2nd Guildford Scouts Ski Trip 2011

Networking is one of the many advantages of taking part in County-organised events and at Cyclo-Cross 2010, a chance remark led to 3 older scouts and a leader from 2nd Guildford taking up spare places on a ski trip with Phoenix Explorer Unit. Tom, Matt, Oliver and Liz Pritchard spent half term skiing on the Italian/Slovenian border.

The coach drivers kept us entertained on our coach trip through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, German, Austria, Slovenia and Italy, which we shared with a school party from Solihull. Reclining seats, DVDs and frequent stops at service stations across Europe helped to make the journey bearable.

The journey was worthwhile because the snow conditions were excellent in both Sella Nevea, the resort where we were staying, and in Tarvisio, which we visited for a day. Everyone had 6 days of ski lessons in both the morning and afternoon over so most of those who had previous lessons on dry ski slopes as well as some complete beginners quickly advanced from snow ploughing to parallel turns.

We were in rooms on the same floor as the school group so soon got to know them well and a corridor culture developed with more and more furniture (sofas and chairs) finding its way from stairways to the top floor.

After skiing each day we retired to our favourite restaurant where scouts enjoyed coke and chips and more discerning leaders drank hot chocolate with cream. Après-ski time was spent ice-skating at Pontebbe, sledging, karaoke, quiz night and a disco on the final night.