What started out as a Christmas Day surprise in Key West turned into an amazing ski vacation in Canada.

It was just after lunch when my dad presented my sisters and I with a slip of paper; the only two words on it were written in code. We decided on starting with the simplest code we know, the Caesar Cipher. After a few tense moments of moving letters forward or backward in the alphabet, we were able to decipher the words and were led to my youngest sister’s stocking for our next clue. Inside her stocking we found a small bag of mandarin oranges. Except these oranges weren’t any regular mandarin oranges; each orange had a letter written on it in black ink. We quickly realized that we had to rearrange the oranges to spell a word. We found many combinations, although none of them made sense. Finally, we unscrambled the letters to spell the word “iPod.” My sisters and I immediately headed for the iPod that was lying on the dinette table. I thought of searching the notes app or maybe a tab open on Safari, but one of my sisters had the idea to take off the case first. Which we did, only to find our third clue – another slip of paper, this time with coordinates. I quickly plugged the latitude and longitude into Google Maps and a red tear-dropped point marked the spot: a ski resort in Canada. Could we have found the wrong location? I double checked the coordinates on the screen against the ones on the paper. Everything was correct. Were we really going skiing in Canada?!

A month later, I found myself seated on a plane, flying to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where we would catch another flight up to Quebec, Canada. Once in Quebec, we had a one-and-a-half hour drive through a blizzard, which the driver didn’t seem to mind as he chatted away half in English and half in French. If it wasn’t for the blizzard, we would have actually been able to see some of the attractions he told us about along the way.

Excitement hung in the air as we took our first step out from the shuttle bus and onto the icy pavement in front of the grand entrance to Club Med Charlevoix. We couldn’t wait to see what adventures the week would bring!

After receiving our bracelets (which enabled us to go in and out of our rooms) and piling our suitcases onto a rolling cart, we made a beeline for the lunch buffet. We had woken up at three in the morning, and it had been many hours since then, so we were all super hungry. The lunch buffet had a wide variety of foods. I read that 80% of the food at the resort is sourced from Canada, 30% of which is produced within 62 miles (100km) of the property. The rest of the day was quite busy – unpacking, self-touring the resort, getting fitted for our ski gear and placed in ski groups based on our ski level, and finally getting to dinner.

Club Med Charlevoix is unique for the fact that the resort lies almost at sea level  (around 125m above sea level) and that you can see the St. Lawrence River as you ski. Never before had I been able to ski down a slope while enjoying the view of ships breaking ice on a river! It was funny to think how in Italy and France, I had been skiing at elevations that exceeded Charlevoix’s highest peak by four or five times! That being said, some of the slopes at Charlevoix were really steep, with double-black diamonds on par with what I saw in the Alps. In fact, I even saw a sign for a slope that was a triple-black diamond – eek! I definitely didn’t want to make a mistake and ski down that one!

On Monday morning we had our first ski lesson with our ski group of about ten people. The last time I’d been skiing was before Covid, and although it’s been quite some time, skiing, in a sense, is like bike riding. Once you learn the skill, you keep it – although that doesn’t mean that you won’t worsen in it if you don’t practice it every so often.

Club Med Charleroix is a ski-in/ski-out sort of ski resort, which means you can literally walk out of the wet room, snap on your skis, and go skiing! In the past, I had skied at a resort up in the Italian Alps which wasn’t ski-in/ski-out, and I can tell you from experience that it’s much nicer when you can exit the resort and immediately ski, rather than piling everything into a van and driving up to the chairlifts and gondolas. It definitely isn’t an awful situation to be in, but ski-in/ski-out is a much easier and less time-consuming option.

We had two ski lessons per day; one lesson after breakfast (everyone returns to the resort for lunch) and one after lunch. Our morning lesson started at 8:30 a.m., so to be there on time, my dad had set a few alarms to go off during breakfast to remind us when to get ready for skiing. It’s quite easy to lose track of time while at a resort with an amazing buffet :).

