During half term a party of 18 students, drawn from all five year groups, and 3 members of staff embarked on a skiing trip to the town of Schladming in Austria. The journey from Malvern, via Gatwick and Salzburg airports, took approximately 11 hours and on arrival at the Hotel Rossl in Schladming we were given supper and then the rest of the evening was spent being fitted with boots, skis and poles. Our fatigue from the first part of term was sufficiently strong to have us tucked up in bed quite early on that first night, eagerly anticipating getting stuck in the next day.

The first morning dawned slightly overcast but it wasn’t too long before the sun began to shine on us and splendid weather was to prove a feature of the whole of the week, any snowfall being confined mainly to overnight. Eight beginners and thirteen more experienced skiers took to the slopes and very soon realised that conditions were perfect – no wind, reasonable temperature and fresh powder on almost all of the runs. Our ski instructors were very encouraging and provided suitable challenges for everyone, the beginners making very rapid progress over a relatively short space of time. Members of the beginners group had made their first attempt at a red run by the end of day four, only to discover that the intermediate skiers had been attempting a black run at about the same time.

As an added piece of fun, some of the more intrepid in the party went on a night tobogganing expedition, careering down 7 kilometres of rutted and bumpy run with only the occasional light for guidance. During the descent various unplanned dismounts were executed by the two-person crews which resulted in the odd bruise or two. However, the whole week was relatively free of injury, apart from the feeling of having been beaten with a mallet at the end of each day.

Owing to the wide variety of pistes available for all levels of ability the average distance skied was something around 20 km per day per person, leading to an approximate total for the whole group of 2500 km - equivalent to the distance from Malvern to Schladming and back! Just as impressive is the fact that the group consumed in excess of 500 semmels (Austrian bread rolls) though we were definitely beginning to flag by the end of the week and really did not want to see any more, particularly if they contained the ubiquitous ‘Fleisch mit Kase’.

On return to Malvern in the small hours of Sunday morning we were all content and rather tired, hoping for a good nights sleep before facing the challenges of the second half of term. The complete break away from the stresses of coursework, revision, examinations and so on was greatly appreciated. We all felt very lucky to have had such good weather paired with excellent snow conditions, and to have had the chance to have so much fun balancing on a couple of planks whilst hurtling down the side of a mountain!

Report by Lee Appleby

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