A Chill Weekend in Quebec

This past weekend, Hannah, Sonya and I roadtripped up to Quebec for a very chill, relaxed weekend of nonchalant World Cup watching. After a mostly smooth eight hour drive on Thursday evening, we arrived at our hotel (courtesy of my parents), and a fresh 16 inches of snow in the streets of Old Quebec. Needless to say, we had a pretty indifferent reaction to the scene, thanks to the boundless amounts of snow we have received in Williamstown this winter.

Sonya on a snowbank

Like the true Williams students we are, we spent the whole next morning working, since going on this great Canadian adventure was not the most academically smart decision. However, we were well rewarded in the afternoon when we somehow were able to ski on the World Cup race courses while all the athletes were warming up/cooling down for their sprint qualifiers. We absolutely did not lose our cool when Alex Harvey skied right by us, and very casually listened in on Sundby chatting about his training philosophy. Two things we learned:

1. "I have so much to learn from others."

2. "I don't train very very hard right before the season starts."

Noted, Sundby, thank you.

Yay, vacation!

Fabulous skiing on the World Cup courses

The rest of the afternoon was spent in glorious sunshine proudly sporting red, white, and blue glitter and American flags, yelling our hearts out for the likes of Johaug and Northug and all our favorite American skiers. Just, you know, a normal weekend. We also enjoyed seeing friends from the EISA circuit and several Williams alums. Seriously, there were so many Americans there, the crowd was pretty similar to that of an Eastern Cup (just wayyy more excited).

Watching the finals with some of our favorite alums/honorary alums

Proud to be Americans! The Quebecois told us that our team was very good

The next day we apathetically skied at MSA, where the snowbanks were eight feet high (this is not and exaggeration). Obviously we've had our fair share of perfect tracks and extra blue skiing this winter, so we were able to contain our excitement. We again spent the afternoon back in the city, where we watched Harvey sprint past Sundby at the finish (the Quebecois were so pumped), and had a prime course-side position to watch Jessie and Sadie crush their way to top tens in the pursuit. We were very proud to have been within 5 feet of Therese Johaug. As you can imagine we were cool, composed and collected the whole time.

The venue

Right next to the course! We were allowed to go inside the fencing, which confirmed that security at World Cups is officially more lax than crossing guards at carnivals (there were no crossing guards at some of the crossing places).

Falla on the last hill

Ustiugov, the tour leader from Russia

Sundby and Harvey working together

Northug on his way to second

Final thoughts about the weekend: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SO AWESOME AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse the outpouring of emotion, I tried to keep it contained. Anyways, for all you ski fans out there, World Cup watching is 100% an amazing experience and was totally worth the long drive from Williamstown. 10/10, would recommend.