When we got there, we all grouped up and two people got handed walkie-talkies to help keep us together when we walked up the mountain. We also put our big packs on the gear-lift. Eventually, we got quite split up, we had a faster group at the front and a slower group at the back. I was near the front with some of my friends. We took a few breaks now and again to let the others catch up. It was so tiring! My legs were so sore!
When we got higher and we could see the lodge we had another break. The ground was absolutely covered in snow! Soon everyone else caught up and we all walked to the lodge where we were staying. We got inside and took off our hiking boots (as we weren’t allowed them inside) and got shown where our rooms were. I had a room with Sinead and Rhea, we were almost at the end of the corridor. After we roughly put our stuff away we went downstairs and had lunch in the dining room. We also played some table tennis in the lounge (it was really fun). Finally, we got our gear on for skiing.
Then we headed to ski-hire to get our ski boots and skis. I was one of the last ones to get everything fitted (so was Sinead). The only problem was that we didn’t get to practice walking. We had to walk to one of the beginner's slopes so we could start skiing. The boots were really uncomfortable to walk in! When we finally got to the slope we had to walk up part of the mountain in our skis so we could ski down. When I finally got up my legs were really sore.
Everyone got a turn at skiing down that part of the mountain. For starters we had an adult help us turn around and do the pizza with our skis for practice. My first few tries, I fell over a lot but I eventually got a bit better. After our first couple of goes, we could walk our skis up with only our boots on (which helped a great deal) and soon after that I was told that I could use the nut-cracker.
The nut-cracker was a belt with a sort of metal handle on it. Think of a regular nut-cracker, it was metal and we had to flip it over a moving wire and hold onto it so we could go up. I was quite scared my first time just looking at it. A sort or rope-wire was moving really fast in a circuit so you could go up and go around if you wanted. To use the nutcracker I lined myself up with the wire(so I was facing the direction I was going to go in) and I used my left hand to grip the wire to start pulling me along while I used my right to flip the nutcracker over the wire to form the metal handle.
On my first go, I fell over (but I heard that most people had anyway). I tried again and I got it. I didn’t want to go up too high so I found an almost flat spot to stop and let go of the nut-cracker. I found it really hard to stop from falling backwards so I usually fell over but it was worth it. It was really fun going down.
When we went back to the lodge I was quite tired already. I almost can’t remember how long it was before and after tea! Most of us hung out in the lounge playing table tennis and after tea, some of the adults joined in. It was really fun beating Mr Sinton White at table tennis. Soon after dessert, we all went to bed.
The next morning was slow, a bit more table tennis, breakfast and then we headed out for more skiing. This time it was really icy and I had a lot more trouble than the day before. In fact once when I was doing the pizza down I hit a patch of ice, came flying down the mountain and almost took out people. Luckily the only thing I hit was the bags.
After lunch was a whole different story, the snow was much more powdery and it was easier to ski. The only problem was that we didn’t have enough nut-crackers and someone stole my one. I shared with other people when they took breaks. In the end, we all went up to the big rock and made a video of us going down. I hadn’t been up that high before but I did well.
Coming down we got poles so we wouldn’t slip and we all went down much faster than we came up the mountain. I zoned out a lot of the trip down and can’t remember much apart from, I was at the back of the faster group. We honestly didn’t talk much and when we got down we got sorted into our cars again to go back to school.
Overall, it was really fun and I loved it but it was also absolutely tiring and I was very sore the next day.
