It’s January 19^th and 21 Ski Club members were boarding a bus for Chicago O’Hare airport for an international flight to Alberta, Canada. One of them being our own Carl Cortese with two of his son’s meeting us at check-in at O’Hare. Getting to O’Hare a little early turned into a blessing for our club as for the Champaign Ski Club came into the same Air Canada ticket counter were to be on the same totally full flight as us to Canada. More about why that is so important later.

Going though security at O’Hare was much less of a hassle then we had anticipated and we all were at our gate or the nearest bar in the airport in short order.

Our flight into Calgary, Alberta was uneventful and on-time Once we arrived at Calgary International Airport we were to learn how lucky we were by arriving a little early at O’Hare. Because our flight was full of passengers and over weight from Chicago to Calgary the ground attendants had removed the heavy items on top in the baggage compartment from our plane to make it lighter. If you guessed they removed the skis of the Champaign Ski Club that was loaded after ours you are correct. Their skis were still in Chicago and they were in Calgary but that fact would prove to be only a minor problem on this trip compared to what else was to befall them, more about them later.

Speaking of food while Barbara and Charles Luthy was having breakfast one morning……well tell you what…….. lets let Barbara tell you in her own words.

One morning at breakfast in the Banff Springs Hotel, Charlie and I were being served by a young man who looked very much like one of our sons.  In fact, they have the same first name, Christian.  He was very pleasant, and we chatted with him.  We told him about his resemblance to our son.  After giving him our room number, he brought our bill to be signed and said, "Are you related to our Executive Chef, Martin Luthy?"  Charlie explained that we would just about have to be, because all the Luthy come from a small area in Switzerland, near Bern.  He asked if we would like to meet Martin and that if we did he would pass the information to Martin's office with no promises.  After skiing that day, we came back to the hotel to find a message saying that Martin would love to meet us and that he would like to give us a tour of the kitchens the next day at 3:30.  The next afternoon, John Potter, Kenny and Rosemarie Etcheson, Charlie and I went to meet Martin, escorted by the Director of Food Services.  Martin had not changed the "I to y"  when coming to this country, and was thus Martin Luthi.  He was curious about why Charlie's family had.  But, indeed, there is a relationship, Martin comes from the same small area that Charlie's family does, and said that all Luthy (Luthis) are related.  We were served a version of high tea in Martin's office, and then he conducted a tour of the kitchens which had recently been renovated.  It was very interesting.  We were thrilled to meet Martin.

Many thanks to Barbara for her personal human interest story for this trip.

The skiing at Sunshine Mountain and Lake Louise was outstanding almost every day and mother-nature blessed us with new soft powder during our week long stay in Alberta.

If you ask some of the members who went on the Banff trip about wild life you are sure to hear about the people they met in some of the bars they went to after skiing for the day. Other members would speak of seeing a seven point royal elk grazing along side of the road on the bus trip up to Sunshine Village Ski resort. A couple would talk about seeing a couple of wild wolfs walking across a open field near the town of Banff or a weasel along side of a ski trail who had climbed not so far up a small tree that he could still be seen.

All in all a great time was had by every member of our group and many wanted to make the trip to Banff Springs Hotel a yearly event

Something to think about at the next Winter Trips planning meeting. Oh by the way the Champaign Ski Club got trapped at there ski resort by a n avalanche and were unable to make their return flight with us to Chicago till the next day.