We could not wait for this winter retreat, and it lived up to all our expectations! Many deep, emotional conversations late into the night; feeling divulged, thoughts shared, emotions struggled with... The cabin was a two room wonder, with an old tape player hosted above the fire-place; the face of the stereo was melt by the heat of the fire, but it was still playing the greatest hits of Lauren Hill (perhaps forgotten by Dartmouth students of yesteryear). It took us a while to find it; at one point Danya took a shortcut off the highway only to find that the bridge was closed for the winter. Once we heated the cabin, I realized that I am really sick, and have a fever. Too late to bother with it, I still had to cook and drink and ski and hike! In the morning, we skied Wildcat; it was foggy, so no views at all. Slava's binding actually fell off his ski, so Danya had to give him his skis and snowboard the rest of the trip. In the evening, I cooked the whole salmon on the grill, and we drunk Kagor which someone brought from Russia; it actually had a little wooden cross attached to it. It did not help me much, I was violently sick by the time we went through our regular food / drink ration. I had to leave the cabin; the temperature outside dropped to - 30 Celsius or lower; I was quite miserable, burning with the fever and freezing at the same time. By the time I returned to the cabin, Skavish retreated for the night, saying that he was upset at everyone. Slava and Danya could not remember why he was upset. Next morning, Skavish could not remember it, either.
Next day, we went to hike the Arethusa Falls and the Frankenstein Cliffs. The weather was still bitter cold, and I bundled up in my hiking gear and bit the bullet. We were rewarded with gorgeous views of the valley, and some great laughs along the way.
