Friday Afternoon - The last ski.
After lunch, we made the final walk to meet our instructors at the chair lift. All three groups went up the mountain together and then went their separate ways. We have probably, between us, covered every inch of snow in the whole of Serre Chevalier. The slope were still reasonable and most groups opted for fun and a visit to the Ski Park. Mrs Major’s group have now progressed so far that they can ski confidently across a variety of blue and green runs. Isabella, Rosie and Amelia have grown in confidence and are skiing with control. Tatziana, Pip, Harvey, James P, Lewis R and Anushka have progressed to the level where they can now lead the team down the mountain and ride safely on all the different ski lifts. Alex H has been consistently good throughout the week and has helped others, as well as Mrs Major, to ski safely and recover after any falls.
Mr Britten’s group skied a red run that was just amazing, everyone speeded from the top all the way down through a valley. We had the whole run to ourselves and nobody fell! This lead us to Rohan’s drag lift and up to the ski park. Mr Britten, sensibly, decided to watch the children attempt massive jumps - chicken! The first jump was won by Oliver P with Isobel 2nd, the second jump was won by Oliver S with Lois and James S tied in second.
Mr Martindale’s group had a leisurely ski across a variety of slopes and practised their 360 turns. Sarah and Jessica have mastered these. The boys of the group seem to prefer the jumps more than the ballet moves!
A interesting aspect to the week has been the failure of the following sentence starter - What ever you do don’t… This has lead to a variety of problems. Whatever you do don’t forget inevitably leads to a 100% failure rate of remembering said item. Whatever you do don’t ski either parallel or snow plough often leads to children either getting stuck skiing up hill or hurtling down the mountain at break neck speed. Jeff told us on the first and probably every day - Whatever you do, don’t take your gloves off on the chair lift. This one simple request was the reason why Rohan spent the afternoon in one glove!
After the afternoon session, we returned the skis to the ski shop and were joined at the hotel by Sophie, Ben and Jeff. The children were given their results from the weeks skiing and certificates and medals were handed out. Each group was awarded a skier of the week by their instructor. There were Alex H, Oliver P and Oliver S (joint) and Sarah.
Preparations for our return
Mrs V will phone Miss V as soon as we land at Manchester. She will then start the phone chains off and, all being well, we will be back at school on time.
Unpacking
Having listened to the children and watched the children pack, be prepared for the following:
Smell, odd socks, other children’s clothes, a large amount of unworn clothes(boys) and absolutely no folded clothes.
A lot of us have very dry lips, no matter how much Vaseline we applied it hasn’t prevented skier’s lip. A ready supply of lip balm may be useful.
Thanks for all the comments and messages throughout the week. The children have been outstanding all week. Their behaviour has been first class. The hotel staff, who see a lot of children during a season, said that we had the best manners of all the children they have had this year.
Any last minute messages sent to
I have quite a lot of photos and a couple of videos still to upload to the photo album. I’ll put them on the blog when get back to England.thisweekatsalterford@hotmail.com
