Ski Trip to Italy 2023

On Saturday 11th February a group of forty-five excited pupils and five staff flew from Belfast to Italy for the annual ski trip. This year’s destination was Folgaria, a small town nestled into the mountains, only a few hundred metres from the slopes.

With an air temperature hovering around zero in the mornings but reaching twelve degrees and the sun shining, we were divided into novice and experienced groups on the first morning’s skiing. As the experienced group headed off to the blue, red, and black slopes, the beginners remained on the nursery slopes, learning how to remain upright, snowplough and use the button lift. Personal pride and dignity quickly vanished as the novices tumbled over, fell off the button lift and crashed into one another under the patient and kindly guidance of their instructors. However, after a day or two, the nursery slopes were left behind and the group headed to gentle blue runs with falls becoming less frequent.

Following a hearty lunch of pasta and salad at 11am, the remainder of the lunch break was mainly used to practise on the nursery slopes with a further two-hour session with the instructors starting at two o’clock.
The week’s skiing passed quickly with both groups making remarkable progress as confidence and competence grew. The advanced group was taken on very challenging runs while the novices progressed to red slopes and small jumps in the snow park.

Evenings were spent at the local skating-rink, swimming pool, nightclub, and cinema with the skiers happy to stroll around the picturesque town during their free time.

On the final day, a slalom was set up and CGS pupils were timed and placed within their groups, with medals presented for the top three finishers in each group. This gave our pupils a chance to showcase their progress and every skier stayed upright and enjoyed a fitting end to an exhilarating and most enjoyable week’s skiing.