Ski Trip to St. Johann in Austria January 2010

The Ski Trip was a fantastic success, even though we were snow bound in Dublin Airport on Saturday and didn’t leave until early Sunday morning, it didn’t dampen our spirits! We arrived in the beautiful village of St. Johann to a fresh fall of snow and after that we had clear blue skies for the rest of the week - in other words perfect skiing conditions. 

 

Elaine from the Ski Club of Ireland and Anneli (without whom this trip would never have taken place) were on hand early the first morning to help get everyone equipped with skies and boots and guide us to our instructors. Once all this was sorted it was up on the slopes to get moving. Lisa from Topflight was also on hand at all times to help with any queries we had.

 

All the children did extremely well and the earlier lessons in Kilternan definitely helped, and in a very short time were coming down from the top of the mountain. The children will tell their own stories of their holiday later on.

 

During the course of the week we all met at different restaurants up the mountain for lunch and again at Max’s Bar at 3pm for a very welcome hot chocolate each day. Then it was a snow ball fight or tobogganing with plastic shovels. (Some of us bought these plastic shovels to bring home hoping to get snow here again.) Adults and children had great fun on these – the plastic shovels really work! Other evenings we went swimming, ice skating and sleigh riding on horse-drawn sleigh through the village and into the forest – a wonderful experience.

 

Then back to our hotel for dinner and later a sing song with Alan Shortt who provided endless laughs and music with the children joining in the singing.

 

On our last night we had a Gala Dinner at the hotel and our instructors for the week came along to present prizes to all the children.  We also had prizes for the adults who braved the slopes but credit has to be given to the children, they won the day!

 

This was Féach’s first trip away and while we were apprehensive before we left we all feel it was well worth the effort. The children learned a sport which they will have forever, it gave them increased confidence and they had great fun and also made new friends.

 

A big thank you to everyone!