Ski Trip January 2024: Student Voice by Yasmina (8.2), Anna (8.2), Nikki (8.1) and Ela (9.1)
Yasmina:
It was strange, really. On the way there, it was so snowy and dark that I couldn’t see much. So when I woke up to this view – especially as I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was nothing short of stunning. I had an hour to get ready, and then went to have breakfast with the others.
After regrouping with our snow gear on, I went to meet my snowboard instructor. He had to start at the very basics – even how to tell right and left on my board. I’m sure most of us thought the nursery slopes were too easy at first glance – a short, straight run with a tiny incline. After shaky starts, falls after going practically nowhere, I began to get the hang of it. Even still, the magic carpet – a long conveyor belt that takes you to the top of the nursery slopes – was brand new to many of us. But after lunch, my instructor told me I was ready for the green slopes. Thinking back, they seem easy, especially as I completed reds by the end. But even the ski lift was hard for me then. It was scary if I’m honest: I didn’t think I was ready for green. When the afternoon session finished, I’d begun to board for about ten metres on my heels.
After a long sleep, I was aware of how painful snowboarding was. Every part of me ached. Nevertheless, I started the morning session. Suddenly, I was able to go down the slope on my heels. I’ll admit, it was with a few falls, but so much better than yesterday. After lunch, I started to learn the complicated ‘S’ turn. You had to start on your heels, head to the right, then turn the board onto the other edge and go on your toes to the left. Then you had to repeat the process without falling. By that time, the skiers joined us on the green slope. By the end of the day, I was kind of getting the hang of it, but I could only manage a few turns before falling.
But Tuesday was going to be better. Still on the green, my instructor promised me that if I could improve the S turns, I’d go on blue. Sure enough, by the end of the morning session, I was told I could go on blue. Full of excitement, I headed to lunch, ready to tell the others of my progress. But I wasn’t the only one who had progressed. The skiers had done so well that they began to look at parallel braking and turning, abandoning the fondly named ‘pizza’ technique.
Even to get to blue, I had to take two lifts. I was nervous, but I had no reason to be. Out on the wide, steep blue, I managed to take control of the board. Though I fell a few times, I was able to go faster, smoother. Then I took a gondola up to the highest run: a blue standing at an impressive 2500 meters. After a few shaky starts, I made it down that too. I did one more run, then headed back to the hotel for dinner.
On Wednesday, I knew I had to perform. I couldn’t afford any mistakes if I wanted to achieve my goal of taking on the red: the second hardest level marked with a frightening extremely difficult’ sign. I started out on the blues, which was easier now after my practice from yesterday. By the end of the morning, Anna was good enough to complete red. I took the gondola down with the skiers, watching her as she boarded down the red.
The afternoon was my last chance. After doing a few blues, my instructor said I could do red, too. I was nervous taking the gondola up to it: the speed some of the riders on the slope could reach was incredible. But I was nervous for no reason. The red slope was basically an endless downhill run, steep – allowing riders to build up speed as they travelled down. It then joined into a steep blue we’d already done. I ignored everyone else on the slope and went down. The countless mistakes I’d made on blue were non-existent on red. I stopped once for a rest then carried on, gathering speed as I did so. By the time I finished the red, I was desperate to go one more time. We’d be cutting it close with time, but we went once more. It was amazing: the perfect way to finish the trip. From not knowing how to secure my boots onto the board, I’d reached red.
I want to say thank you to several people. Firstly, Mr Kyle and Ms Kacey: this was a wonderful trip and thank you for being there to look after us. Next, I’d like to thank the EcoVenture staff for organising the trip, as well as the staff who worked in the hotel. Thank you as well to my fellow students – you were the reason this trip was so memorable. In particular, I’d like to thank Anna: as the only other snowboarder on the trip, you were a huge inspiration to me, and possibly the reason I could complete red. Thank you to our amazing snowboarding instructor, who kept us safe on the slopes and helped me go from nothing to red. Lastly, I’d like to thank all the parents for making this trip possible. I think I speak for all of us when I say that without you, this week wouldn’t have happened.
