Day Two: The End of Canapés

For the 17 people staying at the Bon l’Hiver Lodge, dawn couldn’t come soon enough. After scrounging for blankets, each of the guests shivered through a night when the heat in the venerable lodge wasn’t working as snow piled up outside.

“When we woke up, the thermostat in our room read 59 degrees. So yeah, it was a tad chilly,” says Kate Thomson.

For breakfast, they made do with cold cereal, as the oven was as temporarily as dead as the heater. It was not the omelet-centered breakfast the brochure had promised by nobody really grumbled too much. Outside in the sun, it was a little better. The guests, figuring they were already cold indoors, decided they would be no colder outdoors so they decided to hit the Vermont slopes.

It was a gorgeous day after the snowfall but there was an additional problem nobody anticipated. More snow had fallen than forecast, some 11 or 12 inches, and that was causing problems for the repairmen getting to the lodge to fix the heat.

“As we were all gathering for lunch, they made the announcement,” recalls Marty Delgado. “They weren’t sure the heat would be fixed by nightfall. The roads just weren’t clear yet.”

“Then people started getting a little restless,” adds his wife, Diana.

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That Sunday afternoon, other problems had started to surface. Alma Chambliss, a 77-year-old guest, had run out of her prescription medication for her restless leg syndrome. With the roads closed, it was unclear when she would be able to get a refill.

“Yes, I do remember my legs flaring up that day,” Chambliss says by telephone. “You know, restless leg is an uncomfortable condition. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen without my pills.”

As if that weren’t enough, shortly before dinner, the toilet just off the lodge’s common area overflowed.

“What a mess,” says Jack Conaway, the employee charged with cleaning it up. “I almost got sick from the smell. I must have washed my hands 15 or 20 times after cleaning that. And there was still (excrement) everywhere. I could only do so much”

“You couldn’t escape the smell. It just kind of hung in the common area,” says Jonas Thomson. “The worst part that the common area was the warmest part of the lodge, with several fireplaces. So we had no choice but to stay there and keep warm. People were getting sick.”

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Tensions started to flare after dinner, several guests recall. The lodge employees were forced to throw out the night’s planned banquet: Pork tenderloin, mushroom risotto and cheesecake. Don Smythe, the manager, remembers people being particularly upset about one spoiled item.

“When I told people we had to throw out the canapés, they started getting upset,” says Smythe. “But what were we going to do? I couldn’t have people getting food poisoning. Not when there was no way of getting medical attention.”

Faced with few options, the lodge staff had to satisfy everyone with trays of lukewarm lunchmeat and vegetables. A long line formed, snaking from the kitchen nearly to the lodge foyer. The guests grumbled and waited their turn.

“Waiting in a long line for some cold cuts,” remembers Diana Delgado, shaking her head ruefully. “Some vacation, huh?”

With no repairmen able to trudge through the snow and the night getting colder, the guests huddled together for a second night, apprehensive about what the next day might bring.

Tomorrow: Salvation arrives but not without a few snags. The survivors try to adjust to the aftermath of their experience.