You Were Running Naked Through the Snow

We were on a ski trip in the Alps in 2014. Myself and four buddies. We had a little Airbnb at the top part of town, half a mile up a winding road. We’d got to know the owner of this bar in town - he called himself Bill Le Boucher. We went to his bar most nights, so he took a shine to us. He was feeding us shots our last night, mostly Kraken rum. By the time we left the bar, we were completely fucking shitfaced. We left together and all was fine until the ice caused some issues. Some of us walked faster than others, so two of the guys went ahead, stuck to the road and made it back to the apartment.

My buddy and I thought we’d be clever and instead of following the winding road, we’d cut up the verge, go straight up and land at the apartment. We were doing ok to begin with but underestimated how deep the snow was. My buddy was convinced it was one way, I was convinced it was the other - so we split up. I’m doing well, despite the fact I then started to throw up and I fell in a freezing river... I didn’t see it. I got knee deep, thrashing around. I eventually climbed out, but got back to the apartment, got my wet clothes off and passed the fuck out.

Fast forward to morning…I wake up to my phone ringing. It’s my buddy who went his own way. Confused, I answered, “Why are you calling me from the sofa?” - he’s not on the sofa. He’s in the hospital in town, at the bottom of the mountain. He dissected through broken French, “When the fireman caught you, you were running naked through the snow”. I wake everyone up, we pack quickly, get the car and start driving down the mountain towards the hospital to go get him, and get to the airport to fly home. As we got closer, he called again and said, “Don’t go to the hospital, I had to run.” They were trying to get him to pay, so he bolted out the door and was hiding in town. We found him on a bench, opened the door and he got in.