Skiing in the Rockies
Over half term, a group of Year 7 & 8 pupils enjoyed a skiing trip to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies.
Head of Mathematics, Mr Hansford, reports back on the group’s pursuit to discover a very special kind of warmth amid a very special kind of cold.
‘Here at South Hampstead we encourage the girls to think for themselves and to challenge lazy stereotypes of the “all Canadians are nice people” variety, no matter the wealth of first-hand evidence we might see in school. It could all be a cunning trick, you see. Thus we came up with our own equally cunning plan to get to the bottom of things, and this year’s research mission/ski trip was organised.
On arrival in Calgary we were greeted by a very special kind of cold: indeed, we pretty much re-enacted the scene from Cool Runnings in which the team arrives for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Happily we were also greeted by a very comfortable and very warm coach for our transfer to Jasper. It was a long drive which started in reasonably inclement weather and ended in the middle of the night, and 28 people dozed contentedly all the way to the hotel.
The next day was the first of the mission proper, and it brought us treat after treat. Breakfast was the first of an unbroken run of excellent meals in our hotel, and, agreeably fed, we headed to the slopes for our first day on the mountain. The second treat was our mode of transport: a proper, honest-to-goodness, yellow school bus, complete with a driver who never once complained about the singing inflicted upon him, twice every day, by his excitable passengers (although he did bring earplugs as of the second morning). Our bus disgorged us at ski school where we got kitted out and had our next treat: we met the girls’ instructors for the week – a friendlier, kinder team of people we could not have wished for.
The main treat of the day, of course, was the mountain itself. The weather was bright and clear, and the skiing was glorious; and even though the resort had plenty of visitors there was never a queue of more than five minutes for a chairlift. The groomed runs were wide and smooth and the ungroomed ones were soft and fluffy: there was something for everyone to enjoy, from the complete novices in the crew, who started the week on the nursery slope but ended it cruising confidently down blue runs, to the advanced team, who went all over the place in search of adventure. With the weather being kind to us and the slopes impossibly quiet, every day on the mountain was a joy.
In the evenings we enjoyed a variety of different entertainments: tobogganing, with increasingly hilarious results, down a repurposed-for-winter driving range; skating on a frozen lake, some of us leaning in terror on cunningly repurposed patio chairs; and taking in a period of ice hockey at the local rink, at which the Zamboni driver got the biggest cheers of all. In the mornings, meanwhile, we enjoyed a variety of breakfasts, often involving the mightiest of pancakes. We were, in short, superbly looked after at every stage of the trip.
All too soon, though, it was time to return to the UK to present our findings, and so, obscenely early on Saturday morning, we boarded our coach for the return to Calgary. Even at this stage, however, Canada had another treat for us: the return journey took us over the Rocky Mountains via the Alberta Icefields Parkway, and some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable. Our last little play in the snow came as we stopped at a viewpoint near a glacier. After one final stop in a shopping mall it was onto the aeroplane, and 28 people dozed contentedly all the way back home where cold, for some reason, just doesn’t feel that cold any more.
And the results of our research? Canadians are lovely people, Canada is a beautiful country, and South Hampstead girls are excellent travelling companions.’