After 3 amazing holidays and lots of fundraising, I must have given off a good impressions as the Caring Cancer Trust appointed me as a mentor for the charity. This meant I would be on every trip to be a support and helping hand for the children and help them feel less relaxed as it is easier for children to talk to someone their own age about their worries rather than one of the adults.
This meant that I would be back for the ski trip 2014! However, this year would be different for me. Both other ski trips with the charity I have snowboarded, but the resort this year, Pila in Italy, were not happy having a snowboarding group due to too many injuries in the past and this meant I had to ski.. I had never skied with the charity but I did have a weeks experience from the school ski trip in Austria so it wasn't going to be completely new for me, but it was safe to say I was still very nervous!
This year the holiday started in London. It was suggested that me and Shannon go up to London the day before we were due to fly as the flight was early in the morning and due to how far away Shannon lives, it would have been hard for her to get the airport in time. This was suggested by charity owner Ian. He would also be coming up to stay in London and with him was Becki, one of the children on this years trip. She came up with Ian as they both come from the Isle of Wight so it was an easier option for them both too.
We stayed overnight in a 4 star hotel which was beautiful! Ian had his own room whilst Shannon, Becki and myself shared a room.
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| Becki, myself and Shannon |
After exploring the rooms and having dinner, we still had time to waste before it was time to go to bed, so Shannon Becki and I went out to explore London, all in walking distance from our hotel. This was a good opportunity to use the camera I had received as a present for Christmas. We saw Chelsea Bridge, a tall building which I'm not sure what it was called, some Boris Bikes and some small features.
After an amazing night in the hotel, it was time to fly. Whilst on the plane, I decided to test out the zoom on my camera which is pretty good. You know sometimes planes fly past each other but they're so far away to avoid crashing that the other plane looks like a dot? Well my camera got close enough for me to see which airline the plane was.. I also captured some brilliant images of the coast of England and of the mountains appearing through the clouds.
The flight was an hour and a half roughly and it then took us around 2 hours to drive from the airport to Pila, right at the top of the mountain. When we got to Pila, we went straight to our hotel; Plan Bois.
The hotel was a lovely hotel. As you walked in, you came to a huge living space with sofas and a big TV. This made the perfect space for all of us to sit down in the evenings after skiing and socialise. In the corner of the living area there was a small bar where alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks could be bought. The room off of the living area was a big dining area where we had our meals each night, cooked by the hotel chef. I must say, the food was pretty poor and no one really enjoyed it. The main corridor, situated next to the bar lead to a corridor of rooms as well as stairs down into where you keep your skis and some more rooms. The adults stayed in the rooms upstairs whilst us kids had the three rooms downstairs.
Here's a virtual tour from the hotels website: Hotel Tour
For most of the week we had the hotel pretty much to ourselves with only two other boys staying there too, but we only ever really saw them at breakfast time. Our very last night a wedding party came in, literally a party. This meant us kids spent most of our last evening crammed into one of our rooms whilst the adults joined in the party upstairs.
We arrived in the hotel late afternoon which gave us enough time to go and collect our skis. We all went down together and the shop was only small so it was a long process! We all eventually got kitted and we went back for a tea and had an early night (if you call 11pm early) before our first day skiing.
Our hotel was right next to one of the easy slopes that leads right back to the bottom where all the slopes meet and all the cafes are, the central point of Pila. This meant we started each day by climbing up a small hill, which in ski boots is a mammoth task, and warming up by skiing down the last little bit of this slope onto the main area where we met our instructors.
On our first day we were split into two groups; never skied before and skied a little bit before. Of course I was in the group of skied a little bit before. Shannon however wasn't in either, she went off with our camera guys and our own instructor as she had excelled so much last year that they didn't think she needed lessons.
I was so nervous about skiing because of how bad I was on the school trip the previous year, but our instructors in Pila were amazing! My confidence built up so quickly and I improved quickly every day and by mid week, unknown to the other kids, me and Shannon were out skiing on our own and I was even starting to parallel turn thanks to Shannon's advice. It was such a brilliant afternoon!
Most of the days started by going up to the middle of the blue slope, 15, the main slope that lessons take place on, in the gondola. I'm not a fan of small spaces so it wasn't the best experience for me. Once we got out the gondola, we skied down to the bottom of that slope to a chair lift which took us back up to almost where the gondola is. This was the perfect steady slope for us all to learn on and everyone picked it up so well!
The flight was an hour and a half roughly and it then took us around 2 hours to drive from the airport to Pila, right at the top of the mountain. When we got to Pila, we went straight to our hotel; Plan Bois.
