The #NationSkiTrip Recap

Last weekend, we bused 30 of the Nation’s hero-e-ist® citizens down to Jasper in a mountain takeover that will live in infamy. Well… at least as much of it as we can remember.  Livers were punished, slopes were shredded, and we can’t thank everyone enough for helping make this trip a reality albeit a blurry one.

Before I get into the weekend, I’ll back up and explain how this thing even got started. At Nation HQ there are always ideas flying around about events we can throw, contests we can hold, and how we can further take over the universe. Sometimes the ideas are absolute garbage like the time I suggested we spend a bunch of money on one of those spotlights that could blast the Nation logo up onto buildings like a poor man’s bat-signal. Obviously we don’t have that. Fortunately, most of our ideas aren’t as bad as mine was, and we absolutely nailed it on the ski trip.

A couple months ago, Adam in sales (yes we have a sales team) tossed out the idea about having a Nation Skip Trip. He said that we would takeover a hotel in Jasper, rip up Marmot Basin, drink enough to make our livers tap out, and find a bus full of friends to make it a party weekend to remember. It would be a story book of memories, if you will. Needless to say, it was a passionate pitch and we were all fired up about it until we realized how much work it would take to make this happen. We’re bloggers, after all, and none of us got into this thing to have to work hard.

Adam wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer. Like the hero he is, Adam told everyone at HQ that we WOULD be skiing, that we WOULD find a way to get it done, and like a phantom he disappeared into the night. Fast forward a few weeks and Adam emerged from the darkness of his lair, his fist pumping triumphantly towards the sky, with a trip planned and the details worked out.

 

We really did have an excellent crew join us on this trip. One of the greatest parts about the weekend was that everyone was in the mood to get loose. From the bus ride down, to the seemingly endless pints at the Jasper Brewing Co, to the dance floor at the Atha-B, we amassed a crew that was ready to party, and we did exactly that. Whether we were on the bus, in the chalet at Marmot, or having dinner as a group everyone always seemed to have a drink in hand. Our group’s dedication to hydration was exemplary. Kidney stones? Not around these parts.

Even more impressive was how everyone almost everyone made it back to the bus in the morning for the ride back up to Marmot. For as much as we got ladder match bunged up, we were (mostly) still able to get up and get to business. Commendable and responsible partying is what I call that. *waits for high five* I have to give a special shout out goes to the team from Hot 107 that showed the world how they get down. They could party, man. Not only did they party they nailed on shut every night we there. They didn’t get much any skiing done but they did put together an impressive collection of empties.

If you haven’t been to Marmot yet this year I really do recommend that you check it out. They got a big dump of snow on the Friday night that we were there, and it made for an excellent day of shredding on Saturday. The snow was great and the runs were well taken care for. The only downside of spending two days on the mountain is that I’m so grossly out of shape that I still am not able to use my legs properly. My old bones are sore, and my muscles are about as useless as you’d expect them to be. I’m excited to feel this rough again next year.

As we do every week we recorded a podcast, but this time we were on location at the Marmot Lodge. I listened back to this yesterday and it’s obvious that we had a few more cocktails than I remembered having before we recorded it. On the bright side, it gives you a pretty good representation of how what the mood was like throughout the weekend.

Without a lot of help and a lot of great people this trip would have never come together. Not only did our sponsors help us make the trip run smoothly they were also generous enough to hook us up with a bunch of freebies to give away throughout the weekend.

On behalf of the Nation, and all those who attended, I want to thank AMA Travel, Tourism Jasper, Marmot Basin, Jasper Brewing Company, Marmot Lodge, Labatt, the Pint, and United Cycle. Your help and support allowed us to put together a great weekend, and we bow to your greatness.

Finally, we will be doing this again next year so start collecting empties early. Who knows what #NationSkiTrip2.0 will look like, but I’m excited to find out.