Ski Trip Blog - Day 2

Sunday morning started early today, and the majority of students had the joy of waking up to Mr Berry banging on their door and shouting in a voice far too enthusiastic for the the hour it was! However, students roused quickly when word spread that it had snowed in the night and when they opened their curtains they were greeted with a view of untouched snow, breathtaking mountains and clear skies.
Once we were all up and out of our pyjamas, it was a breakfast of cereal, croissants and other breads, fruit, hams and cheeses. All students enjoyed the breakfast with some going up for seconds and even thirds in one case with Sam having 3 bowls of coco pops! We all definitely needed the energy for what was going to be our first full day of skiing!

After breakfast it was back up to get dressed for the slopes. There was about 45 minutes allocated to this - and all that time was needed to get all of the necessary gear on! It was -1 degree outside today (a tropical paradise compared to -7 yesterday) and that meant the full attire of thermals (top and bottom), fleeces (multiple in most cases), ski trousers, ski coats, gloves, goggles and hats. And when students were too padded up to be able to reach their feet - it was time to put the boots on!

At about 9.30am, we met our ski instructors and made our way over to the nursery slopes where they tested our skills and put us into groups based on our ability. All groups learned the ‘plough’ technique when skiing and some groups went even further than this, including some twists and turns in their lessons. This was.... eventful! The highlights included:

Shriya losing control of her skis in the queue and sliding past everyone down the slope;
Mr Kendrick taking the ‘ploughing’ technique too literally and crashing into students;
Amber veering off the path and crashing into the fence;
Madeline perfecting her backward skiing technique.

We stopped for lunch half way though but students were eager to get back out there and carry on working on their new skills.