By Rayyan Ali, Hugh Dwyer, Olly Taylor (the man in red) and Emre Sakaoglu

Slope and steady wins the race

There was an air of immense anticipation as the coaches pulled in; like any good British group, the queue immediately started to form as our home for the next day awkwardly reversed into the tiny SGS car park. Beginners and experienced skiers alike slowly shuffled onto the coach to take their seat as Mr Humphries waved us goodbye before embarking on his own trip to Norway. Us personally, we had encountered the slopes of Austria the year before and were excited to pick up where we left off. The journey took a total of 20 hours - the less said the better - and it was best epitomised by being woken up at midnight by a bunch of Year 12s singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone lucky enough to spend their birthday surrounded by towering mountains and pure snow. But at last, at roughly midday, we arrived in Claviere to the collective relief of everyone.

We immediately familiarised ourselves with the town, which included a quality corner shop and restaurant which sold 8 Euro pizza. Despite the cheaper price tag, this pizza was everything an Italian pizza was born to be: between just our ski group, we ordered at least 25 pizzas and the very last bite was just as good as the first had been a week before. But the north star in our star-filled sky was no doubt Sammy Breadman. A man who stole all of our hearts through his passion for bread. The way he held the single piece of bread in his tongs was a sight to behold. Even though he spoke no English, apart from the odd ‘no problem’ and ‘your welcome’, he received a poem that could bring anyone to tears. I would be sure that none of it was understood, but Sammy’s strong smile showed how much it meant to him. However, I’m sure he would get the same love through any school that stayed in the hotel,  just because of how much of a dough demon he was. 

After the pizzas had been demolished, the evenings were dominated by the Assassin game, where each member of the trip was assigned another member to ‘kill’ until only one person remained. In reality, ‘kill’ meant to find a way to get alongside your target, with no one else within 8 metres, and announce that their chance at victory was over. I (Hugh Dwyer) exited the game quite embarrassingly as a certain Alex Wang asked me to take a photo of him, only to realise that my immense kindness and decency was to be rewarded by being brutally murdered.

But nothing came close to skiing itself.

The ski resort, Claviere, was small yet welcoming. We arrived in the last week of the ski season, when the quality of the slopes were not what they had once been earlier in the year. However, on the whole, the snow seemed fairly smooth and the instructors were incredible, although little could salvage the abomination which was my (Hugh Dwyer) skiing. Nonetheless, we ploughed on through the endless falls and slowly began to improve but, by the end, the slopes ended up looking like Box Hill after torrential rain.

Next stop: Montgenevre.

For the final two days of skiing, we were introduced to the mountains of Montgenevre due to the lack of snow left on the mountains in Claviere, much to the disappointment of Olly Taylor who, I quote, said, ‘Montgenevre is the Coventry of Huddersfields’. We packed our skis and boots and headed off to the majestic mountains of Montgenevre. Skiing definitely had its highs and lows, with morning ice a struggle to get to grips with but the constant ‘Bomba’ down red slopes made our day. The food in Montgenevre was incredible, with 25 Euro burgers that were bigger than our heads! Still wasn’t any better than Coventry, though.

Romano, our instructor, was by far the coolest guy in Italy. From skiing backwards down the black slopes to casually knocking over an 8 year old. His mesmerising moustache gracefully glided in the wind as he ski-daddled down the slopes. He helped us improve hugely with our skiing and also with our Italian. His trademarked catchphrases were ‘Andiamo’, ‘No Bomba’ and ‘HEHHHHH’. He also enjoyed making it known to the rest of the group that the ‘Man in Red’ was our signal that no other person was to come, mainly due to the fact that the Man in Red was 5 days behind us at all times. 

Back in the rooms, we found ourselves with the largest room of all, us having a group of five had clearly paid off, with the likes of Mr. Sollewijn envying us. We also enjoyed being in our own secluded space where we could enjoy staying up as late as possible, watching the Real Madrid-Arsenal game till midnight, it was a tantalising watch, where two incredible free-kicks gave the likes of Dimitri Payet a run for his money. Hugh Dwyer ended up finding himself 15 euros down after betting the room a drink each that Declan Rice wouldn’t score another beauty, much to both his enjoyment and dismay, he did in fact score another. 

As you can see from this collage of wonderful memories, it was a fantastic trip and we can’t wait to get back into the mountains!