Winter Camp
Ski and Snowboard Trip to Switzerland in February 2011
On Friday the 11th February, a group of 13 high school students and 2 staff flew to Geneva for a week of skiing and snowboarding in the Portes de Soleil region of Switzerland.
We arrived very late on Friday night but were keen to hit the slopes first thing on Saturday morning. The snow conditions were not perfect, but there was still enough to keep us entertained. We had 5 days of blue sky and sunshine and one day of snow. Each day we had 5 hours of lessons and were split into ability groups mixed with other international school students from around the world.
There were 2 advanced snowboarders (Lion and Egor), 3 beginner snowboarders (Chelsea, Diana and Ulysses), 6 advanced skiers (Paul, Amala, Zarina, Matthijs, Leon and Gui), 1 intermediate skier (Tata) and 1 beginner skier (Leticia).
We travelled over the border to France and spent 2 days at the resort of Chatel making the best of the wide pistes and the jumps at the snow park. The singing could be heard in the valleys as we travelled on the chair lifts and our new friend from Sultan's School of Oman and Malhone College Belfast, kept us laughing all week. On the last day there were 2 Irish boys dressed in giant penguin costumes, which was hilarious. We all improved our technique, mastered some jumps, battled with the T bar and got the bruises to prove it! Paul recorded the fastest descent, clocking up 49 km/ph on the speed test. (Closely followed by Miss Johnson 48 km/ph and Amala 46 km/ph).
On Tuesday evening we went to an 'Aquaparc' which was amazing. The inflatable slides were fun and we all enjoyed relaxing in the spaand swimming outside in the heated pool. The highlight was the 'Buster loop' slide which was very scary. (You stand on a transparent trap door, in a tube. Wait for the 5 green lights before the floor opens up and you plunge into a dark abyss, spinning upside down, trying to catch your breath to scream!) Other evening activities included a music quiz, a 5 aside football tournament, charity bingo and a disco.
Most importantly we all got along very well and if the Facebook comments are anything to go by … it appears FUN was had by all.
I'm looking forward to next year already.
Lisa Johnson
Trip Coordinator