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| Plan Bois |
The hotel was a lovely hotel. As you walked in, you came to a huge living space with sofas and a big TV. This made the perfect space for all of us to sit down in the evenings after skiing and socialise. In the corner of the living area there was a small bar where alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks could be bought. The room off of the living area was a big dining area where we had our meals each night, cooked by the hotel chef. I must say, the food was pretty poor and no one really enjoyed it. The main corridor, situated next to the bar lead to a corridor of rooms as well as stairs down into where you keep your skis and some more rooms. The adults stayed in the rooms upstairs whilst us kids had the three rooms downstairs.
Here's a virtual tour from the hotels website: Hotel Tour
For most of the week we had the hotel pretty much to ourselves with only two other boys staying there too, but we only ever really saw them at breakfast time. Our very last night a wedding party came in, literally a party. This meant us kids spent most of our last evening crammed into one of our rooms whilst the adults joined in the party upstairs.
We arrived in the hotel late afternoon which gave us enough time to go and collect our skis. We all went down together and the shop was only small so it was a long process! We all eventually got kitted and we went back for a tea and had an early night (if you call 11pm early) before our first day skiing.
Our hotel was right next to one of the easy slopes that leads right back to the bottom where all the slopes meet and all the cafes are, the central point of Pila. This meant we started each day by climbing up a small hill, which in ski boots is a mammoth task, and warming up by skiing down the last little bit of this slope onto the main area where we met our instructors.
On our first day we were split into two groups; never skied before and skied a little bit before. Of course I was in the group of skied a little bit before. Shannon however wasn't in either, she went off with our camera guys and our own instructor as she had excelled so much last year that they didn't think she needed lessons.
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| Nick (charity funder) and Dean (our own ski instructor) |
I was so nervous about skiing because of how bad I was on the school trip the previous year, but our instructors in Pila were amazing! My confidence built up so quickly and I improved quickly every day and by mid week, unknown to the other kids, me and Shannon were out skiing on our own and I was even starting to parallel turn thanks to Shannon's advice. It was such a brilliant afternoon!
Most of the days started by going up to the middle of the blue slope, 15, the main slope that lessons take place on, in the gondola. I'm not a fan of small spaces so it wasn't the best experience for me. Once we got out the gondola, we skied down to the bottom of that slope to a chair lift which took us back up to almost where the gondola is. This was the perfect steady slope for us all to learn on and everyone picked it up so well!
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| At the gondola station. |
We were joined by some special guests on this trip.
The first one was Olympic skier Graham Bell. He is a patron of our charity and really does support us in everything we do, so on this occasion he joined us on the trip and bought his family along with him. He gave us all extra skiing tips and it really was an experience skiing with him! His wife and children are also incredible skiers and it was great to have them all there, what a wonderful family!
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| Graham Bell's daughter. |
Our second guest was Don, a valued member of the charity. Don is registered blind and set a mission to be sponsored to learn to ski. Learning to ski is already quite difficult, but when you cant see where you're going or what you're doing, it must make it 10x more difficult. Don was taught by a specialist instructor, Ricardo. He went off on private lessons and by the end of the week was skiing on his own, simply being guided down the mountain! I can't remember how much he raised, but it was a lot of money! Well done Don!
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| Ricardo, Don and Graham Bell |
During the week, as we learnt in different groups depending on our abilities, we skied down different slopes. My group was fortunate enough to be taken to the very top of the mountain. The chair lift up only carried two people and took around half an hour, but it was definitely worth it! The resort we were in, Pila, is completely surrounded by taller mountains so the view was just astonishing, I didn't have a camera this year though so I didn't get any pictures.
My group was the only group to go to the top. There are two ways down, either a red road or theres another magic carpet which goes up to a very hard black. We took the red road down. It was so scary because the road was so so thin and there was no netting at the edge, just a huge drop! We made it though and it was such a fantastic run.
At the end of the week, everybody took part in the sponsored ski slalom. The slalom is a set of flags you have to ski round and get the fastest time possible, but if you miss a flag or you hit one, you get a time penalty. The lessons throughout the week were to prepare for this moment as everyone involved had raised huge sums of money for the charity to take part in the slalom and everybody smashed it!
The evenings consisted of different things. Some evenings were spent just chilling out in the living area, some evenings playing card games, some evenings outside playing in the snow and foraging through the forest out the back of the hotel and some evenings doing planned activities.
The activities included a quiz night and going out ice skating, surprisingly though the ice wasn't real.
At the end of the week, we had our usual awards ceremony. We all received medals from both the charity and the ski school whilst some people also received trophies for reasons such as getting the fastest time in the slalom, improving most throughout the week and also being the most helpful throughout the week. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of this years ceremony or any idea who won the trophies due to writing this two years later, but it was a successful night overall which ended with one of the children using her guitar to sing a song she had written about the week.
Overall this week was another successful year of skiing for 12 more strong and brave children who have fought the battle of cancer and won.
It was really a shame that not many pictures were taken this year, however it's the memories that count!
Don't be afraid,
Say Yes!
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