On Saturday I flew back from the Montreal IETF but not before some pre-season (or pre-school?) skiing at Préski in Quebec City, cave hunting in Parc de Naturel de Portneuf, and airport waiting at the AF lounge for the BA flight that was six hours late.
The skiing was indoor, on a large treadmill-like surface. I've done this before, but ... it is always hard. Snow is more forgiving, you can slide your skis but here you have to have technique, which I don't have :-) You turn either by snowplow or by turning your skis on their edges and letting the ski shape take you. The treadmill is unforgiving because of the grip and friction but also because you don't have almost any space to go forward or backwards, as long as the treadmill is running you have to ski exactly at the right speed. In front you will otherwise hit the bar and in the back you are thrown into the end of the treadmill.
But, a lot of fun, albeit tiring for half an hour ski session.
Why are so many of the indoor ski places at shopping malls? I guess it is a fun activity, just like going to movies or dinner there. But the indoor ski place at the previous IETF meeting in Madrid was also at a shopping mall (link, alt. link).
Préski's website is here. With taxes a half an hour session was about 55€.
The cave hunting and airport waiting have been written in separate blog articles here (alt. link) and here (alt. link).
For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! This article has also been published there in this link. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of swimmers or saunagoers.
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