PQ Ski Team :: Past Trips

Tremblant, PQ – January 2003 – “Operation Freeride”

Team Captains: Tom Albano, James Valentino, Jason Peter Thorpe
Team Officer(s): Lt. Commander Matthew J. Wilson
Candidate(s): Keith Baker, Jonathan Sheldon, Raffi Hajakian, Jennifer Nigro
Vehicle(s): Lexus RX300, Jeep Wrangler, rented Ford Explorer
Lodging: Le Sommet des Neiges

Raffi rents a van in Stamford and drives the crew to Mahwah, NJ…Traditional sleep over at Echo Glen...early to rise....Tom showers at Echo Glen…meeting Wilson at Raffi’s house before 7 AM…Dunkin’ Donuts…emotional kickoff speech…freezing during a reading from Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalk” in the D n’ D parking lot…record time to Albany…ridiculous traffic for the next half hour after Albany…walkie talkie communication the entire ride up...Keith wearing his ski goggles in the truck...Keith gets out of vehicle to hand ski mags to Captain Tom during traffic jam on the Northway…Tom buys $5 sunglasses at a rest stop in bumblefuck NY state...traditional restroom stop over the border…telling Keith that we are 4 hours away at all points during the ride up even when we can see the mountain...massive beer/food run at Bonichoix…the Boreale family of beers is introduced to the new recruits...Tom’s credit card is rejected during check in, Jim’s card to the rescue...the crew arrives and pictures are taken displaying team unity…best accommodations yet...team unpacks amid a torrent of Trogdor/Strongbad/burnination jokes…Boreale Cuivree becomes the new favorite Jim’s room is an icebox…Tom breaks a guitar string, no music shops in the vicinity, Jim’s Ovation becomes the lone axe...Keith sleeps on the floor…Raffi sleeps with Matt…over 8 hours of video footage shot, mostly of drinking and guitar playing, and yeah, a little bit of skiing…snow on arrival…Captain Tom sneaks away to begin Operation JYC (Jim You Chug) a.k.a., the surprise Thorpe arrival...Tom’s sneaks into La Diable to rendezvous with Thorpe and Jen...Team heads for traditional Casey’s trip for wings…”WHAT?!?!”…Captain Thorpe and Jen sneak up on Captain Jim completing one of the most well-executed maneuvers in PQ Ski Team history....Jim is completely destroyed upon Thorpe’s arrival...Jim’s surprised outburst terrifies the other restaurant patrons and staff....Captain Thor has engraved pewter mugs…”you chug!”…filling the refrigerator to the brim with beers (and drinking them all)…massive drinking at Casey’s and hanging with crazy, older, drunken Canadian couples…introducing the candidates to La Diable…continued dramatic readings from “Moonwalk”…first night at the Caribou...team goes for a “couple drinks”, stays for many...Tom and Jen dancing...double fisting Kokanees…meeting up with other drunk, random FactSetters…trying to set Tom up with one of them…Wilson once again gets too violently ill from drinking that he can barely squeeze out an hour and a half of skiing the next day…Jim violently needs to pull the trigger and decides he needs home field advantage, so he joins Matt…French soap operas…skiing the trees…setting up jumps off the rock in the trees...La Diable for lunch every day…almost taking up every seat at the bar…well done burgers? What gives?!...Jen reassembles Jim’s hoodie (twice)…introducing the recruits to Extreme Onction…Raffi getting plastered on said Extreme Onction…large guitar sing alongs…heavy quoting of Strong Bad…”TROGDOR!!!”…Keith’s first trip down Emotion…Keith knighted a member of the PQ Ski Team at a bottom of Emotion ceremony…hot bartendresses who remember us and pour beers upon our arrival…drunken use of the terrain park…Jim’s failed railslide…Thorpe’s failed railslide…Keith’s, well you get the idea…zany pictures…sausage at Le Shack…onion soup…Thorpe grabbing a waiter’s ass…stacks of onion rings…being on our “best behavior”…nice steak dinner at Bullseye…final meal at Casey’s...team is tired...stopping for a half hour to get our taxes back ($20 a piece)…hung over at Burger King…the long ride home…

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