Bamf.

[dancinglights]

I spent most of last week in Banff, a small tourist town for snowbirds at the edge of the Canadian Rockies. This was made possible, even mandatory, because astronomers who have their budgets cut to the point where their projects can only afford to meet as a work-all-weekend add-on to another conference and its airfare costs are good at finding

Comments

[kiarrith]

beautiful. wish there were loved ones with you.

[miss_adventure]

The Canadian government had a policy of starving Plains First Nations to make way for the railway. Clearing the Plains is an excellent, if heartbreaking, account of what happened and the fallout that aboriginal communities are still experiencing as a result. So, some degree of sympathy and understanding. In the past century-and-a-bit it's a land of devastating loss, even as it's a landscape of remarkable beauty.

Great pictures.

[dancinglights]

Thanks for the link; I'll check it out. I've known, some before and some because of your recent shared research that First Nations folks been treated tragically across the border, but I don't know many of the details. Less guns and more erasure and policy, as Person recently called it.

It really is an absolutely beautiful place, and with the cost of access already occurred, I feel like one ought to see it if pulled to, and acknowledge the mess, and spend one's money and attention wisely. Which is pretty much how I feel about most wild places in either country, Southwest included. White people, still ruining this whole continent.

(DSLR pictures still forthcoming! Given my lenses, the phonecamera almost makes it obsolete.)

[thewronghands]

Jawdroppingly stunning scenery; thanks for sharing. I've been meaning to go to Banff for years and have not made it out there yet... what incentive! Don't be too rough on yourself about the time up; vertical gain just kicks one's time right into the gutter. The trail runs are like that too.