A Weekend Outdoors!!!

By Isabelle Privé

                                          "Snowshoes, Port and Chocolate" at Ste-Adèle

That's right - another Team Kili-2012 adventure, preparing for the big adventure of September 3rd. As we all have our -30 degrees sleeping bags, we decided to put ourselves to the test over the weekend to see how we'd cope with cold and fatigue.

So, this was our plan - meet at Sylvain and Janie's chalet on Saturday morning for a mountain snowshoe trek; spaghetti supper; another snowshoe outing in the evening; return to the chalet, then sleep outside! Sunday: get up at 7 am, typical Kilimanjaro breakfast, return to Montreal for our regular training session on Mont-Royal.

Talk about client satisfaction! Our daytime snowshoe outing was a joy. Just 5 minutes from the chalet, we found marvellous mountain tracks with fairytale scenery, sunshine and ... Lucie who was rather hot!!

After snowshoeing 7km, we returned to the chalet to pitch our tents ready for the night. Some of us put up tents and others built an igloo - yes, an igloo! It was hilarious, trying to set up tents in 2 feet of snow (supposedly firm) but - we sank, made a lot of holes and laughed ........

Followed by supper - mmmmm - spaghetti sauce made by mixing several home-made offerings - it was the best in town! By then we were just about dead but we still had to go on another snowshoe trek with the group from Eco Aventure Monde for the activity called "Snowshoes, Port and Chocolate". This meant getting back into our boots which were still damp from the previous trek, then piling into our cars en route for Ste-Adèle.

It was absolutely magical, snowshoeing in the dark, on a 3 km path marked by little red lamps.  We had our own head lamps but didn't need them as the snow was bright enough to show up the path perfectly. We ended up all together around a camp fire with a glass of port and chocolates. Pure bliss!

Then came the time to return to the chalet and go to bed in our tents. Well, we can't really say we were very enthusiastic about sleeping outside at -10 degrees. One group was in the igloo, another in the family tent. The problem was that it wasn't really a tent made for the winter and it was windy - very windy!

Did we sleep well? - NO!! Were we cold? - YES!! Did we nearly die laughing? - YEEES!
Ever tried taking off your coat inside a sleeping bag? I hadn't either. Then there were the ground mattresses - excellent, if they hadn't been so narrow. The "mummy" type sleeping bags needed some getting used to, not to mention the tuque that wouldn't stay on, the head lamp that was always round your neck, the need for a comfort stop and snow getting inside the tent. Nobody had an alarm clock but, strange to say, everybody got up at the same time!!

Breakfast was the same as we'll be getting on Kilimanjaro - eggs, toast, porridge, instant coffee, tea, bananas and honey.

Then, after only a few hours sleep and feeling the effects of the previous day, we were back in our cars and on the way to Mont-Royal for our training session with Mathieu. On the programme -  up 254 steps to the top, a warm-up walk, then 10 times up and down the 254 steps. Help!!!

A very tough weekend but we learnt that, just being together, we were so much stronger. I don't think any one of us would have been able to do all that alone because you'd get discouraged so quickly. When you're with others, you see that everyone is as cold as you, as tired as you and you feel you haven't the right to give up. You just carry on. The same thing for Mont-Royal - you see that everyone has as much pain as you and if they can go on, so can you. It's true, as part of a team, everyone can reach a higher level. You learn that you can stand a lot more hardship than you thought.

Another step on the way to the summit!

Bravo everyone!

Translated by Pamela Gauvin