Matthew adjusted the goggles on his face. He sat on a bench, doing up his boots. He stepped into his skies with a satisfying click. Behind him, Gilbert stretched in the bright sun as he shuffled towards Matthew, snowboard strapped onto one foot.

"Ready Matthew?" Gilbert grinned, white hair flattened against his head by a silver helmet. He put his gloved hands in the pockets of his blue jacket and jerked his head towards the ski lift.

"One second Gilbert." Matthew zipped up his red coat and slipped on his mittens. He started sliding over the smooth snow.

The pair made their way towards the ski lift. Matthew smiled softly to himself. It was just yesterday that he had met Gilbert and today it was like they were best friends. Sure he was loud and plenty obnoxious, but he was patient and appreciated that Gilbert recognised him immediately when they met in front of the slope.

They made their way onto the chairs, sitting next to each other. Gilbert smirked at Matthew as he started swinging back and forth.

"Eek!" Matthew gripped the bars tighter as the chair swung precariously back and forth.

"Afraid Matthew?" Gilbert smirked, but stopped when he saw the panicked look on his friend's face. "Don't worry. The awesome me will safe you from falling!"

Matthew looked down at the ground, it was a far way down. Gilbert had insisted on going on the highest slope there was. Matthew was a great skier, but the rough rocks were sometimes difficult to traverse.

When they reached the top of the slope, the air was incredibly cold. Matthew didn't wear a helmet, but he did wear a think woolen toque which he pulled lover over his ears. They were above the tree line now, and all around him the landscape was smooth white snow.

"Hey Matthew, Lets try the triple black diamond!" Gilbert pointed eagerly at a sign saying "Death Sentence" which pointed to a hill covered in trees and rocks.

"Well, it is a warm up run."

"What about a black diamond." Gilbert gestured to a sign "Hospital Ticket" Where the drop off angle was steeper than Matthew could see.

"Lets try a blue first, just to start off." Matthew moved closer to a sign stating "Eagle's Flight" It seemed much less dangerous.

"Okay fine, It could give me a chance to do some flips!" Gilbert started off down the hill. Matthew followed quickly behind.

When skiing, Matthew found it best to take it a bit slow and swerve down the hills. He quickly discovered that Gilbert was a "Bomber." He would shoot down the hills as fast as he could.

Matthew could feel the wind rushing past him as he tried to keep up with his friend. He felt exhilarated by the speed. He was normally a very passive person, but when it came to sports there was just something inside of him that loved the adrenaline.

As he speed down the hill, Matthew noticed a blue lump on the ground. In a panic, Matthew stopped, he shook Gilbert's shoulder anxiously.

"Hey, hey Gilbert! Are you okay!" Gilbert sat up groggily.

"Hey what do you know, the helmet works!" GIlbert pushed himself back up.

"How long have you snowboarded for?" Canada asked cautiously as he watched Gilbert wobble on his board.

"Umm, I've tried it twice before. It was fun!" Gilbert gave the nation a thumbs up. "I wrote it down in my diary too."

"What? So you don't know what you're doing...at all?"

"Hey, the awesome me isn't ignorant. Just inexperienced." Gilbert crossed his arms indignantly.

"Okay then, do you want me to teach you how to snowboard?" Matthew started down the slope. "Try swerving from side to side like this."

He gracefully moved lack and forth in large swoops, like he was guided by a painter. Gilbert followed clumsily behind.

By the end of the day, Gilbert was a much better, or safer snowboarder. They had only stopped for lunch where Gilbert tried Canadian food. Not that it was especially healthy, but it was delicious.

Gilbert sat on a snow covered picnic bench as Matthew brought over a tray of food.

"What's that?" Gilbert looked warily at the tray which contained two hamburgers and two boxes of fries. Fries covered in brown sauce and little white bits.

"Burgers and poutine." Matthew pulled off his gloves and picked up his burger, taking a big bite.

"What is a Poo-Teen" Gilbert picked up a french fry and eyeballed it suspiciously.

"French fries with gravy and cheese, try it." Matthew picked up his fork and speared a few fries, offering them to Gilbert.

Gilbert took the offered fork and chewed on the fries. "Hey, this food is awesome! Is this what Canadian food tastes like?"

"It's pretty good, you can try a beaver tail for desert." Matthew casually reached for some more fries, not noticing the stunned look on Gilbert's face.

"You eat your national animal!"

The sun was starting to set and Matthew was starting to get tired. Gilbet was practically pulling at Matthew's sleeve.

"Just one more, please? Then we can leave!"

"Well, I guess if it's just one more."

When they reached the ski lift there was nobody there but the chairs were still running. They got onto the chairs and started their way up the steep slope. The air was so much colder now that the sun was setting. A fierce wind was blowing, chilling the pair to the core.

Suddenly there was a screeching noise and the chair shuddered to a halt, in the middle of the track. There was a silence as the chair swung back and forth. Then all the lights went off.

"Gilbert?" Matthew tapped Gilbert on the shoulder.

"It's fine Matthew. They probably just had a black out. The lift should start up again soon. Gilbert gripped and ungripped the safety bar in front of him, drumming his fingers on it impatiently. Be patient, right.

The minutes passed and Matthew nervously looked at his watch. Fifteen minutes had passed and he could feel the cold wrap around his body through his coat.

"Hey!" GIlbert shouted, "Anyone there!" GIlbert huffed in annoyance and slowly reached down to grab the snowboard dangling from his right foot. As he tried to grab it, his hands slipped and the board plunged down.

"Damn" Gilbert cursed. Matthew watched with wide eyes as it plunged down, down. They were probably around fifty meters up. They watched as the board bounced as it hit the snow, coming to rest a couple feet away.

"I'm going to drop my skis too." Matthew grabbed the back of the chair to steady himself while he reached forward to release the skis from his boots. They both fell down, but this time they hit trees that sat along the side of the trail below.

"It's too high up to jump." Gilbert remarked, looking around to see that the nearest post with a maintenance ladder was several meters away, far enough to risk climbing on the cable?

"So Matthew...what do we do now?"

Author's Note- So here's the sequel. Are you enjoying it? Thanks for following me to this story, and if you didn't then check out the prequel. "Memories need Cleaning too."