New Year Meet

Alberta, Canada

December 1998 - January 1999

Present: Valerie C, Mark L, Andy R, Brian S, Nina T, Jeremy W, Randy

So much happened during this 2-week meet, that a complete factual write-up of the sequence of events would be too lengthy and tedious! So here are some snippets that should kindle images of the goings-ons, and probably jog some memories in the participants. Rather than a complete report think of this as a secret crib-sheet to encourage many hours of happy whisky-aided story-telling around the fire on future winter meets.

• Jeremy - for turning up with a $700 pair of "Beta-Carve" skis. Some Californian ski-shop owner spent his New Year in Hawaii courtesy of Mr Westerman
• Andy - for crashing out on Goat's Eye, demolishing 20 yards of fencing, and diving head-first over the edge (all right, under the chair)
• Valerie - who didn't want to ski, and ended up loving it
• Mark and Valerie - for having a sweet-smelling room to themselves while the rest of the mob lived in a steamy smelly kibbutz
• Randy - for making me stay up till midnight TWICE, in an underground car park decorating a van with stickers
• Brian - for avoiding group deaths in a highway pile-up on the first afternoon while driving back from Sunshine ski area (it wasn't his fault and he did well to bring FMC members back intact - the car, however, was toast
• Bottle of red wine - for disappearing to the Love Shack room one evening at bathtime
• Jeremy - for climbing TWO pitches of ice at the Junkyards near Calgary and "almost enjoying it" despite some Pearson-style leg movements
• Randy - for leaving an ice-axe at the base of the climb and having to walk all the way back up in the dark to get it
• Brian -for leaving his whole RUCKSACK at the base of said climb and having to chase after Randy to join a tandem search (one torch between them) for the professionally abandoned gear
• Imagine the scene - we're all relaxing in the hot-tub at the Traveller's Inn after a hard day in wintry wonderland. The bubbly jets stop bubbling... An argument ensues about who'll get out into the ice to push the "bubbly" button. Eventually Andy loses, walks over, pushes the button, and gets back in the pool. After a short delay, the bubbles effervesce again. Scarcely have the jets restarted their massaging effect when Mr S assertively instructs "Oh no! Someone's got to get out and press the button - who's it going to be?" Even the bubbles momentarily stood still in amazement!
• Valerie - for cutting Mark's foot with a wineglass and spraying the bathroom with blood-coloured liquid....
• Randy - for giving the flu to Jeremy
• Nina - for being the only person capable of keeping up with Mr Shackleton in the icy stony bumps at Norquay, and for having the grooviest ski hat with a big quiff
• Jeremy - for giving the flu to Andy
• Randy - for his amazing 3-piece suit effect (including TIE!) and "Private Dick" coat on New Years Eve
• Nina - for enticing us to incinerate our mouths with flaming Zambucca, to the incredulity of the rest of the crowd in the Barbary Coast
• Jeremy - for actually being "in" with a couple of Californian Babes. We wrote "California Sex Machine" on his party hat, which got the girls genuinely excited and intrigued. True to form, he bottled out, got all embarrassed, and refused to wear it!
• Brian - for wearing FIVE party hats stacked up, with the top one marked "Shackleton of the Antarctic". When approached and asked (quite reasonably) "Could I have one of your hats, please?" by a hatless chappie, Brian replied "NO, I need these, go away!!"

• Jeremy - for STILL being "in" after another hour
• Valerie - for pushing Jeremy's chair from behind making him lurch forward into the girls and spill lager over his crutch
• The Californian babes - for CONTINUING to be interested in the computer programmer from San Jose
• The first ever impromptu street party at midnight in Banff, and the bemused small town police not having a clue how to deal with it - even a moose joined in
• The trampoline competition in the hotel room at 3am
• The headaches we worked off in the greasy Elvis Diner walking along the Bow Falls admiring the medieval hall at the Banff Springs, and ice skating.
• All the sweeties we bought, and Brian's HUGE lolly.
• Nina and Andy - for buying 12 lift tickets ($600) for 6 people at Lake Louise
• Jeremy - for telling us on the chair lift about a black-bird he had been seeing. We all looked hard, but couldn't see it anywhere and don't really believe him without any further evidence.
• Brian - for being brave enough to try ice skating on Lake Louise, and being not too bad in the end and to Jeremy "f^%& this for a game of soldiers I'm off to the bar" Westerman for giving up after 5 minutes
• The people in the bar at Lake Louise - or all being incredibly smartly dressed, pompous, stuck-up, totally loaded with cash, and miserable
• Andy and Jeremy in the bar at Lake Louise - for being scruffy, outraged by the bar prices, and having a great time laughing at the posh miserable ones
• Jeremy - for going back to the Sunshine State without any phone numbers
• The huge icicle that Mark and Brian just HAD to climb in Johnson Canyon
• The big cat - who left scary paw-prints along the 14-kilometre ski-in to the Bryant Creek Hut
• Valerie - for making snow-angels in the powdery stuff by Bryant Cabin
• Brian and Mark - taking us on a 10K trip in the woods, with full packs, to, well, back where we started
• The 14K we still had to do to get back to the cars.
• The amount of food we ate when we got back to Banff
• The stupid races we had running around the snowy viewpoint at the Spiral Tunnels, while waiting for a train to come. I think the conditions dominated over ability, as we all seemed to take - 8 seconds (except Valerie, who disappeared with a loud "clump" after 4 seconds and reappeared limping and covered in snow 48 seconds later)
• The scenic and un-happening town of Field, where everywhere had vacancies, but nowhere seemed to actually be geared up to fill them
• Skiing across Bow Lake, wondering just how thick the ice REALLY was …….
• Brian - taking his first ever winter fall, faceplanting 100ft off the ice headwall. Fortunately no physical injury, and the ice-screw held OK
• Andy - being much more sensible and sledding on a new shovel, and digging a snow-hole.
• The warm fire, hot chocolate, and sticky cakes at the Bow Lake Chateaux, as opposed to the dark snow and ice that Brian and Randy stayed out in until 10PM
• Brian - for not seeing the car-key strapped to his rucksack, and (ever trying to better himself) goes one bigger than leaving his rucksack behind and leaves the entire car behind 20 miles from the Hostel. His excuse was that they only had one torch because Randy didn't have one. NEVER go out with Mr S without a torch.
• Randy - for having one of those handy emergency fluorescent sticks that don't emit any light whatsoever for 6 hours when you're out in the ice and snow, but will successfully blind everyone in a cosy bar and hostel bedroom
• Brian - for throwing away his Glencoe tools and buying new Charlet Moser's
• Mark - for wearing down my file to nothing on his tools and crampons to compete with Brian's new toys
• Andy - for tucking into a strangers order of chicken-wings at the restaurant
• Valerie and Nina - for being groovy dancers until 3am in the Rose and Crown
• Everyone except Andy - for going ice-climbing the day after dancing until 3am.

Andy R