Company | Winter, I love you!

It’s been hard to escape winter lately. Also a good portion of Quebecers has decided to finally give in to it, including our journalist, who did not choose the most common way to learn to love the cold season.

Eve Dumas
The Press

“I’m going to lose my pieeeeeeeds!” ” It’s the panic. I will never walk again after this first (and probably last) winter dive, that’s for sure! My neoprene socks are only 3mm thick. Big rookie mistake.

” Does it hurt ? shouts the head madman, who organized this snorkeling trip in an icy St. Lawrence River. “Yeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. “Good. We should be able to save them. »

And indeed, after a few minutes in a cooler filled with hot water, my feet came back to life and fear gave way to great pride. This is how, on a very polar day at the end of December 2021, I finally started to love winter.

Yes, sometimes it takes extreme measures to bring about real change. Especially when it comes to the cold season, unloved by so many Quebecers. A global pandemic and the cancellation of almost all indoor activities, for example, seem to have led to a forced appreciation of winter.

Admittedly, an activity such as diving “with” or “under” ice is not accessible to ordinary mortals. In apnea (retention of breath, without air cylinders), this is even more true, relaxation being an essential component of the sport. The more relaxed we are, the less oxygen we consume. But try to relax in zero water, with frozen extremities and a layer of ice above your head!

winter warriors

The circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have led many people to surpass themselves, even involuntarily. This is the case, for example, of Marika Bonetti, who took up trail running and increased the pace and difficulty of her ski touring outings in the Chic-Chocs, among other places. Its conversion to winter had already been underway for a few years, but was intensified by the great need to “play outside” caused by the confinements.

“I had to arrive at the top of a mountain in tears to finally make peace with winter, tells us the athlete. It was at Mount Lyall. I had tears under my mask during the two hour climb. But immediately afterwards, I decided to go back up, as if to crystallize the experience. It gave me so much self-confidence that I felt much stronger and able to do all kinds of things afterwards.

“I’ve never been the kind of person who loves to ski in the centers and freeze in the ski lift, continues the one who works in the organization of events for the company Red Bull. But off-piste, you’re constantly moving and you’re even hot. »

In this third winter marked by COVID-19, Marika filled all her weekends with running and touring.

No bad weather!

For Audrey Ruel-Manseau, it was not only a question of well-being, but of survival. “I used to leave in the fall or winter to go surfing. Last year, with travel restrictions, I figured I wouldn’t make it through if I couldn’t surf. So in the fall of 2020, I continued, then I finally decided to equip myself to surf in the winter, with a thicker wetsuit that has an integrated hood, with mittens, with warm boots. »

The journalist admits to hating the cold.

And his solution to love winter more – besides balancing on a board in the icy and turbulent waters of the St. Lawrence River – is to multiply the activities. The conditions are not always good for surfing. The presence of large blocks of ice is annoying and the extreme cold can get the better of the safety belt, for example.

So she bought touring skis. “Now, when there’s a storm, instead of crying because I’m going to have to clear the snow, I think about skiing. There is no bad weather, only bad clothing and bad equipment. »

Sylvie Laitre agrees with this statement. “This winter, my snow pants are always by the door. It is no longer a garment that stays at the back of the wardrobe. The ex-cautious person who lived in Mexico for 15 years relearned to live in winter when she returned to Quebec 10 years ago. But it was during the infamous 2020 school break when the world went into COVID-19 mode that she really started to appreciate it.

“I got back on my skis for the first time in over 30 years. When I was young, I had a serious skiing accident, which made me spend a week in the hospital. Last winter, I got a taste for it again and this winter, when I saw that everything was closing, reopening, closing, I said to myself that I had to do something, otherwise I was going to suffocate.

Art in the winter

For a good majority of people, the appreciation of winter seems to go through sports activities. But this is not the case of the artist Olivia Sofia. “Before, in the winter, I really spent a lot of time reading and I didn’t go out. I comforted myself by saying to myself: there is really nothing to do. My ballet teachers had always told me that I shouldn’t skate because I would have too big thighs and skiing, I was going to hurt myself. So winter, for me, was just a Quebec evil to endure. »

Then the multidisciplinary artist started walking while listening to podcasts.

With her roommates, last winter, she created a winter garden in her Montreal backyard, a large fort in an adult version, with candles and aperitifs.

Then there was the winter banquet, on the small island in Jarry Park, with a snow table decorated with natural elements. “We served mulled wine, people stopped, stayed a bit. It ended up lasting five hours, ”says the one whose practice is centered on moments of community.

Last month, it was a small “snow rave”, a silent dance where about twenty people jiggle outside on a list created by the unifying young woman. Whatever the way, everyone can find their winter happiness.