Day 2 - A taste of America 🤔

We all arrived safely in Switzerland this morning. Snow throughout the journey is giving us even more excitement for what we will get in Santa Caterina and Bormio.

Powder could really be on the menu.😁

However the breakfast menu was certainly not Swiss but it was Cindy's American Diner! So a stack of pancakes was consumed by several and a full American breakfast by Mr Lee. We are now well fuelled and heading towards many snowy mountains.

Day 1 - Everything goes to plan

After a turbulent time getting to our departure day, it was pleasing to see our coach was early and we were away and on the road in record time.

The drive down south was pleasant and everyone has been in high spirits. Passport control was simple and smooth. The Snow Patrol were awesome. We got a slightly vlater ferry than planned but it gave us all a chance to stretch out legs and eat 

We had a good crossing and are now heading across France, we hope to be in Switzerland for breakfast.

Nothing is stopping the Snow Patrol this year!

 Santa Caterina & Bormio 2022

Well it has certainly been an epic journey just getting to this post. We have had all of the challenges of lock downs, cancellations, travel requirements, new variants and vaccination status to deal with. Oh and in the past weeks and 24 hours P&O Ferries!

Just over 24 hours ago it looked like the trip would be cancelled. So with persistence and resilience we have managed to get ferries sorted with DFDS and a new coach company to get us to the now very snowy mountains of Italy.

We will be up dating you all on our daily events and snow fun, this may be delayed on occasions due to the need for WiFi and a good internet connection.

Hotel Abete Blue

Please have a look at our wonderful hotel that will be our place of residence from Saturday afternoon.

Hotel Abete Blue provided by our tour company Rayburn Tours

QMHS Ski 2022 - 20th Anniversary Tour is all go!

 Trip Update

It has been quite a journey getting to this point. Schools are a very busy place and this past 2 years has been somewhat compounded by a SARS-CoV-2 virus code named COVID-19. This is our 20th trip in it's current format and leadership of Mr Hinks. Unfortunately our 2021 trip and its several adaptations had to be cancelled. This final version was all about getting back to the mountains. We had 53 Snow Patrol member already to go to Santa Caterina when the Omicron variant struck. Unfortunately it caused most European countries to adjust their travel requirements to such an extent we lost all of our 14 year 7 members and several others. All those travelling will now meet the requirements of the Italian super green pass. Basically we all needed to be double vaccinated as a minimum to travel.

Our trip departs now with its 33 members on 8th April 2022. The snow in our resorts is currently excellent. Both resorts have high acclaim in the professional and Olympic domain. In fact Bormio will hold the Olympic Downhill in 2026, some of you will get to ski it in a few weeks time!

We hope to hold our information evening in the 6th form centre on Wednesday 9th March. Here we will be able to confirm the final arrangements and answer questions that parents may have as well as provide information about skiing on a QMHS ski trip. We are currently preparing the final information for our ski company Rayburn Tours who have been excellent throughout this challenging time. 

Finally we are also looking at putting an order together for our trip hoodies, these will be supplied through Wave ed who are based in Birmingham. The price and details will be out next week. Please ensure you hand all needed information in to school. Remember your passport needs 6 months from the point of return into the UK to be valid. You should also have an in date EHIC or apply for the new GHIC through the NHS website. They are free but essential to our travel.

Let's just ski...

 

Wagrain February 2020

It has been a while since we have seen a picture like this Snow Patrollers! COVID-19 has certainly got in the way. So this is an update about our 20th Ski tour. If we are to ski in 2022, then we will ski at Easter and it will be a pure snow seekers holiday. Great weather and beautiful snow. We are looking for some late deals to keep the costs as low as possible. A tour is likely to be a 5 day on snow experience in a premier resort like the FIS World Cup resort of Santa Caterina and Bormio nestled high in the vast Valfurva area of Lombardy in northern Italy. We will enable the maximum time for parents to pay for the trip by going during the first part of the 2022 Easter holidays. This period will also not affect any exam preparations for Y11, Y12 or Y13.

