WOW! What a day! Bright & sunny again right from the start and although virtually everyone woke with sore muscles it was all forgotten as soon as we got out on the snow. Mrs Reay spent the morning with the beginners group & watched them progress steadily after a few initial tumbles but with lot’s of smiles all round. Mr Reay hung with the intermediate posse as they got their first proper taste of the mountain pistes, more smiles there as in fact there were with the Snowboarders who should be up on the mountain proper for the first time tomorrow.
We were back for an early lunch at 11.30 and all out again on the snow at half twelve.

Mr Palmer & Alberto spent a hugely enjoyable afternoon, skiing & snowboarding respectively, with the advanced group under the guidance of ski instructor Nina whose relaxed & informal approach is a firm favourite with the group. They’ve enjoyed being allowed to choose which routes they want to follow with her observing & picking up on those little technical errors and advising when needed. We stopped for a mid afternoon drink at the Sunnalm Café, half way down the Schonboden run (See the piste maps on the Lizum Website) The group are working well together & seem to be enjoying it immensely, so much so they even wanted more after the timetabled period and did another run with Mr Reay! The Austrian snow badgers appeared to have it in for Alberto this afternoon, nipping at his board & ankles on numerous occasions sending him rag dolling down the pistes. Oh how Mr Palmer laughed!
The beginners’& intermediate groups returned to the hotel beaming with accomplishment this afternoon too so it would be fair to say “A cracking day on the snow for all”.

Nominations for Hazard & Wally of the day are as follows:

Hazards: Jesse knocked over 5 people in one go, Emily wiped out 7 during the day. Elliot for wiping out his group while overtaking them, Natalie crashed into  another school group, Arnie for consistently knocking people over all day even his instructor! & Karl for wiping out ½ snowboard group.

Wallys: Casey taking ½ an hour to get a ski on. Dan T for chucking snowball at instructor and complaining about having to snowplough then falling over straight away.
Karl for front-flipping on snowboard when saying ‘hello’ to Alex, and falling off numerous times.
Arnie (AGAIN! 7th day running) for skiing into a tree!

Today’s winners are……

Hazard: Jess!

Wally: Danny T

After dinner tonight we will be running an Olympic Games night!
Pix to follow tomorrow.

Tonight’s blog post is bought to you by the lovely people at the hotel Olympia who are letting us use their laptop! Yay!!

Today we hit the snow for the first time like a bunch of crazed eager beavers. Breakfast was timetabled for 8.00 but virtually everyone had stuffed their faces on mountains of cereal, rolls & Brioche by then and just couldn’t wait to get outside! Everyone was divided in to groups (Snowboarders, intermediate & beginners. Skiers, beginners, intermediate & advanced) relating to these skill levels and then introduced to their instructors. Staff explored the piste’s & runs to the east & west of the highest run Hoadl house in the morning with the advanced group following in their footsteps in the afternoon. We were all suitable refuelled at lunchtime with a hot meal back at the hotel (It’s amazing how much everyone ate!)
It’s been very sunny most of the day with a bit of cloud cover later in the afternoon. It even managed to start snowing at the top by the end of the afternoon. However it’s been warm & the sun cream is a necessity, especially down on the nursery slopes.
Mr Knowler (Alberto) has already nominated himself for the 1st  Ever Homer Simpson award (Staff only) after leaving his helmet & bag at the bottom of the ski lift just after running back to the hotel before the afternoon session because he’d left his ski-pass behind. DOH!

The first coveted ‘Wally’ & ‘Hazard of the day awards…….
Wally Nominations:
‘Arnie’ crashed into ski-bank
Will skied past someone’s scarf & only told them about it at the bottom.

Hazard Nominations:
Lewis Foxy Fox who wiped out his whole group & broke a Ski too!
Colin for showing off and nearly crashing into an Austrian Grandad

And the winners are:
Wally - Arnie
Hazard - Lewis

After supper this evening we have had an hours chillout session & then we are off down the mountain to the nearby Village of Axams to go swimming.

Until tomorrow

Ciao
Alberto