Sounds big fun.

 

Banff to Vancouver is reeeeally flogging it

That’s a 10 hour drive plus stops and includes 2 very risky mountain passes and sunrise doesnt happen til 8.30am in January

 

Same comment, Banff to Van is a big ask in a day. Can be done but the planets have to line up. The extra day is easy to find, only takes an hour from Nelson to Rossland so you do that after lifts close.

 

another option is, if the weather is great, drive Kamloops stright to Whistler via hwy 99 and completely miss Vanvouver.

View are spectacult (provided the weather/roads are great)

 

Weekend crowds less an issue at Whitewater and Red because local population is small. Revy not too bad either. Banff area, KH, Pano and Fernie get slammed by Calgary people on weekends.

 

well that sounds easier

 

AH that makes more sense. Couldn't work out why you'd drive from Golden to Banff then backtrack to Van.

Good luck with the trip!

 

Did it once cos Air Canada weren't very agreeable to us dropping a sector - Van to Kamloops as they would cancel the rest of the ticket as a no show. And me thinking it was an achievable drive and spending an extra day in Banff to maximise our time. So I did the drive from Banff to Sun Peaks, dropped our gear off at the accommodation as no one was there and the accommodation manager let us do it, continued on our drive to Vancouver. Got in extremely early the next day, slept for a couple of hours in a motel and then back at the airport to fly back to Sun Peaks. NEVER again in one hit. Saw a truck rollover minutes after it happened leaving Lake Louise. Passed the remnants of an accident between Revelstoke and Salmon Arm and later found out it had been a fatal and it was extreme stress on me and probably dangerous to drive that far in the conditions we had. I did take regular rest stops but still a very tough and ambitious drive that I know better not to do next time.

 

Or it might be a sunny day with dry roads at the end of a high pressure week and you get easy going summer-like conditions the whole way. Who knows in winter. The one certainty is that it is folly to make plans and schedules a long time out that depend on good roads in January.

 

^^ yup...I don't know how many times we've been lectured by our Canadian friends to take it easy and be flexible. we have never rushed nor made stupid decisions and always back up our plans with a quiet conversation with a local....us silly Aussies driving on Canadian roads in winter have no idea !!!. I thank my friends for constantly giving us those genteel lectures over a glass or 2, or 3 of wine

 

and yet that video posted recently of crashes on the main hwy near Lake Louise - I susoect there were more Canadians than Ausies in that carnage

 

yes certainly !!!!! but my point is...us Aussies are good drivers yes, we are responsible yes, we don't take unnecessary risks yes...... but we are not used to driving in conditions that mother Canada throws at us and we should never assume we are ready for it and underestimate her unpredictable power. We don't get anywhere near the conditions here in Aus

 

more specifically, Canadians are flawed, with their experience of local conditions, so aussies need to be more bigilant

 

Bigilant? Sounds like Chinglish to me.

 

Not to mention that punctuation

 

There's a grammar Nazi thread over in the apres' section...

 

It's definitely australian, being vigilant, but still big headed about it

 

yeah but where's the typo nazi thread?

 

They're all pedants and not really worth the energy worrying about to be quite frank..

 

Doesn't Bigilant just mean Very Vigilant

 

Need a little dose of “cheer me up” this morning?

Here’s a fluffy kitten

 

Recommend an SUV, - they come with All mountain tires, but if you can get winter tires, its good to have them. Usually have to pay a bit extra per day.