Chapter 55

David
David had planned an outing for the last day of the trip. Lexi had no clue he’d done it, so when David woke her at 6 a.m., she wasn’t happy.

“What’s your major malfunction?” she grumped.

“Get up. I have a special treat for you.”

“You’re a dumbass.”

“I love you, too. Now get your cute ass out of bed. We have to be in town by 7:15.”

He left her fuming and went into the guys’ six-pack. He found his younger brother sawing logs.

“Wakey-wakey.”

“Shut the hell up, David,” Allard complained.

Phil simply glared at him—well, as much of his eyes as could be seen were glaring.

“Get your butt up. Now,” David told his brother.

David decided Phil’s mom must have him well trained because he got out of bed.

David slipped into Greg and Joey’s room. He sat on the edge of the bed, which startled them both awake.

“The shuttle bus is leaving at 7,” was all he said before he left.

The five of them climbed onto the bus right at seven. When it started toward the resort, David clued them in as to what was happening.

“I planned an outing,” he started.

“You mean Lexi did,” Phil interrupted.

“Not me. I am as much in the dark as the rest of you,” Lexi shared.

“This can’t be good,” Greg decided.

David looked at Joey and pointed at her.

“What?” she asked.

“I figured it was your turn to make a smart comment,” David said.

“If you don’t get some caffeine in me, you’ll hear a few,” Joey promised.

“We’re going to jump out of a helicopter and ski on virgin snow,” David said, doing his overexcited ten-year-old routine. “I have video.”

David had done a quick Internet search to find a video of crazy guys jumping out of a helicopter to snowboard. It showed other crazy stunts like launching off of a ski lift and dropping off a cliff. How they hadn’t died, David intended to find out.

“Fifty bucks says you can’t talk them into letting you actually jump out of the helicopter,” Lexi said.

David’s eyes got big. He was so doing it.

The bus took them to the Whistler Heliport. They were met by Leo and Miles, their guide and pilot, respectively, for the day. The first thing David did was show them the video, so they knew what he wanted to do.

“Yeah, no problem,” Leo said.

“Really?” David asked.

“Hell, no. Now, let’s get you all geared up and then go eat,” Leo said.

Lexi gave David a little smile.

“Pay up.”

“The day isn’t over. When he gets something into his head, he’s like a terrier on a rat,” Greg said.

“I’ll put up twenty that he gets to do it,” Phil said to show his support.

“Anyone else?” Lexi asked.

Greg pulled out a bill. Joey was put in charge of holding the bets. Lexi shook her head with a grim expression.

“One rule. You can’t sabotage it if I get them to agree,” David told Lexi.

“If they agree, I plan to video your demise and get rich when I sell it,” Lexi fired back.

David knew she would, too. Besides, she would need proof that it was his own idiocy that caused his demise when she reported to his mother or face certain death herself.

Before heading out, they had to sit through a review of ski/snowboard safety, including avalanche safety and a talk about safe practices around a helicopter. Greg made sure Phil knew that touching the blades while they were spinning was bad. Greg’s four-year-olds would do just that, so Phil didn’t act too offended.

Leo talked about powder and what to expect. David hadn’t thought about it, but getting out of the helicopter might be challenging if you sank thigh-deep into the fluffy stuff.

They gave his group some great tips on how to ski powder. Stuff like how they shouldn’t steer with their ski edges but with their legs, and that their ski stances should be kept tighter. There were several other valuable pieces of advice David planned to make use of. Leo said they needed to stay on the fall line. That meant that the group should make crescent-shaped turns that kept everyone’s skis on the route that led straight down the slope rather than skiing across the hill. In other words, they should let gravity do its job.

The helicopter rose from its pad for the ten-minute flight to a mountaintop restaurant called the Roundhouse. Viewing their surroundings from the air gave the five a real sense of how massive the area really was. David could see people already on the mountain, making runs.

Then the helicopter rose above the peaks of both Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. The view of the Fitzsimmons Range put everything into perspective. Everyone could see the beauty of western Canada. Greg remarked reverently that it boggled his mind to imagine the first people who had navigated through all those mountains and, later, decided to build a resort in the wilderness. Whoever had done that was a genius.

They landed at a snow-covered helipad a short walk away from the Roundhouse, where they were treated to a substantial buffet. As they were eating, David looked around at the other four and was happy to see the excited looks on their faces.

When Lexi had originally sent him a list of all the tours and activities that were offered, David had rejected this one because of the price. At a thousand bucks a person, it was too much to ask college- and high school-aged people to come up with.

But then he’d read the details, and knew immediately that he’d splurge and pay to do this with his brothers. When he later found he could take up to five people, including Lexi was a no-brainer. David had debated who the fifth would be, but it was an easy choice in the end. Joey had become part of the family, in a sense, so he’d picked her.

When they were done eating, Miles pulled out a map showing where they were headed. It was finally time to load up and fly to their first stop. David appreciated that Miles took the scenic route to a neighboring mountain. He promised that he knew where to find them pristine runs for the entire day.

At the first stop, David was by the door. When he hopped out, he was knee-deep in bottomless powder.

Leo suggested that they use skis rather than snowboards for the first run so they could better get used to the difference. None of the five, except David, had ever been on a pristine slope before. He’d gotten that privilege when he snowboarded in Utah. That had been for a photo shoot where they’d blocked off one section of the mountain for a few days so the pictures wouldn’t show any tracks from other skiers.

This was ten times better. Even though he knew better, it looked to David as if he would be the first to ever ski this mountain. David attached a GoCam to his helmet and took off down the hill. Everyone immediately joined him in shredding the slope. Sinking in past your knees in fluffy snow as you raced downhill might be better than sex. Well, maybe not sex, but David thought it was a close second.

On the third run, they got to stress-test their avalanche gear. The group had switched to snowboards and were just getting a feel for what to do in serious powder. One of the tricks was to shift your weight to the tail of the board, which lifted the tip. That prevented the tip from digging into the snow.