Please ensure you are a member of the Snow Patrol Classroom 2022 and that you keep an eye on the Snow Board, don't forget school notices portal either. We will be launching this trip week commencing 11th October 2021.

Remember... "if you done ski this season year you will be one year older when you do" Warren Miller

Santa Caterina

Bormio

Poll update (02/03/21)

 Plenty of time to go, I will update this over the next week. Keep dreaming of fresh Pow.

The first quotes are coming in now. Check the video footage of our potential Italian tour Feb 2022:

Start skiing from Rivisondoli, the magic carpet for complete beginners, they then go on the 1 chair lift and come down a 700m progress blue run. Then they move onto the gondola and the top of the mountain and take a 6km blue run all the way to the bottom again, perfect progress skiing. They can then move onto Red 40 and 37 once the blues have been mastered. For the better skiers there is 150km of skiing to explore.

Hot lunches are included on the mountain. 1 restaurant on the beginner slopes and 1 restaurant on the long blue run. Italian food, they can’t get enough of it!

On Thursdays, lessons finish at 1630 and can have an Apre ski party on the mountain followed by a torch light decent, just as it is getting dark. What a fantastic experience.

 

The hotel is set in a very pretty village of Rivisosdoli with Christmas lights all season. It is beautiful in the snow.  Hotel Europa is a good 3 star hotel with loads of space but has a family feel. Jakopo the manager is lovely man, so friendly and will really look after our groups.

The hotel bedrooms are lovely and spacious and of a very high standard, very modern with huge showers in the bath rooms. Flat screen TVs on the wall and plenty of storage space.

Lots of meetings room for groups to gather in the morning or evening (for activities) and a large reception with bar , good for gathering.

Ski Resort – Roccaraso, Italy

Piste : 150km

Video - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThO34WEtFO2Kvx69BXc41-1tvevfwnKw

Website: http://roccaraso.net/

Piste map - http://roccaraso.net/skimap/

Perseverance - A new hope

Well it has been a challenging year for literally everyone in the whole world. Over the past few weeks it has been wonderful to see the tenacity of nations in the race for Mars. We have seen Saudi Arabia, China and NASA all make a stake in finding out more about the intriguing plant Mars. The inspirational name came to a highlight yesterday when Perseverance successfully landed on the surface of Mars and began the communications with Earth. All of this has come together amidst all of the COVID-19 pandemic, this really is inspirational.

To find out more go to NASA's pages about the mission. National Geographic are also screening lots of great documentaries on the missions to Mars.

I always knew the meaning of Warrens words but I never thought I would actually be 1 year older before I skied again! This year is the first year in over 15 years that I have not been skiing with my family before a forthcoming school trip. Here we are and unfortunately we have had to cancel our 2021, 20th Anniversary trip. This trip as you all know was going to be special. Great skiing in a new place and great experiences to go with it. Memories that really do last a lifetime. All of our trips are special and memorable. This would have been one those that just stand out a little more.

So what's next?   Well, I am, as always inspired and will not give in. So perseverance is the name of the game. COVID 19 in the world is gradually getting suppressed and the global vaccination program has begun with the UK, America and Europe doing very well. So if things continue as they are, huge numbers of the regions of the world we ski in would be fully vaccinated and the probability is that students towards the end of this year may also get vaccinated. Nothing is certain as we have all become well aware of but we must persevere and aim to keep moving forward and having an enriched life.

So what about this....

with a stopover in the fabulous city of San Francisco and an opportunity to visit some of its wonderful attractions like Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf?

or this...

and an opportunity to visit the old town of Quebec, Canada, and Les sports d'hiver au Québec a sliding treat each winter!

or a little closer to home with a chic European stopover in Rome, Roccaraso is the 5th largest ski resort in Italy but not as well know as you would expect. That makes it a hidden gem for our special 20th anniversary tour...

I hope you all agree each of these resorts would be a fitting tribute for our next snow sports adventure. We are currently putting together the packages and once the potential costs are fully known we will put out a Google form to the existing members of the 2021 tour and get them select their favorite based on cost and package.

Further updates will be here soon too.

Stay safe and keep dreaming of the snow capped mountains that we love to slide down.