During the February half term we embarked on our ski trip to Flachau, Austria. After our quick flight to Vienna we started on the 3 hour coach journey to our hotel in Flachau. We were all quite tired from the 5am start so the coach journey sped by, after a 45 minute break at a very affordable service station and some friendly conversations with the pleasant coach driver, we had arrived!

We were all pleasantly shocked by the hotel, the warm and cosy vibe made the whole experience so much better! After a quick dinner, getting our rooms and deciding on who sleeps on which bed (not a fun discussion) we headed to the ski rental shops at 8pm to get supplies. After setting up our boots in the boot room, and a 10:15 lights out we were ready to hit the slopes!

The next morning after breakfast we jumped on our bus and headed back to the ski shop, it felt like a completely different place in the daylight, seeing the magnificent view of the mountains. We were placed in four groups, four being the most skilled, and headed off with our instructors. For group 2 that meant falling down the nursery slope for an hour and half before finally making it to the button lift. We were then treated with a warming lunch in the restaurant which everyone found very delicious. After another hour and half we headed back to our hotel for some much needed warm showers.

The following day when we got on our bus we were greeted with the sound of every single girl complaining of shin pain, nevertheless we pushed through and had a very productive day. Group 2 made it onto the ski lift in the morning, and by the afternoon all of Channing was up in the mountains! That night our lovely rep Alice hosted a quiz night. I don’t think I have ever laughed more than we did that night, everyone loved the team names!

Our routine continued for the next couple of days until we went to a different ski resort, Zauchensee! Here we got a taste for professional skiing, group 2 screamed the whole way down the mountain as we were taken down what felt like black runs, which were actually flat blue runs! After enjoying some tasty waffles for aprés ski we headed back for the day. It was at this point we realised that we were not the only British school in our hotel and spent the next few days making some new friends. We tried out the hotel’s rock climbing, which brought out the competitive side of most of us and probably wasn’t good for our muscles after 4 days of skiing.

One of the best parts of the trip had to be the Lucky Flitzer. Some of us were quite nervous to try the toboggan but after hearing the teachers screaming all the way down we decided that it was a highlight. However, we can’t forget about the last night where we had our school disco! There was some hilarious Irish dancing with the instructors after we received our awards and tensions were high as the teachers announced the winners of the room inspection competition (room 6 should have won!).

Unfortunately, the next day we had to pack up and go, saying goodbye; it was emotional and we were all heartbroken to say goodbye to the staff in Austria and our lovely rep Alice. The ski trip was absolutely amazing and was better than any of us had expected! Thank you so much to all the teachers, it was incredible.

Ava N, Year 10