Bundling up to go skiing does take some time. As most everyone at the resort, I wore my thermal outfit to breakfast – but then there’s a lot of other layers that go on top, which can take a while to put on… and don’t forget about the ski boots.

With skiing and any other snow sports that require you to move, you don’t want to wear too little and get cold, but you don’t want to wear too much and sweat – I’ve found that you can usually find that balance of how much or how little to wear within the first day of skiing. During our ski lesson in the morning, the temperature outside was usually around 3°F (-16°C). Although it may sound cold, I never felt that way with all my layers on. As the day progressed, the temperature would warm up a bit, usually to around 15°F (-9°C). I was able to determine how much to wear based on the temperature and wind chill outside.

A good tip (which I always do) to anyone new to skiing or who may try skiing in the future: if you have any extra gear or warm layers (such as an extra sweater, gloves, scarf, etc.), I advise that you put it in a bag and store it in your locker. If you find that you wore too much and were too warm while skiing, you can remove a layer or so and put it in that bag; if you find that you were cold while skiing, you already have extra layers and such in that bag, preventing you from running up to your room before skiing again.

Putting on, adjusting, and yanking off ski boots can be quite bothersome (my dad calls ski boots torture devices). Every time I had to walk with my ski boots on, I would complain about how painful my shins were and how I thought that my shinbones had been broken in a few places. That’s just one of the cons that comes with skiing, but the pleasure that comes when you ski down a snowy mountain makes it all worthwhile. After a few minutes of skiing, I didn’t even feel the pain anymore.

I had a feeling of euphoria as I skied down the powdery snow-covered mountain, evergreen trees on either side laden with fresh snowfall from the night before. I found it intriguing to spot container ships breaking through the icy St. Lawrence River, cloud-like puffs of condensed exhaust rising up into the air. For our first ski lesson, my group started with a green run as a warm-up, but quickly moved on to the blues, and toward the middle of the week, we did our first black diamond. I have skied several black diamonds before in Europe, so it was nice to finally ski one in North America.

During our ski lessons, we worked on improving our turns and skiing techniques, and trying to look like professional skiers. Our ski instructor, Felipe, did a great job of teaching us those things – and making everything he was trying to teach us look as easy as tying shoes. We often watched him ski down the slope as flawlessly and effortlessly as a gold-medal Olympian.

On Thursday afternoon, my ski group got to experience a real winter wonderland – skiing as it snowed. I was so preoccupied with my skiing that I didn’t even think to stop and let a snowflake land on my tongue!

Thankfully, it didn’t snow hard enough to give us near-zero visibility like the forecast had previously predicted. I remember once in France when it snowed so hard that you could barely see the person in front of you! It was as if we were stuck in a glitchy television channel, just instead of a grey flickering screen, it was white.

Thursday night, a strong arctic cold front (a so-called polar vortex) arrived, causing the temperature to drop drastically. The temperature outside the resort dropped to -40°F (-40°C). It was much colder on top of the mountain. I heard that the temperature up there plummeted to a bone-chilling -72°F (-58°C)!

My dad got a screenshot of a BBC news reporter cringing at the temperature sign beside her on the board as she gave the weather. Even the Canadian staff at the resort were surprised by the weather – and if Canadians are cringing at the frigid weather, which they’re used to, that’s telling you something.

Everyone’s ski lessons on Friday were canceled due to the weather. In fact, the whole mountain was shut down. I have to admit, it was nice to have a little break from skiing. We could get up a little later, take our time at breakfast, not have to go through the gruesome process of fitting a sore foot into a ski boot, and enjoy some of the other facilities that the resort had to offer. However, toward the middle of the day, all I wanted to do was go skiing – which I couldn’t do.

