Day 4 – Ski Trip
An early start
The previous day everyone overslept. Mrs Martindale woke at just before 7.30am and there was a mad dash downstairs for breakfast. Mr Martindale was determined that this would not happen again. Alarm clocks had been set and clothes laid out ready to jump into. Like a salmon, Mr Martindale leap out of bed, showered, shaved and headed out to wake the children. “I can’t believe it! They were all still asleep” moaned Mr Martindale. This came as no surprise to the rest of the staff who know the difference between six and seven o’clock.
Breakfast - The usual stuff plus the return of the hot dogs.
Henry arrived looking slightly sheepish wearing “The beret of shame” but was soon smiling after receiving the attention of a pack of girl guides who are on the adjacent table at breakfast.
Skiing
Both groups were back on the mountain. Mr Martindale joined Mrs Martindale’s group and they worked on developing their turns. Mr Britten’s group explored new parts of the resort including a tricky red run and a slalom challenge (see later).
Highlights and lowlight
1. To get onto a lift you need to have a lift pass. These are placed in your left jacket pocket and it allows you instant access. James had remembered to keep his ski pass in his left jacket pocket at all times. He had followed the rules. What he hadn’t done was to remember to swap his lift pass when he put on a different jacket. Fortunately, Mrs Martindale was available to run back to the hotel and retrieve it or it could have been a very long morning.
2. Mr Britten’s group skied down a red run that earlier in the day had been used for a giant slalom competition. It was very steep and challenging. So it was very pleasing to see most of the group skiing confidently down the run. Ten out of the twelve finished without incident. Annabelle’s left ski finished the course confidently. The only problem was that it wasn’t attached to Annabelle. Finding red runs far too tame, Annabelle decided to go “off-piste”. Unfortunately, it was the last bit of skiing she did on the slope. She completed the course on her backside. Amelia, who had stopped to help, carried the right ski down the slope to join up with its buddy.
3. Slalom racing. Mr Britten’s group had a fun competition at the end of their session. An eight gate slalom course was set up and the children raced each other in pairs. The race began with two starting gates and a red route and a blue route. For the record, the results were as follows: Sarah beat Callum, Jessie beat Katie, Cameron beat George, Amelia beat Annabelle, Lois beat Jessica and Jack beat Henry. The races were incredibly close and very exciting. All the children skied well and Henry was singled out by Christian for his efforts and got a high five.
More of Christian’s wisdom
“I never fall over, the mountain moves to my body position”
“If you listen to me for one minute, your skiing will improve by ten minutes”
To Mr Britten at the slalom races – “I don’t want to race, I would destroy you in front of the children”
Lunch was meatballs in a tomato sauce with spaghetti.
More later…
