Sometimes our plans and the club plans do not gel. The first real dumping of snow was followed by a winter blast, terribly bad for brass monkeys. Fortunately my make up does not contain brass but a fair amount of self preservation, so Saturday a plan was hatched to ski local, Bois de Liesse, knowing full well that we could scurry home quickly if my alloy composition started to change. As it turned out it was cold but bearable at least for the youngsters in the group, and given they had the car keys there was no retreat available. So we tootled around the trails along with a fair number of non primates including other club members who we met along the way. So honour was satisfied, we could not be called chicken for staying indoors by a warm, oh so warm fire, and we took photos to prove it.
Sunday , officially the outing was Campeurs Ste Agathe, a beautiful and more traditional xcountry ski center where I happily skied for several years often with my buddy Jacques L. However as the years trip by the descents get steeper, the climbs harder, the turns sharper 
and the trails narrower. So what happens a huge chunk of my self preservation comes into play. Add to it the cold temperatures and we never make it past Gai Luron with the more forgiving trails and a couple of warming huts if required. We were not alone, several friends appeared during the day and by early afternoon the parking lot was full. Surprisingly or not, a large number of people were snow shoeing, so the immaculately groomed trails never seemed crowded and every one enjoyed the warming effect of the sun. Still not a good day for primates unless of course they were wearing a fur lined jockstrap, and I for one was not prepared to check out the gorilla sat next to me.