My First Winter Sports Experience!!!

My First Winter Sports Experience

I looked forward excitedly to the visit to Nancy Wright’s cottage in the Laurentians for weeks. It was going to be my first winter sports experience.  However, the week leading up was the coldest week of my life (I am not exaggerating!!!) with temperatures averaging -25 degrees celsius  and so by the Thursday before, my excitement had turned to apprehension about what the weather conditions in the mountains might be.

Spending a whole weekend outdoors was not looking good. Good or bad weather, I was off on Friday evening.  I hopped into the car and we drove about two hours north of Montreal to Entrelacs, chatting as we went about everything from sports to living abroad, to our career plans post the Sauvé year.

After unloading our luggage, and eating a wonderful meal, the other scholars and I went  to the top of a slope near Nancy’s beautiful winter

house. There, we started tobogganing on a perfect winter’s night under a full moon.

We got into the toboggan in pairs and tried to start the descent…it was 

disastrous! We sat, stuck not moving down the hill. Luckily, we had Brett, Simone, Jonathan, Valerie, and Naomi to help us "newbies" navigate the process after which it became much easier.

In a short while, we discovered that Guy had the best pushing effort and so we all began to  wait for Guy, the "super pusher" to push us down the slope.

Barreling down the slope in the sleigh — it was such a thrilling experience.

On Saturday morning, we had a leisurely drive from Nancy’s cottage to the majestic winter home of her friend’s Annie and Arnie.  Unlike many other people in the area who just spend the weekends in the mountains, Annie and Arnie make their life on a beautiful lake atop a mountain.  Annie and Arnie were very warm and nice and shared interesting stories from their experiences with previous scholars.

My first challenge of the day was learning to wear my snowshoes properly before our hike around the beautiful wooded area and across the frozen lake that lie on their property.

Let’s just say it took a few minutes to get adjusted to my new pair of very 

long and fancy plastic shoes.  I finally had to get some help from my friends to fasten them on.  It was not easy learning how to walk and turn with so much snow.  I kept falling and "eating" snow.

Snowshoeing on a frozen lake was a surreal experience for me. I checked the lake multiple times to ensure that it was really frozen. I  was literally "walking on water". From the lake, we took an enjoyable hike to the mountain top and came down through another route. We thereafter had a very nice lunch with hearty soups.

Sunday morning brought home the saying "saving the best for last.”

Nancy’s good friend had promised to bring his snow mobile. By 11 am, I was out waiting for him on yet another frozen lake behind Nancy s house. I learnt how to operate it and then excitedly put on my helmet, and zoomed off at top speed, navigating the turns, standing  on the snow mobile and trying out different stunts. Mame, Gerald and Guy also took turns riding the snowmobile and the four of us formed "The African Ski Team"!

A funny highlight for all of us was Guy falling off the snowmobile in his failed attempt to perform a stunt. It was so exhilarating.

It was also really nice watching Brett, Thinh and Tairah skiiing on the  frozen lake as well. I wanted to try out skiing but could not pull myself away from the snowmobile.  

After about two hours of driving the snowmobile, it was time to go back to Montreal. I ended up having so much fun that I secretly wished I could have stayed a bit longer.  As someone from Nigeria, where average temperatures are about 30 degrees all year round, I am glad to say that I have fallen in love completely with winter sports.

I can’t wait to go on another winter sports weekend again!