Dirty Stop Out......

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So the headline got you reading this blog huh......!?! Well I'm afraid to disappoint you as whilst I have spent two nights away from the Refuge they have both been with the group.

Last weekend we set off early on a road trip to Montreal. We left the Refuge early Saturday morning and headed off for our three hour journey to Montreal and it took us an hour before we made our first required coffee stop at Tim Hortons and an hour later came the cry "Marie-Eve are we nearly yet?....... No....... Marie-Eve I need the toilet.....!!!!". Anyway we got to Montreal for just past 12 and Marie-Eve headed off for a touch rugby game so the group and I headed off into Montreal with the map in hand. I have to say that Montreal was a big disappointment after Quebec. We wandered around the old town however it was nowhere near as picturesque as the old town of Quebec. If someone was to ask my opinion I would advise you to visit however you would only need a day or two at the maximum to see what you need to see.

Saturday night was La Nuit Blanche in Montreal and so they had lots of activities scattered around the town and many of the shops were open for 24 hours. After a chinese meal the group decided to head off to a bar and so Marie-Eve and I wandered down into the old town and wandered around until we were too cold and so headed off to the nearest cafe for a chocolat chaud and chai latte. We wandered back to the hostel around midnight.

We were staying in a centrally located hostel and had secured a room for all of us although there was a German guy also staying in the room, poor guy!!! Anyway a couple of the guys were already back when we rolled up so we chatted for a few minutes before heading to bed. Thankfully I fell asleep without any problem and only woke at 2.30am when the German guy came back and I scared both of us. He was sleeping on the bunk underneath me and must have disturbed me and so I sat bolt up right with a start and looked around the poor guy started apologising immediately for disturbing me but as soon as I realised where I was I apologised to him and lay back down and fell back to sleep.

Sunday morning and Marie-Eve and I had breakfast before she headed off for a rugby fitness test. After speaking to the guys who ran the hostel I went in search of some shops and specifically a bookshop. The next few hours were spent wandering around the shopping malls and apart from buying two books there were few other bargains to be had..... Its a hard life being on an unemployed/travelers budget!!

The journey home was uneventful however I will confess that as soon as we got into Quebec and the mountain came into view it did feel like I was home and a smile soon appeared on my face.

Monday soon rolled around and it was our last week of training with Marie-Eve. We all had a one-on-one session telling us where we stand for doing our level 2 exam and I was told that I am not ready however if I put my head down over the next two weeks then it may be a possibility...... Having had a eureka moment the week before I was determined that my progression would continue and for the next two weeks serious concentration and work will be put in.

Things went well and the snow conditions were great for much of the week. However due to the rain the week before the mogul runs were nasty however Marie-Eve was determined on Monday that we would do a run so we set off down the Soumande with the theory if it was too bad we could cut across to a different run a third of the way down. However when we reached the break in the piste Marie-Eve decided that despite them being horrendous and nasty we would continue since "we are ski instructors!!". Nasty does not describe how icy and grim the bumps actually were and the next day the whole run had been groomed!!

During the week we covered a lot of mileage which included many of the harder slopes on the mountain including the Super "S" which is a double black diamond (to give you an idea of the steepness of the slope the grooming machine needs to be attached by a cable at the top of the mountain in order to groom the piste!!) and the steepest slope on the mountain La Bete (The Beast!).

La Bete is normally a mogul run however due to the rain it had been groomed. I have to say for the first time in a number of weeks my heart sank as we stood at the top of the run as I can honestly say the piste looked like it just fell away at a 90 degree angle. Anyway we headed off down it and I survived and surprisingly and thankfully without falling over (its still unnerving however to lean out of the hill and not into it!).

Thursday, and our last day with Marie-Eve, was a bad day for me and I'm afraid to admit I spat my dummy out at one point. Having done La Bete we headed down one of the few mogul runs that hadn't been groomed, La Belle, a black diamond mogul run. After too many falls and me losing my temper a lot we got to the bottom however it was complete by me with no grace or style whatsoever.

Having finished our final lesson with Marie-Eve we all headed to the ski rental shop and picked up our snow shoes in anticipation of our overnight adventure. It had been organised for us to go snowshoeing locally and stay over in a refuge in the middle of the woods. All our food and sleeping stuff was taken to the refuge by skidoo so we only had to get ourselves there. Having kitted ourselves out and eventually figured out how the snow shoes went on our feet we headed off - with no map in hand as Marie-Eve had left it behind. After an hours snowshoeing and some minor cheating by using the cross country trails rather than the snowshoeing trails we found our refuge for the night.

The refuge was a small cabin in the woods that had sleeping benches for four however we had been provided with 8 mattresses so the floor it was..... Having had a fondue dinner we started up an Ultimate Shithead Tournament (Shithead is a card game for those who don't know). The premise was that if you lost two games you were out. The game was played by a mixture of candlelight and by head torches. Marie-Eve became the overall winner and whilst there was some cheating going on it wasn't by me!!!

Unsurprisingly an early night was on the cards and after the necessary visits to the toilet (the actual toilet being a shed with a whole in the ground with a seat over it was abandoned and the outdoors was favoured by all) I surprisingly fell quickly asleep. Unfortunately my slumber was disturbed at 3am by an en masse toilet trip. The first two people walked out of the refuge both letting the door slam behind them so Tom, the unfortunate third person, got the warning from me "slam the door and I'll slam you!!!" much laughter proceeded the comment however it had the desired effect and after a few more people standing on me to get to the loo (Marie-Eve and I got the short straw of the two beds nearest the door) I eventually went back to sleep to wake in the morning to a fresh snow fall and it was still snowing.

As a result of the 12cm snow flurry it made the snowshoeing a lot more fun and on the way back to the car we actually followed the true snowshoeing trails which turned into a full on work out with me huffing and puffing and shedding layers at a fast rate of knots!!

Last night we went to watch an ice hockey game - Quebec Remparts versus Cataractes Shawinigans. We were obviously cheering on the Remparts and they won 4-2. It was a really good game and the crowd were seriously getting into it. Unfortunately the Shawinigans didn't have too many supporters in the crowd and the game had been sold out so there was lots of booing when they had possession.....

The rest of the weekend is a quiet one with lots of skiing planned for me although locally it is spring break so the mountain will be busy.....

Unfortunately I only have 18 days left here before I start my trip home. It is unbelievable how quickly the time has flown and I am only thankful that I still have my round the world trip to look forward to as it will be hard to leave!!

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