Close Encounters of the Fir Kind

On Friday, Jake, Todd and Emma came to visit and the cursed weekend began. Todd and Emma were coming from Calgary where they have been living for the past 3 years and Jake was coming from Lake Louise, where he is living and working for the Winter. They were just outside of Sparwood, about half an hour from Fernie, when smoke began billowing out from under the hood of their 2009 Subaru and all acceleration powers ceased to exist. Zane was luckily just finishing work and was able to borrow Crystal to go and save them from the truck stop in which they were stranded.

But that wasn’t the end of it. As the car is still under warranty, it had to be towed to the Subaru dealer in Calgary, a short $800 tow-ride away. Regardless of the drama, they checked into their hotel with their optimism reinstalled. It is Fernie, after all, and we were in the midst of the BEST snowfall of the season, but more on that later.

Overlooking the drama of the day, we headed out to the Pub for dinner before the hockey game. As usual, our dinner and drinks extended beyond our time expectations and we missed the game. But it was a great night of catching up.

The next morning the doom deepened. Todd was sick, Zane was sick, Jake was sick. All with the flu. Zane had to work and went off with a hacking cough, to stand in the balmy -24 degree Celsius temperatures of the Bear’s Den. It was a chilly weekend, with temperatures averaging below -30 with windchill. I was nice and toasty up at work, but I don’t think the cold winds were good for the out-of-towners.

We headed out for dinner that night, minus Todd, whose health had deteriorated during the day. This time we managed to make it to the game, but without Jake and Emma, who had decided on an early night given that they weren’t feeling too good either. Further evidence of the doom, the Ghostrider’s lost! They played valiantly but couldn’t overcome the players from Creston.

The next morning I woke up super keen to hit the slopes, I had the day off and I was going to show Jake the mountain! But then I realised I was feeling ill. And not alcohol ill, as I hadn’t drunk the night before. “Suck it up Tenille, you’ll be fine” I thought to myself, but then I talked to Robyn. Her and Adam had been up sick most of the morning, with a really bad tummy bug. I certainly didn’t want to be stranded up on the hill when the inclination to vom hit, so I stayed home with Robyn and Adam in, as it has now become, the house of illness. It was not a nice day. The worst thing was that I missed out on my friends Hen’s night! Apparently it was full of drinking, penis-paraphernalia and high-pitched girly giggling and I’m so sad I couldn’t be there 

Todd and Emma headed back to Calgary that day, on an exorbitant airport shuttle, ending their expensive weekend of doom. Jake stayed on, keen to get the most out of the snow that had been steadily falling for the past couple of days.

I was feeling a bit better of Monday so we went up for a ride but (don’t laugh) there was too much snow. I know it sounds ridiculous but there was a good 35cm of fresh snow and it was THICK. I could barely turn and if I went off the track into the fresh stuff I would ski in half a metre, the snow would be above my knees and I would come to a complete stop. Zane was also not having a great time, as his chest was burning from his cold, so we called it a day pretty early.

On Tuesday Zane was feeling too sick to go up on the hill and Robyn and Adam were still pretty spewy so Jake and I left the house of Illness and headed up and we had the BEST DAY EVER! I’ve had to monitor my emotions, so as to not disappoint the others but it was epic! There had been 65cms over the past two days, but the freshest snow was light and fluffy. Jake and I skied all day, finding freshies all day and having some spectacular stacks. I had another tree-straddling moment and on our last run of the day Jake had a full-on tree collision. This piece of doom earned him a huge bruise on his hip and halted his skiing for the trip and despite even more snow falling that night he headed back to Lake Louise the next day.

So despite the coughs, the bruises, the vomiting and the burning muscles and the doom that plagued our weekend, we still had some great, phlegm fun and got to enjoy some really great snow (well, Jake and I did!) More snow is expected for the next couple of days at least, so hopefully the other guys will get their share of powder as well!

Much love, Z and T.