Reports

Snow-Camp 2006

The third Snow-Camp took place in April 2006 and was our biggest to date. This time 60 young people and staff from 10 youth projects across south London headed out to Les Deux Alpes for an amazing week of skiing, snowboarding and lifeskills.

The double decker coach arrived in good time into the resort and everyone quickly piled into the Les Deux Alpes Youth Hostel and got settled in. As always, it was the first time in an alpine ski resort for all the young people attending, and the sheer scale and appearance of the mountain environment, so different to the London estates left behind the previous day, had an immediate effect on the young people. They couldn.t wait to get kitted up with ski.s and snowboard.s and have the first lesson the following morning.

As always, La Datcha ski shop patiently measured up and allocated all the kit to the young people, staff and volunteers. A quick tour of the resort in the evening, some pool and cards in the youth hostel games room and most were ready for bed. Although as it was the first night, getting everyone to sleep took a while - luckily the staff night shift rota had been worked out and in the end everyone got a good few hours sleep before the first day of skiing.

Awaking to an amazing blue sky day was the perfect start to the week. Everyone was assigned their groups for skiing and snowboarding and met their instructors for the week from the European Ski School. A quick egg lift from the resort up to the beginners Le Cret area, a journey requiring some to overcome their first challenge of the week, and we were all ready for lessons.

As usual the instructors were fantastic and gradually built up the confidence and skills of the young people, whether they were skiing or snowboarding. The good weather held for the week and despite one day of blizzards testing perseverance levels to the limit, the sun and blue skies enabled everyone to progress at a very quick rate. Within a couple of days some groups were heading away from the learner slopes to other areas of the mountain, skiers snow ploughed and wound their way across the slopes, snowboarders linked their first turns. By the end of the week the mountainside seemed full of south London young people confidently riding down the various pistes, some even trying their first jumps and races. It was, as always, amazing to see the progress that can be made in one short week, and the impact on the confidence and self esteem of the young people was visible for all to see.

In the evenings the Life-skills sessions took place in two separate groups, and the young people seemed to quickly see the links between the skills being learnt on the slope and the skills they needed to succeed at home. Over the course of the week many real gains were made and personal developments achieved. It was also great to see young people leading sessions by the end of the week, a first for Snow-Camp, and a feature we will certainly be including in the future.

Outside of the skiing and snowboarding, other activities kept everybody busy and entertained - bowling evenings, ice skating, time in the arcade, karaoke nights and of course the final awards night hosted by our friends at Smithies Bar. The awards night was a fantastic end to the week, as the whole bar was given over to Snow-Camp and to recognising the achievements of everyone who had attended the week. Max, Thomas and Ishmael collected their Skier, Snowboarder and Team Player of the week awards, whilst Florence, Rotimi, Chabrice and Marcus collected well earned Life-Skills awards. Everybody received an award, certificate and goody bag for their efforts over the week.

As we began the long drive home through the night and towards south London, there were many positive memories of the week for both the staff and all the young people. As staff read through the evaluation sheets it was clear the Snow-Camp experience had again had a tremendously positive impact on many of the young people who attended. It had been a very tiring, but immensely satisfying, week and we were all looking forward to reliving the experience at the Clapham cinema in June, when the movie premiere of Snow-Camp 2006 would be shown.

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