After kicking off the New Year at Nina’s condo in Collingwood, Harry and I jetisoned over to Mont Tremblant for 4 amazing days of skiing and boarding in one of Canada’s most majestic sites. While frustrating at times and always painful, learning to snowboard still gave me a satisfying taste of accomplishment. However, by the second day I was hungry for more serious carving, and it was back to skiis for the remainder of the trip(I yearned to see some landscape beyond the one baby hill)! The apres-ski exploring of the village, vodka cranberries, road trip jamming and movie marathons made the whole vacation unforgettable, but one of my crowning moments had to be skiing the black diamond Laurentienne. I’ve skiied black diamonds before in Ontario, but nothing could compare with this beast of a run. It comes with its own warning, “Beware of rocks, trees and grass on the run. Not for beginners”. I was so close to backing out and resigning myself to passively listening to the glory stories from Harry and the guys. But with my freshly formed resolution in mind, I plunged ski tips first into the vertical powder. What a rush! After falling probably about 5 times (a personal high score for me), I found myself laughing with delight and terror at all the trees and moguls and fellow skiiers who were wiping out around me left right and centre.
I know that the rest of my year will likely not opportune me with such adrenaline fuelled excitement, but that’s okay. It was spectacular starting the new year and this new resolution with a bang. I can’t wait to visit Mont Tremblant again, but for now, it’s on to the next challenge! 17 months ago