La Petite Rouge
February 5-7, 1999

A narrative by Russ Nelson for those who missed the trip

We arrived shortly before dark to find the Gibbs putting up their skis. They'd gone out on trail 9 only to find that the skiing was simply horrible. All ice, not nice. Dinner was spaghetti. Afterwards was a walk in the dark using torches to the glissade. With no snow and all ice, it was very fast. It's split into three runs, and without trying I could jump across all three runs. Eric had to start halfway down and still got up a good head of steam. The Metcalfs came back from Tremblant, where they had skied the whole day, and we (Gibbs, Metcalfs, Thorps, and Nelsons) all played trivial pursuit.

Overnight it snowed 10cm, thank goodness. Otherwise the skiing would have been a total bust. Eric, Rebecca, and I skied trail 4, then we tubed. Tubing was fun, busting down the powder. David Meyer went first, and got about 10 meters. It took ten runs to clear it to the bottom. My hair was wet from skiing, so the powder stuck to it and froze. I looked like my hair was prematurely white. Lunch was hamburger, gravy, and fries. That afternoon we went on trail 1 with the Meyers sans Julia. Everybody had fun, until Eric fell and scraped his knuckles up. He was hot so I had him skiing without gloves. Dumb, dumb, dumb. It was bad enough that he had to walk back 1.25km, muttering "Why does this always happen to me?" the whole way. I took him home while the rest went down 3A to 5 and then 2.

Dinner was turkey pot pie. All of us in cabin 4 forgo (forwent?) the entertainment, preferring fresh air instead. We played matchstick-ante poker, and then hearts. Sunday morning Bob Gibbs got up at 6 AM, and skied trail 4. Or so he claimed. At first. He, Sue, and Rebecca skied 1 to 3A to 5, then 2. A bit short, but he and Sue had Mass to attend. Eric and I skied 4A, 9, and 4B. Nice trails all. We hung out, went to lunch, and came home, glad to finally have a vacation from our vacation. :)

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