The True Great White North

Edit: After writting I realized it's a long one, so read at your own risk.

This past weekend my 2 buddies and I decided to get in the car and visit our friend in Montreal. However, upon starting the journey at 6:00PM last thursday I discovered we were actually heading further then Montreal, actually we were heading north of Quebec City. Since I usaully refuse to drive longer the 4 hours, or venture anywhere I have ot put more cloths on then where I left from, I had no idea how far Quebec City is. As it turns out, quebec city is a short 11 hour drive from St. Catharines, way above my allowable limits. Regardless of the long drive it was a good time, so here is the recap of my last 4 days.

Thursday was a rough one. I first started out the day driving to Oshawa and back for business. That sucked in it's own right. I got home from there around 2:30, hoped in the shower, packed a bag, ran to the ski shop to rent a board, and I was back on the road by 4:00pm. We had some miscommunication about where to meet in Hamilton, and didn't end up getting on the road officially till 6:00PM. I started off driving first, which lasted untill I got back to Oshawa. At that point I had enough and deffered the next 9 hours to Preston and Darnel. We went through 3 DVDs (first time I ever used the DVD player in my truck) and a few pit stops, and the next thing we know it's 4:00AM and we are at our destination of Stoneham, Quebec. Basically a small ski village in the middle of Quebec.

Friday we get up as early as possible, 10:00Am, and quickly get our gear together and head for the slopes. We didn't quite make it to the first chair lift as fast as we could. We figured a quick beer, Tremblay Lager which became a fixture for 2 days, was necessary before braving the cold conditions. It actually was 0 degrees and got up to about 8, but whatever you need to tell yourself to start drinking at 10:00 am was good for me. We finally hit the slopes and made about 2 runs, at which point we decided another Tremblay was necessary. Our friend brian was running a booth at the bottom of the hill selling Hats for this snowboard event that was going on, so we had an endless supply of free beer and food which helped pass the day. I think we got about 7 or 8 runs done for the day, and polished off about 4 or 5 beers each and ate a tonne of food. Slight buzz, little sore from the snowboarding, and full of food, good day. Our buddy Darnel took some pretty bad spills over the course of the day, so he bowed out early with a sore neck, we did one more run, and it was back to the condo for some "relaxing time". Some details won't be mentioned on this due to the readership of this blog.

After getting our shit together we headed to Qubec City for a nice dinner. We picked a great steakhouse called Chabon. We had a few bottles of wine, couple rye and gingers, and some great steaks, and got back to our chalet around 11:30. With little to no sleep, a day on the slopes, to much alchol, and I was passed out within 15 mins of return home. Solid Day.

The second day was a little slugish. We tried out best to get up, but didn't end up leaving the chalet untill around 12:00. We geared up and made our way over to the booth were Tock was working. However, our attempt to hit the slopes was impeaded by Tromblay once again. After a quick one, we left Tock to work and went to take a few runs. On the way up the chair lift we shifted gears. Instead of taking some runs, we opted out and skiied right back the the chalet. Chilled there for about and hour and half before returning to see Tock. He asked how the boarding was, we lied at first, but eventually clued him in. Preston and Darnel were pretty much done for the day, after 2 runs, so Tock and I left them and made a couple passes down the mountain. We returned back to the chalet a few hours later expecting to see Preston and Darnel sleeping or something, but there were no where to be find. No need to worry, about 1/2 hour later they showed up, completely hammered. I guess Mr. Tromblay convinced them to hang out at the mountain for a bit and the 3 of them for aquintainted. I could already tell this was going to a bad place. Tock and I had to do some catching up. We figured it would be all good, cause it was starting to snow like a bastard and we weren't going anywhere. So Tromblay and boss started flowing. Around 8:00 we stumbled over to some shitty reasturant at the bottom of the hill. With a few vodka redbulls for an appetizer we were feeling ambitous. We decided to check out the Jamming Jamboree. Unfortuntaly, due to the massive storm and all the athletes staying in Quebec City, the party left a little something to be desired. Ya, like a desire to pound more alchohol into our bodies. So after 2 or 3 hours and $200 spent on rye and gingers, we began out trek (500 yards, seemed like a mile) back to the condo.

I should mention a little about the condo here. We were staying on the third floor of this small complex. Maybe 20 feet off the ground. Upon arrival we had noticed how much snow there was and began the age old question of "Can you jump off here into the snow?" Well suprise, suprise, a couple tens of rye and gingers all of a sudden made it possible. With a little coaxing I had Preston and Darnel all strapped up in boots and snowpants. Of course, this turned into a typical pissing contest and the next thing I know the 3 of us are fully dressed and standing on the balcony. Before I knew it, Preston was over the rail and in the snow down below. I look at Darnel with a the look of, I aint doing that, he turns away, hopes the rail and he's down. Of course I'm not going to be the only one not to jump, so I take the plundge. Piece of cake. Funny thing, Darnel having sturggled to get out of the drift, was just laying there, so I took the oppurtunity to jump on him and give him a huge whitewash (rubbing as much snow as possible in the face) in 12 feet of snow, classic, basically baried him there. There was alteast 12 feet of snow, so it was a soft landing, but snow up to my armpits. The tough part was climbing out of there. Making our way through 12 feet of snow arond the building to get to the front door. We make are way thourgh, up the stairs to our front door which locked upon closing due to the keycard entry. I knock on te door, no answer. O.k. Tock was just taking a piss, he'd open it soon. I knock again, no answer. O.k. whats up? I knock once more, no answer. I then turn around and standing right behind me in order of jumpers, Preston, Darnel, and the surpise jumper Tock. I say "What are you doing out here?"" I jumped, wasn't going to be the only pussy." At this very moment, we all realized our key into the door was actually standing right behind, except the actual key to the door was on the other side sitting on the table. Thinking in the best possible mindframe of 20 rye and gingers, we come up with a plan to climb back up the balconies. For the record, I knew this wasn't possible but Preston is pretty determined on the sauce. So we tredge back through 12 feet of snow to attempt boosting Presto back up to the second balcony and then he would climb to the third. After a little talking, I was able to convince him it wasn't possible. So this is where it got tricky. The place we rented isn't a hotel, it's some guys condo who rents it out, probably living in Montreal. We are fucked. Are only option was to walk back over the the hill and hop something could be worked out. So we make our way back there and hit up the frint desk. Luckly for us, there was a spare key there and a horrible situation turned out not to bad. Nothing a few more pops and a boss couldn't fix.

Sunday moring we got back in the truck for another 11 hour drive, 3 hours of driving in a blizzard, and we were back home safe and sound. All in all, a great 4 days, tonnes of fun, and some good stories with the boys.