New Year's Skiing Trip

After a long year of planning and anticipation the first of January 2012 finally arrived. The day for the De La Salle students and teachers to hit the slopes of Italy for a week af slipping and sliding and with a bit of luck, actually managing to ski!
It was a bleary eyed bunch that met at the Mill Road gate at 4am. Some no doubt had not even been to bed, only a few hours into the New Year. And off we went north, up to Belfast International where an an Easyjet plane was awaiting us on the runway.
The flight was full of girls, all off on a similar trip, unfortunately not to the same location! Numbers were exchanged and a few life long connections on Facebook made!

After landing in Verona, it was time to hit the slopes.
The bus spiralled higher and higher up the montain for three hours, ears popping and everyone eagerly awaiting a glimpse of white. Initially just specks here and there until eventually not a patch of green to be seen. We had arrived in Passo Tonale, our home for the next seven days.
The hotel was fairly basic and with five teenage boys to a room space was scarce. But the purpose of it all was of course to ski so after complaing to management for a while, the rooms were soon forgotten as we headind off to get fitted for boots and skis.
Early next morning we were up and ready for lesson number one!! Very different progress was made by different students so we were soon divided into groups according to ability. By the end of the week it was safe to say that we were all fit for at least a red slope. And looking around from the chair lifts at the iced mountain tops and powdered trees even made us forget about the aches and pains resulting from using muscles we didn't even know we had!!
Exhausted in the evening we were mostly only fit to eat.. a lot, and maybe venture for a short walk to the quaint village near by. All in all it was an experience that will never be forgotten and hopefully the first of many ski trips from De La Salle.
C.McAdam.