With all my spare time, I had quite a few options for how I could spend the day:

1. Discover the art of intricately complicated yoga,
2. Swim a few laps in the heated swimming pool, or
3. Try not to die of heat stroke in the steam room (as a plus, if I survived, at least I’d smell like eucalyptus)

Okay, so maybe the steam room wasn’t that hot considering how popular it was. In fact, my whole family enjoyed it.

I found it quite amusing to watch people in bathing suits walk out of the steam room looking like boiled lobsters and then hop outside into the snow. Since I sat nearby the doors that led outside, I occasionally had to open them for those people who decided to take a completely unusual step out into the cold (if I had spent any time in that steam room, I probably would have buried myself in a snow drift until my core temperature returned back to normal).

Speaking of all things hot, the resort also has an outdoor jacuzzi, but as with most outdoor-related things, it was closed on Friday.

I thought there would be some sort of circus training using an aerial hoop or trapeze (a mini-version of a trapeze, at least – although the resort was huge, I don’t think they had a whole trapeze stored away in one of their storage rooms) like the schedule had said, but it turned out to be Play Central for young kids and toddlers. Bouncy castles were inflated, hula hoops were scattered around, and a juggler juggled balls nearby – all things that would appeal to young kids, but not a fifteen-year-old who had been waiting for a bit of circus training. I decided to grab a few treats (they had quite a smorgasbord!) and head up to my room to catch up on emails while my sisters watched Netflix episodes.

I can now officially proclaim that I’ve skied in -13°F (-25°C) weather. In fact, my whole family can. On Saturday the mountain reopened, and my family and I had the privilege to ski all together for the first time ever. It was my youngest sister’s first time skiing, and she did an amazing job at learning how to ski (even if she may be a bit of a speed-demon)! The pink level, which she was in, is the beginner’s level for children at Club Med Charlevoix, where learning how to stop and turn using the pizza technique is taught and practiced.

In order to safely ski in that frigid temperature, we all had to cover up any exposed skin – including our noses. My whole family did a few quick ski runs together before we had to head back inside because my sisters had gotten too cold. I warmed up inside for a few minutes, changed out my moistened neck warmer for a dry one, and then my parents and I headed back out for a harder run. We went to the top of the mountain once. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as windy up there as it was down by the resort. The temperature, however, quickly made its way through my gloves and neck warmer. All the other days I had skied, I never had cold fingers, but on Saturday I had to keep moving them and balling my fists to keep my fingers from numbing. Unfortunately, if it’s too cold outside, sometimes your ski goggles freeze up on the inside, making it hard to clearly see through them. Although that didn’t happen to me, it did to my dad. If you try rubbing the icy layer off with your gloves, it’ll just smear and make it worse. But just like how you can de-fog snorkeling goggles by spitting into them, there is a technique to  melt iced ski goggles – but it does require the use of a warm air blower, such as the air dryers you find in bathrooms. When you’re up on the slope, you don’t have access to one of those, so my dad had to ski down without his ski goggles on (Looking around the changing room told me that he wasn’t the only one).

Despite the bitter weather, I had an awesome time skiing for what may be the last time this year.

The last day of any more-than-amazing vacation can be hard, especially if you don’t want to leave. I had enjoyed a wonderful week at Club Med Charlevoix, but seven days just wasn’t enough! Our vacation was brought to a close with an outstanding nighttime performance (I believe it was called “The Carousel” show). I got plenty of photos and videos to remind myself of it if I’m in need of some vacation-like entertainment.

Although the show was stunning, our transit time was not. We had a 1:00 a.m. (not p.m.!) shuttle from the resort, then three flights and an hours’ drive to where we call home. Traveling in the morning (or late at night) is exciting, don’t get me wrong – but waking up at twelve forty-five at night in order catch a shuttle at one is not. Yes, the travel home was tiring, but well worth it. I wouldn’t have missed that vacation at Club Med in Charlevoix even if it meant I’d have a whole-day worth of layovers on the way there and back, just for that one week vacation in Canada.

Dare to explore!

Vivienne