It was the first time that a group from 
HGS had ventured to the ski slopes of 
Andorra; 31 students (accompanied by 
three staff) were based in the Hotel St 
Gothard in the resort of Arinsal, and we 
were blessed with plenty of great snow 
and some fine weather. Omer writes:
‘On our first day on the slopes, we met 
out ski instructor, David. He greeted 
our group which consisted of me, Alvin, 
Kingsley, Gurjeevan, Arjan, Arun, Dylan, 
Maxi and Nicholas. Day 1 opened with 
an evaluation of our current skill level by 
us skiing a nursery slope. Thankfully no 
one fell! We then took a chairlift up to a 
more difficult slope. This was rated blue 
and only 1 member fell. Then we took a 
different slope which was much steeper 
and, therefore, more exciting. On day 2, 
we ventured to the top of the mountain 
but, since visibility was next to nothing on 
this day, we saw no views. From here, we 
skied a selection of blue and red slopes, 
falling many times and laughing all the way. 
The whole group progressed well together 
since we fell less and our turns were more 
controlled. David taught us many tricks 
to help us ski, including centre of gravity 
placement and head position. On day 3, 
the weather started to improve; rays of 
sun shot albeit sparsely onto the slopes! 
David took us on a new, much more 
challenging route, all the way down the 
mountain. Its difficulty came not from its 
length, but from its narrow turns and high 
jumps. We all fell more than once. The 
rest of the day passed with more thrilling 
jumps and jaw-dropping descents. On day 
4, the sky finally cleared. The entire resort 
could be seen without a detail missed. 
The views at the mountain’s summit were 
beautiful. The decent to the bottom was 
much more controlled and calming; skiing 
felt natural and doing it with friends was a 
joy all the way. Nobody fell. Finally, day 5 
commenced, our final day of skiing. David 
was determined to make the most of it so 
he took us on all of our favourite slopes: a 
route from our mountain’s top right down 
to the car park at the bottom, a slope 
on the side with many jumps – made for 
speed – and a new slope we had wanted 
to do for the entire trip, the ‘pipeline’. 
This slope was moderately steep, but its 
uniqueness came from its borders. Much 
like a pipe cut in half, the ends were raised 
meaning we had to accelerate to go 
right to the top right and rapidly descend 
to the left creating a very frightening 
yet enthralling ski. Our final hour was 
bittersweet, since we were very tired but 
loved the thrill of skiing and the passion of 
our instructor. We said our final goodbye 
to David, received our certificates, and 
returned our skis to the rental shop.
Summarising, our group’s skiing 
experience was fantastic. A combination 
of our teachers’ planning, David’s passion 
and our group’s friendship made it 
deserving of such a description’.
For the record, the group also enjoyed 
a selection of evening activities during 
the trip including bowling, swimming and 
a quiz night. The buffet selections (for 
both breakfast and our evening meal) 
at our hotel was probably the best food 
provided during a school ski trip for the 
last 35 years! We also ate a hot lunch 
daily on the mountain, although that 
wasn’t quite as nice! From a teacher’s 
point of view, all students (beginners 
and those who had skied before with 
us) displayed really positive attitudes to 
their skiing, made excellent progress and 
were complimented by their instructors. 
Skiing is only for about 4 hours each day 
and during other times too, our students’ 
conduct was exemplary; they were great 
ambassadors for the school and it was a 
pleasure to travel with such well-behaved 
and cooperative young men.
Omer Ali, Year 7
THE SLOPES
HITTING
40

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