Back on track

Today was another beautiful day on the slopes, although I do have to say the fabled brutal cold of Mont Tremblant showed up for the first time this week. Holy cow was the wind biting.

I got to start the day with a run in the trees. Not so pristine as at Snowmass, but after a night of snow, still a lovely experience. 

At the time, Syl was skiing with her friend, Ava, who happens to be here this week with her family.

This place really has a beautiful base area. Downright European.

Take her to your leader.

What’s French for Apres Ski? Oh, yeah...

I’m not sure we are going to make it out tomorrow. The base temp is supposed to be near zero, with dangerously cold wind chill. But we’ll see. We might power through a few runs just to say we did...

An adventure of a different sort

Syl and I will not soon forget Day three of our Mont Tremblant 2020 vacation. We spent seven hours of it sitting in a filthy ER waiting room, trying in vain to get her the second dose of her prophylactic rabies vaccination. `

The place was so busy, apparently it was impossible for anyone to take the thirty seconds necessary to stick a needle in her arm.

\

In related news, I remain incredibly proud of this kid, who is infinitely more patient than her dad and whose sunny demeanor never wavered.

We’ll get her second injection back in the States on Saturday. All is well.

A true Bluebird Day!

I had in my head I was going to stick to black and white photographs for this trip. I love snow photos in B&W. But the sky today was so intensely blue, a monochrome photo would be a sin.

Melissa decided to take a year off from her quest for Olympic gold (downhill), and today she decided to get out on the mountain in a different way.

Bonus, her snow shoeing lesson came with toasted marshmallows! (Syl was jealous). I was proud of her for proactively braving the cold.

We all met for lunch at the base, which was nice.

At the summit, Syl took a seat.

I am sure it is tempting these days to assume I applied a filter or otherwise monkeyed with these photos, but I didn’t. The sky was exactly this blue. It was remarkable.

No skiing tomorrow. Syl and I need to go in search of the elusive rabies vaccine (second dose). At least based on our linguistically-challenged phone canvas of the area, that might be more of a challenge that we’d anticipated. Wish us luck! 

Tremblant, Day 1

We definitely learned a lesson on our first day at Mont Tremblant: We are SPOILED by Snowmass! 

Mont Tremblant is widely considered the best ski resort in the east, and I definitely have no qualms with that. It is massive by comparison to most East Coast mountains, primarily because it boasts skiing terrain on all four faces of the mountain. And because it is so far north, the snow, while not the deep powder of the Rockies, is certainly superior to the usual ice and chop of most eastern skiing options. 

On the other hand, it took Syl and me over an hour from the time we got in line for the first lift to our first run. This had a lot to do, I think, with the overlapping of Canadian and US school vacations and the fact that our first day was a Sunday, but HOLY HUMANITY. The lift lines, the slopes, the lodges - they were all like Disney World in their human density (which is not a good thing). Like so many wonderful places these days, this place is overrun, at least on some days.

Of course even the lodges aren’t all bad...

It was also snowing pretty hard all day, which made for some challenging conditions especially on a mountain we don’t know at all.

Still, we found moments of solitude. And after a little initial trepidation, Syl remembered her skills pretty quickly.

That lake in the background is where I swam for my first IronMan, back in 2015. It was warmer that day, by about... 100 degrees Fahrenheit!!


In the eventing the snow really picked up. Our walk to the center village was almost magical.

Here is Melissa doing her best Natasha impression (of Rocky and Bullwinkle). That coat was the best investment I ever made.

We picked up a local delicacy for dessert that Grampy Haley would appreciate: maple syrup poured on snow, and then rolled onto a popsicle stick. Remarkably delicious... and at a buck seventy-five a pop, a remarkably lucrative business model!

A little hiccup before we left for Canada

So last night, before our planned trip to Mont Tremblant this morning for a week of skiing, Melissa and I went out to dinner in nearby Lincoln for Valentine’s Day.  Just ten minutes after leaving the house, we got a text from Syl: “We have a bat in the house.”

I asked if she was freaked out and wanted us to come right home, and she replied, “Nah.”

Of course when we got home, a careful search of the house (except Syl’s room, where she was asleep with the door closed) turned up no bat. We convinced ourselves he’d gotten out the same way he got in, and went to bed.

This morning, inevitably, we woke up to hysterical screaming. It seems when Syl shuttered herself in her room, the bat was already in there. So when she turned on the light in the morning it started darting and swooping. She came out like a house on fire. 

And again, I went in and searched, and found no bat. Until Syl came in, at which point—boom—darting and swooping. That bat had something for Sylvie for sure.

Anyhow, I caught it in a towel and put it out the window and thought that was that.

But it turns out conventional wisdom now says anyone who could possibly have been unknowingly exposed to a bat should get the rabies vaccine. So after consulting with her pediatrician and with Grandma Lynne, both of whom were of the strong opinion that a vaccination was indicated, we put the trip on pause and headed to the ER in nearby Natick. Luckily it was a slow morning for emergencies, apparently, because we were the only ones there and were seen immediately.

The doc pulled me aside to tell me they needed to give Syl four shots, three of which are “very painful.” She told me to be prepared for some screaming. 

Syl was a total champ. She asked for a three count on each stick, and sung “Hakuna Matata” at the top of her lungs through the whole thing. The whole ER staff thought she was awesome, and were singing the song as we left!

We ended up getting on the road only an hour later than planned. Of course we have to find a place up here for the three day booster she needs on Tuesday, but all’s sort of well that ends well. 



Syl felt pretty crappy before bed time tonight — a common side effect of what is a pretty serious set of injections. We felt badly for her, especially since the injections were to protect against a pretty infinitesimally small risk. But the thing is, if that tiny risk came true, the consequences would be truly terrible. So we feel we made the right decision, even if just a few years ago it would not have even occurred to anyone to go to the hospital for a little house bat.

Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow, because this place is beautiful and she and I have a lot of skiing to do!

Snubbed by the Academy

...But Oaken Family #1 did a GREAT job in last weekend's Wayland Middle School Production of Frozen, Jr.!

All my shots are here.