Anna:
This trip was such an amazing experience. Yasmina and I were the only snowboarders. I created so many exciting memories and progressed with my snowboarding. I had done snowboarding before, but it was so long ago that I had to learn it all over again. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, learning very fast. Our snowboarding instructor was so supportive, funny and an excellent teacher. I went from the nursery slopes to green. From green slopes to blue and I was the first one to experience the red slope. I was very nervous, as some of our teachers were too scared to go on the red slope. I followed the instructor’s advice and tried my best, defeating the red. To my surprise, it wasn’t as hard as I thought. It went smoothly and I didn’t fall once. I was so excited that I wanted to keep going on forever.
I was sharing a room with Yasmina. We had a lot of fun, from making tea and coming up with ‘dish duty’. We forgot our card, I lost my boots, I tripped and went through the wrong doors. Despite all of that, we had so much fun! We got to connect with others, we had fun conversations during meals and amazing experiences on the slopes. One of my favourite memories was when I encouraged Yasmina to go on the red slopes, as she was very nervous at first. After we completed the red slope, she wanted to go again. She did such an amazing job and we had a lot of fun.
I would like to thank everyone for putting so much hard work in this trip, including the teachers, instructors, hotel staff and my friends. I would especially like to thank Yasmina, as she made this trip such an amazing experience, and it would not be nearly as fun without her!
“How can you be frustrated with a view like this?“
– Harry, Year 7
Nikki:
I really enjoyed the Azerbaijan ski trip because it taught me many things – independence, balance, and letting loose while having fun with your friends.
I was very lucky to be part of the first set of kids going to Nadeen’s first ever ski trip, as I got to roommate with my amazing friend, Ela, and our friendship grew stronger. I got to learn many things about many people that I didn’t know before, like how amazing Anna is at snowboarding and how courageous Yasmina is too.
Something I’ll never forget about the ski trip is the ski lifts and the music we listened to. Some of my favourites were: ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beatles – which everyone who went on the ski trip will understand why. Another favourite was ‘Whatever it Takes’ by Imagine Dragons because it reminded me to be brave and face my fears of heights. I have a huge fear of heights – I was terrified on the first two days of the trip to go down the blue slope. But my classmate and friend Talib really helped me feel safe and not worry about anything.
During the ski trip, we had wonderful views of the snowy mountains and we even had snowball fights in the morning before getting ready for the activities. That’s probably one of the things I miss most here in Bahrain – we don’t have any snow.
Everyday, we had two sessions of skiing and snowboarding. We had one from nine in the morning to twelve at midday. Then lunch followed by another from two in the afternoon to five in the evening. During those breaks we had an amazing lunch from the restaurant at the hotel (my favourite meal was always lunch) and then some card games.
A couple of my favourite memories from the ski trip is the dinners we had because we would all have lots of bonding time together. Another one is when we went on the green slope for the first time, and even though Ela was scared and we were all halfway down the slope, she believed in herself and went down like a champ. She went so fast that she couldn’t even stop! Another is when we had the photoshoot challenge and, of course, us girls won, and when we had our quiz on the last evening.
Lastly, I want to thank our teachers, Miss Kacey and Mr Kyle for taking us and making sure we were safe, as well as our Ecoventure instructors Anna and Zya. Hopefully, I see them on my next Ecoventure trip that I will attend because of how much fun the ski trip was. Of course, I think that skiing is fun but I 100% think that snowboarding is better,
I really recommend the ski trip for anyone who likes adventure and I’m excited to see what’s in store for Nadeen in the following years.
Ela:
A week ago, I went on a Ski Trip in Azerbaijan. I was so nervous because I didn’t know how to ski nor who I was going with but let me tell you, it was worth it. The accommodation was good, the food was delicious and the memories we have on the slopes. My best memories have to be the times when I went down the green slope at full speed by accident, having snowball fights and definitely the afternoon activities. Skiing in Azerbaijan was worth the flight and the bus trip. The people there were so friendly and helped us out and the instructors were so nice. We had fun activities at the end of the day before going to the hotel rooms and the tv actually worked. Skiing was so fun. It was quite challenging for me at first because I do have a thing for heights but the instructors were so friendly and wouldn’t give up on us until we went down the blue slope and it was so fun.
