Luciano136 wrote:Canmore is beautiful and near some pretty awesome stuff. Would be WAY too cold for my liking in winter though. Seemed pretty small to have a lot of diversity in food and people as well.
Not as cold as folks speculate. The Rockies angle west as they gain latitude. Vancouver has bay like weather. Canmore is the most protected mountain town I have seen in terms of wind and inverted warmth (called Chinooks). Way warmer than where I grew up in the midwestern states where wind chills factor in.
Another item most folks don't realize is that Canada is just way more diverse than the US in terms of demographics, no matter what community you want to look at. Calgary has the biggest rodeo in the world basically, no doubt an oil and cow town. However, it has specific Asian markets the size of Costco (i.e. Korean, etc) and its own China town that rivals any outside of San Francisco. Canmore, at approx 11-13K in population has the most diverse population of anywhere I have lived or visited. Half of my friends from Canmore, including some on summitpost, have an eastern European background (Czechs, Croatians, Pols, Bulgarians, Hungarians, etc. The restaurants offer the best selection of any town we have ever lived in, and are particularly diverse. Compared to Incline Village which is a much wealthier town in the US of about the same size, there is no contest. One of our favorite sushi places anywhere is a family owned establishment in Canmore, despite being that far from the west coast. Organic and free range is most abundant, whereas it is non-existent in southern Utah. In fact we never go out to eat in St. George, pop over 100K. Every restaurant in Canmore has outdoor seating. None in St. George do, despite the weather differential. Albeit one "Harbucks" (msp) does exist now, the locally owned coffee shops per capita in Canmore has to be a record for any mountain town. And there has been literally no turnover in these establishments. Some close friends of ours started a restaurant named the Trough Dining Co. which is now considered one of the top restaurants in all of Canada.
You don't hear me bragging about Canmore much, in fact this is the first time I really ever have, because in reality, I just as well the masses in general continue to perceive it as too cold and touristy (thinking of Banff). It is the only mountain town I have ever lived that you cannot go anywhere, grocery store, whatever, without running into folks you actually climb, run or ski with whereas most of the talented folks I climb with in the desert are quite transient.
All being said, I still don't think it is the right choice for Michelle, by a long shot. For my wife and I, it is pretty spectacular. Every little community in that region of Alberta has community, not for profit, horse paddocks (horse co-ops if you will) on potentially valuable set aside Provincial or Federal lands. Never heard of such a thing in the lower 48. Climbing and extreme fitness is the lifestyle choice of that community, including many of the winter Olympic athletes.
I do believe in the end, it would lack the consumerism (no Walmarts, big nightclubs, shows, movie theaters, bowling allies, or malls) that most in the lower 48 or Europe do crave as part of their living environment despite what they might admit to on a board discussion.
Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 4:26 pm