Part 2

Of what?

Up the Long Ladder

So...Last week I told you I almost died on Norquay. I never saw the end of my life being so close! It was litterally under my feet. Meters and meters of freefall down a cliff...

Here's what happened: J-D and me went to hike the mountain. We started quite late, around 1PM. We stopped for about half an hour at the top of the ski hills, climbing the chairlifts poles and the shack, taking pictures. Here's a few:



JD on the chairlift wheel.



Me on a chairlift pole.



Here's what beautiful Rundle mountain and the town of Banff look like from Norquay's ski hills top.

Then, we decided to climb the last part, made of cliffs. It was a lot of fun and didn't take us more than an hour to get to the summit. Here's more pictures from our ascension:



Me as a diver, over a cliff. My speedo goggles were in my pockets...Not intentionally.



Basically the same idea, but from an antenna close to Norquay's summit...It was quite cold up there if you know what I mean...

At the summit, we signed the Alberta centennial mountain register(I also shamlessly plugged my blog), left a few caramels for the next ones and smoked a joint. Bad idea.



A mere idea of the cliffs at the top.

Being both of curious nature, we then followed the ridges and explored a little before deciding to go down towards a nice looking valley, preceded by quite a cliff. Already underway, in the cliff, we realized the precarity of our situation, unnapropriate equipment, no safety devices, in the middle of a cliff, high in many ways, snow, wind, wet rocks and worse, rocks detaching from the cliff. At one moment, I was facing a dead-end (Got all the meaing of that expression) but couldn't turn away or stop, since the rock was wet and I didn't have a lot of grasp. I felt for a few seconds like my life wasn't in my hands anymore. Luckily, at the end of where I could go, I managed a risky turnover and was able to get back to a relatively safe position where I calmed myself down. We realized there was only one solution, get back to the summit and find another way down. It was still a risky business, but a walk in the park in comparison to what we faced. While on our way, J-D realized he lost one of his $100 gloves. He wasn't sure he wanted to go back but I offered and we found the glove a minute after J-D suggested to abandon.

We started to climb down by a safer spot, but darkness was catching on us. We were stopped by a cliff and we wisely decided to find another path. The same situation happened 4 times. Cliffs were stopping our descent and there was no way we wouldn't climb down in the dark. We got discouraged a few times but never ceded to panic or impatience. (The park warden later told us that a shitload of people got killed that way on that mountain). We decided to try one last time, if it was unsuccesful, we would find a safe spot, start a fire and wait til morning. We finally found a relatively safe path down and got back to the ski station we glimpsed all the way but couldn't reach. We rested there a little, thinking back on the risks we took and the relief of being alive. We then went to hike down the longest, but safest part of the mountain and got back on the valley road by 11PM!!! By then, of course, our friends were worried and had called the RCMP and the park wardens. A warden found us on the road and offered us a much-appreciated ride back home. You never saw kids that happy to get found by the police and park wardens!

I talked about racist comments in my last post. Well, new guys got hired at the hotel. They are from Quebec City and are nice, fun guys for the most part. they are hotheads though and will sometimes go overboard. They did make a few racists comments/jokes and the first time I just left. But the second time, while at lunch at work, I decided to make them realize what they were saying. I first decided to couter everything they said and they quickly changed the subject. But the moment I the most proud of is when, a little later, I had a discussion about english people hating us french. The remaining kid said he didn't like people to comment one cultural differences and I took the opportunity to tell him he did that himself minutes before. He aknowledged that he talked before thinking and that he was wrong. One checked, billions to go!

What else is new? Well, my ex-girlfriend, Amy, is getting married to Lars! She wrote to me, hoping she would get my blessing despite not needing it. I gave my unnecessary blessing with more pleasure(I actually never thought it would be a pleasure...) than I thought it would. I surprised myself being genuinely happy for her and allright with it. I have a problem with people getting engaged at 21, but that's not because of her, I just think it's too early in most, if not all the cases...

I'll end up this post with a few pics taken the night prior to my near-death experience...A safer climb: The walls of our staff accom!



Me, up there...



Geoff and me, in the staircase going from the basement to the floor...Quite higher than you think.



My butt.



Kids in the Hall. Me, J-D, Steph, Phil and Geoff. Nobody's touching the ground.

That's it for me, I'll post more frequently, I have money now!

I'm not violent but...

Sometimes I would punch people saying "I'm not racist but..." and then going on with an extremely racist comment...I cannot shut myself anymore when it happens and I feel like my reaction's getting worse every time! It happens to my friend Charlotte not that long ago. More on that next time...

I also almost killed myself on Norquay...We got caught by darkness and Norquay isn't an easy hike.

No time remaining on my net account and no money, will post later this week!

Forced post

Jee told me to post more frequently, so I'll try.

