancetta. The latter, aka Italian bacon, is smoked and cured in the hotel kitchens using pork raised at Twin Meadows Organics, a farm just over the B.C.-Alberta border near McBride.
Farm and hotel have formed a partnership: Twin Meadows supplies Fairmont JPL with heirloom produce and some meats; in turn, the Fairmont JPL provides the farm with waste vegetable oil to power its farm equipment.
Bonus points: The Tarte de Nero with Pistachio Ice Cream and Biscotti Crumble, essentially a dark-chocolate tart, will leave you swooning.
Orso Trattoria / Photo courtesy Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
Editor’s note: Thanks to writer Valerie Berenyi and to our partners in tourism for making our latest post at Toque & Canoe a reality. For other stories by our senior editor, check out Wilderness City and Beyond, Puss’n (hiking) boots, Cold Land Warm Heart and Hotel Arts: The smart hipster’s sexy new hang-out.
Founded by two Canucks on the loose in a big country, Toque & Canoe is a blog about Canadian travel culture.
