On the 21^st of January 31 Year 8 students took to the sky.  We flew over the sea to Grenoble airport in France.  The mountains looked like a pixie had sprinkled them with snow, although we were later to realise it was a lot deeper than a sprinkle!  We got off the plane and began the 1.5 hour ride to Alpe d’huez.  The 27 bend road was a nail biting experience twisting up the narrow road, but we reached the top soon enough.  When we arrived we were greeted by the Skibound Team at the hotel who would host our trip.  Then it was off to the fitting room to be measured for ski boots, skis and poles.  We were shown around the small village surrounding our hotel and then went back to curl up in bed for a rest to prepare ourselves for the long days ahead.

As you can imagine by the end of the week we were very tired but everyone had an amazing time.  The days were long with the evening activity as well which included bum-boarding, movie night, games night, adult soft play and table tennis.  Skiing topped it all though.

I started in the beginners group falling over every 2 minutes on nursery slopes but, with the help of the instructors and a few tips from the more advanced skiers, I was doing blue runs by the end of the week.  One skier that was much better than me was Kate who skied in the advanced group and went down the longest black route in Europe.  For those of you who don’t know the gradings it goes:

Green (easy)    Blue (mild)    Red (hard)    Black (very hard)

Overall it was a great week and everyone had an amazing unforgettable experience.  I would recommend it to all Year 7s, good or terrible at skiing. 

By Ruth, Year 8