I'll start with a little suggestion, or for the sake of playing with words, a tip...

When you stay in a hotel, please leave a tip. I'm not saying so only by self-interest, but mostly because the non-tippers are usually the dirtiest bastards around. I mean, we clean your shit, sometimes litteraly, why not leave a little loonie on your way out? Mostly if you smoked in your non-smoking room, because then, you might have to pay a $50 fine instead of a buck or two...

The worst is when the same dirty bastards are complaining about everything on the comment card but saying that Housekkeping did a great job or, worse, they write N/A beside that section. If we did such a great job, why not some consideration (Not that money is the only form of consideration but still...) and if you wrote N/A...Who do think cleant your room and made your beds? Fuckers!

Okay enough ranting. I usually don't talk about that anymore, but I had a great night with a girl a few days ago. I'll say it because it's been the best lay I had in a long, very long time and it was funny. The people I know in Banff are in average 19 YO, that girl, Sandra, was 27 and I can tell there's a huge difference! We actually start talking to each other thanks to our age, since we were at a 18 YO girl birthday party. For J-S' sake, she was calling me Lex Luthor, thanks to my hairless head. For you see, Sandra's also a Smallville fan and loves Lex!

Time to go get my identity back...Tomorrow, Tupperfan's hiking Mount Norqay!

I lied...

No time for a long post...again.

Time for some more pics though! Some shitty ones I might add...let's just say I was drunk...Here they are:



Cascade mountain from a little garden on Cougar street (my street).



Cascade mountain through the clouds.



Here's my palace!



Going to work in the morning...It does help to get there.



Raclette night for Rémi's birthday, with his dad as a guest. The pic sucks, sorry, I was high and it was on the 10-seconds delay shit...I think Rémi's dad didn't notice that most of us were baked...



Second day of raclette...since we bought far too much! The second time's a charm! Jean-Daniel, Stéphane, Rémi, Sandra and our lone English-Canadian, Geoffrey (He's bilingual, a rarity among english-speakers in Banff). You can see a few of us sporting the classy Banff Voyager Inn housekeeper's uniform!



J-D (He got bit on the butt by a Grizzly while sleeping in the forest a few weeks ago, he became a star!), Mr.X, Mistey and Phil in front of the Aurora nightclub.



Me doing a perfect parallel with my cart an hour ago.

I just want to add that security got my pot and pipe yesterday. Those fuckers will probably smoke the "evidence". Got a speech from Kirk, the hotel manager, but he ended up getting my point. The security officers aren't there to maintain peace and order but are looking for trouble... Need a new pipe and some new shit. It's quite expensive, as everything else here, but I think I might get some for $45 a quarter...

Time's up!

Just time for a few pictures...

Here they are:



Busted with Rémi!



The kids I have to deal with back at staff accom...the oldest one after me on this picture is 20...Shit!



This is the view I have from my room's window...Isn't it gorgeous?

I still have a few great pictures on another memory card but I keep forgetting it when I come to the internet café! I also have to post a good post, I'll probably do so tomorrow.

I have to go, time to get ready for our raclette meal for Rémi's birthday. His dad even came from Québec for the week! Good thing I brought my kit, I knew it would be useful!

Broken Link

Not that much time again, was supposed to have a day off tomorrow, but being quite short-staffed, I offered myself (They'll sacrifice me...) I also forgot my USB cord, so no pics...Sorry. Just ate the second greatest burger ever with a great snakebite (Apple Cider and Beer...) at a nice, despite being too touristy Irish Pub...

A funny thing, the pub is asking for ID for anybody under 30 (How can they know we are under 30? I know, it's LOOKING under 30...), so all the Québecers gave their driving license. It is not obvious to find the birthdate on a Québec driving licence if you don't know where it is. Seconds of fun ensued watching the waitress struggling to find where the damn date is, then pretending she knew:



Answer: She's was born on December 9th 1966.

Did you know?

If you do a Yahoo search with the following words: "Cheerleaders+getting+it+in+the+ass", the first result that will appear is my fucking blog! Check it out:

(EDIT: You'll apparently have to do it yourself, the link doesn't seem to work, probably because of the words being searched...)

How, do I know that? Well, I found out while doing my daily search for cheerleaders! Actually, I discovered that while looking at my website stats, looking at the way people get to my blog...this was one way.

Still, I'm the first result! Okay, I know, it's really not that much of an achievement...

Just wanted to say something about the hurricane...It's quite disturbinng to hear that a natural catastophe like a hurricane can do so many victims in a modern North-American city and that it might close it for up to 6 months! My thoughts are going to the victims.

Anything else? Yes actually, but I got no time, will post a long one on my next day off, whenever it is...

Time to go drink beer and eat fudge (And probably puke the mix...)