ding-a-ding dang!

sunday:

i began the day a bit cold in the nose, and was feeling a chill that made it tough to get out of bed. it was early, and i was hurried, and i was late - packing for my first day of snow in two years was quite stressful. i really should've done it the night before...

once outside i was feeling just fine, but i'd soon discover that a thermal shirt, a sports shirt and a t-shirt was totally overdressing. but that's how cold the apartment was before i left... even on the slopes, at -13 and covered in snow, i didn't need more than a sweater and my jacket.

the beggar who held the door for me as i left the metro station totally earned his two bucks.

i arrived approximately half an hour early, which is fifteen minutes late by the bus company's rules, but there was only a handful of people waiting so it didn't matter. i thought i'd catch some sleep on the two-hour drive (i don't know why it took so long), but i was too excited and the scenery was inspiringly beautiful. everything covered in white, the morning in a perpetual state of breaking dawn; i wouldn't see the sun the entire day.

two of us got off at saint sauveur, neither of us having been there before. the bus driver informed us that he'd be back at 6.15 to pick us up, which was earlier than advertised but we didn't mind. we - myself and the teenage mexican kid, i'll call him doe-eye - found our way to the ski school counter. i wanted to buy a pass, and the woman asked me for my bus ticket, which i thought was weird. i was pleasantly surprised to discover that galland buses *do* have a deal with the operators, and my bus ticket included the day pass!

righteous!!! that meant that including coffees and hot chocolate, my day would cost me half of what i'd budgeted. i can go twice as often ^_^

i picked a locker, padded up and pulled on my boots, figured out how to attach my goggles to my helmet, and went out with doe-eye; we'd both arrived alone, and while it's not a big deal it's more fun to have someone to chat to on the lifts and to share crazy moments. also, in this case, having a kid on skies and less than half my age not quite keeping up was a massive ego stroke.

---the intro to ministry - jesus built my hotrod is now associated with that first moment standing at the top of the hill, looking down:
"... all of a sudden i found myself in love with the world, so there was only one thing that i could do..."

the snow machines were on at the beginning of the day, but soon real snow started coming down fast and it was heavy for most of the day. beautifully so, although i must say that the orange goggles made everything look a bit... not white enough for my taste.

of the nine hours that i was on the slopes, or eight / eight and a half if we don't count the coffee breaks, half of them were spent getting into the swing of things. there were plenty of slow, awkward moments and in particular i'm not happy with my goofy style. it's non-existent, to be precise. by the second half of the day i'd not only gotten comfortable, but i was beginning to relax on the black diamonds* and started picking up speed.

* most of the runs are black diamonds, and those that aren't suck so we avoided them.

i've done speed before, and usually ended up sailing through the air and landing badly as a result. not sunday, though! i was - or at least, i felt i was - completely in control. my last few runs, theoretically dedicated to getting goofy, were impatiently turned into time trials. sweeping past skiers and snowboarders who appeared to be local, hearing a whoop from the lift that may or may not have been for me, was vastly more encouraging than leading a kid from another snowless country.

i can't quite wrap my words around the sheer ecstasy of speeding full-tilt down long, wide runs at night, each moment demanding utmost concentration both in noting tiny differences in the quality of the snow and ice and in keeping every muscle aligned and balanced just so.

my mother used the term "hooligan juice". abso-frikkin'-lutely ;)

to summarize the day (and night, because we had at least two hours in the dark): amazing, incredible, wonderful, magical, fun, exhausting, and deeply, deeply satisfying.

---i finally went inside just before 6pm, removed my boots and socks, ate my last sandwich, packed up and dressed down and joined doe-eye by the side of the road to wait for the bus driver. there is no bus shelter and it was cold, and while the first half an hour was bearable the second was not. it didn't help that my shoes weren't good for canadian winter, and my toes hurt enough that i was convinced that i was developing frost-nip. we were very unhappy with the morning's driver, and the bus hotline's representative and the evening's driver had no idea what that was about.

the bus ride back to montreal was warm and comfortable and long. everything was covered in snow when i got back to my neighbourhood, i had a hot shower and did laundry* and ate and drank a beer while watching one piece, then passed out. completely knackered and with a smile on my face.

* it's automatic, when you get home after snowboarding it's usually after a week and you're desperate to do laundry. this was my first day trip, and by the time i realized i didn't have even half a load it was too late :P