Day 4 - Wonderful Italian pistes and sunshine

 Going Higher at Santa Caterina

Our second day in Santa Caterina looks to just as good as the first. Everyone has filled up at breakfast and is ready to ski again. Leo and Rolando hope to get their groups moving higher. Silvano is going to explore more of the mountain with group 3.

Group 1 and 2 are enjoying the space on the nursery slope.

Annie and Jennifer

Evie

Shae

Having watched group 1 and 2, they are looking ready. Leo and Rolando want to go higher. Here are some clips.

Mae

Ruby

Milly

Everyone managed to get up to the mid mountain before lunch with their skis. This is a great step forward.

After lunch the students in Leo's and Rolando's  groups had all afternoon to master the button lift and the blue slope either side. This was an eventful afternoon for some students. Our splat nomination had a record number of votes... Hannah. Great achievement by all. Group 3 have built up kore miles travelling around the tops of Santa Caterina. Their favourite is sunny Valley and it powder fields and the epic jump they mostly all like to take in. Evelyn. Videos will be added later. 

Group 1 and 2 in a train:

Individual photos and videos:

Everyone tomorrow will be skiing at the World Cup resort and host to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Bormio. This will mean it will be first gondola and cable car rides for many of our new Snow Patrollers.

Once we finished skiing we loaded our kit on the coach and headed for the lovely bar at the bottom of the pistes where the indulgent Italian hot chocolates was served with or without cream! Absolutely divine. This was them followed by several snowball melee and some epic toboggan runs down the bottom of the red piste. Who does not love a ride on a toboggan?

Pictures and video to follow (internet problems)

Once back at the hotel and all having a freshen up we were given yet another wonderful Italian meal.  4 wonderful courses. We had our splat and dude nomination. there were some brilliant stories told and as excellent as Evelyn's powder splat was Hannah's repeated falls and involvement in the human domino effect, 3 times it was no surprise to find that

Splat went to Hannah

Dude Simran

Photos and videos will be posted below.

Day 3 - Italian bluebird

After a 7.30am breakfast meet we assembled to head for the slopes where our gear had been stored. Everyone appeared to be excited to see what fun and exhilaration the day would bring.

Groups 1 and 2 were on the snow promptly at 9am. They have all taken their first steps to mastering moving on skis and their bums.After mastering the snow plough and more importantly being able to stop, Mae, the group took their first chair lift for a well deserved lunch. 

Evie the snow angel below.

1st Chair lift for group 1 and 2

by the end of the afternoon lesson groups 1 and 2 could all navigate a turn, often with some interesting styling. Leo and Rolando were most impressed with the variety of descents including on one ski and on their bottoms. Hopefully further adventures higher up the mountain will be taken.

Everyone has had a great day and the progress made this afternoon was noticeable. Group 3 had the company of Jackie our excellent Rayburn ski rep. Pictures and video below. Conditions are amazing.

Silvano's group

Evelyn's Powder splat

Evening activity- trip bingo,

After such an exciting day, the group attempted to wind down with a few games of friendly bingo, which turned out to be more tense and released more adrenaline than the days skiing. Eyes were down and noise levels were at an all time high with prizes won throughout the night. Mr Lee to the rescue with his list of traditional bingo calls. What's 3 score and ten Jureil!

Lots of nominations for Splats hat and Dude today.

Splat: Madame Lovell

Dude: Mr Hinks

Pictures and videos from today

Group 1 and 2

Hotel Abete Blu and ski fit

 After a beautiful drive along the lakes and valley floor we left Sondrio and headed up the mountain road gaining 1500m in altitude. We past the lovely town of Bormio where we will be skiing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Finally at 5.15pm local time we got to our Hotel Abete Blu and quickly dropped our bags, got a drink and headed for the village to get our ski fit done.

The students have been amazing, we were all shattered but after a hearty Italian 4 course meal we were ready for showers and bed. Below are some pictures from the day.

Good night and we'll see you on the slopes

Italian Boarder

Ski fit in Santa Caterina

Evening Meal time

Splat Hat No.1

Chloe managed to lose her 6th form group one too many times on this long journey.

.

QMHS Snow Patrol 2022 are in Italy

We are just navigating the beautiful Lake Lagano. 300m and 17degrees down here. The students have been amazing as always.

Sondrio and then the mountain road to Bormio and Santa Caterina 

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