3, 2, 1… OVER! It's Sunday noon, the sun is shining brightly at the foot of Mont-Tremblant, everyone has a big smile on their face, and the 24H Tremblant clock has just hit zero. The 197 teams have completed their commitment to ski for a full day, and the donation counter shows over $2,500,000. The sponsored children, who are ill or in remission, are on stage, overflowing with joy despite their condition. Wow! This is our fourth year, and we never get tired of this magical moment. But 24H Tremblant isn't just about raising donations and skiing; it's a weekend with friends filled with laughter, partying, getting on each other's nerves, encouraging each other, and most importantly, appreciating one another. Here's a brief summary of all the preparation and the weekend's events for the nicest team at 24H: Attache ta tuque!
Who are "Attache ta tuque!"?
In 2012, 8 friends decided to form a team to participate in the event. During a wild brainstorming session, and because one of the members loves knitting beanies (I'll let you guess who), the team decided to call themselves Attache ta tuque! (literally, "Tie your toque!"). During the event, you can easily spot us with our matching beanies (courtesy of Gibou, of course). In 2015, the team now consists of 8 skiers, 1 snowboarder, and 6 supporters, all aiming to raise as many donations as possible. Eager to see what 2016 brings!
Preparation
The organization of the 24h Tremblant requires a minimum of $300 per participant in donations to be given to the various beneficiaries. We won't hide it, in our case, most of the donations are made in the two months preceding the event (October-November). So, it's towards the end of summer that the team meets to discuss our best fundraising method: The Attache ta tuque Party! Now legendary, the fundraising party allows us to give even more to the cause. This year, the event took place on October 16th. It was another success with over 150 people attending and over $3575 in donations for our team. It's a good base, but it's not enough! Now it's up to each team member to solicit family, friends, colleagues, and so on, to generously donate to the cause. A kind of healthy competition develops between us to see who will win the donation race (BTW, I'm very proud, I finished 2nd this year).
The 24H: Festive Friday
Aaahh, the famous Friday. TGIF. All week we fret at work until Friday arrives, then we finally take the 15 North, the 117, Montée Ryan, and we're finally at the mountain. Friday is quite festive. Our team has been renting the same friendly condo for 3 years, downtown Tremblant, which we like to call Headquarters (at least, that's what I call it). It's a large condo with 2 bedrooms and an open-plan kitchen, living room, and dining room. When there are fifteen of you in a condo with 2 beds + a sofa bed, it brings people closer, let's say. So it's Friday, the team arrives little by little, we're all happy to see each other. Then it's time to wax the skis with a small beer in hand, and we prepare the team dinner. After eating well and having a few drinks, we slowly head to the P'tit Caribou, a very well-known bar for people who frequent Tremblant. After a few dubious dance moves and rounds of Jägermeister, we all (or almost all) end up back at the condo for a short night's sleep.
The 24H: Things are happening
It's already Saturday morning, 9:00 AM, time to get up. Waking up a little tipsy is part of the tradition for Attache ta tuque! But hey, we deal with it. The team breakfast is served at the Tremblant convention center, perfect for recharging our batteries and discussing the last important points. This year, the interesting topic is who will do the race from the bottom of the village to the slopes (thanks Deguise). We go back to the condo where we put on music and pump up our runner; everyone is eager for it to start. The whole village gathers along the racecourse to cheer on the runners. 12:00 PM strikes, and they're off! The 197 teams rush to the bottom of the mountain, grabbing their skis and snowboards as they go, and get into the gondola. It's from this moment on that we all start having different schedules according to our shifts.
We decided to divide the 24 hours into 3 shifts per person, which we drew at random the day before. So while some are skiing and others need to sleep to be in shape, the rest of the team is at the bottom of the slopes to cheer and manage the skier changes. The atmosphere there is quite good: music, entertainment, shows, and there are even fires to warm up. Mother Nature wasn't very kind to us in terms of weather, but the resort still managed to get good snow on the slope we use for the event. It's just that at some point when all those people pass through the same place, bumps start to form, and ice is also present. This is probably the worst year for skiing conditions; unfortunately, I injured myself during only my second run. Now come the night shifts where you sometimes ask yourself "What am I doing skiing here at 4:00 AM?", but you remember it's for a good cause. When the sun rises, everyone gets a burst of renewed energy, and we slowly see the end.
The whole team gathers around 11:30 AM to welcome the last skiers and to do the final countdown. For one last time before next year, we are all reunited with our Gibou beanies, chanting: "Attache ta tuque! Attache ta tuque! Attache ta tuque!" We hug each other and catch our breath because we've been skiing, snowboarding, partying, running around making sure everything is okay, and cheering on our team for 24 hours. We go for a last well-deserved beer, pack our bags, and head back to the city. It's the end of another memorable weekend for Attache ta tuque! Shall we say until next year? Of course!
Marc-Olivier Gélinas
