This shows the view down the mountain at Pila and across the Aosta Valley. This run was nicknamed "The M1" because all the blue runs down the mountain had to use this section and it was also the main beginners slope. As you can see the piste is well covered but the sides of the hill show that there hadn't been much snow for a while.
Here we are quite a bit further up the mountain (as you can see from how much more snow there is) with some of the advanced group who have stopped for a bit of a breather and a photocall.
Look at the shadows under the skis and you'll see that whoever it is here has properly taken off on this jump. I think its Ciarin Chivers-Procter on the skis - but anyway it's a nice bit of action photography from Mr Taylor.
This was taken by Mr Haddock and shows David Lister well and truly airborne. Interski, the firm we went with, has its own instructors and they were excellent, helping all of the boys progress in both skills and confidence.
Instead of having to lug packed lunches around the slopes, we were able to take advantage of Interski's excellent voucher system and get a snack lunch at any one of a number of restaurants up on the mountain.
On our second to last day's skiing we went up the valley to Courmayeur for the day. St. John's has been to Courmayeur twice in the past and so for some of us it was like returning to old haunts. And here we are after an excellent day's skiing resting the feet and topping up the fluids.
Even chefs have to have a night off and so on the night that our hotel's dining room was closed we went out for dinner. We drove down into Aosta and then walked down the city's pedestrianised main street in the heart of the old town to this restaurant which was downstairs in converted old cellars. They were excellent pizzas, too and while we waited for them there was a steady supply of chips to stave off the hunger pangs.
One evening after dinner we had our own talent show and here, from left to right, are Edward Barton-Hilton, Tom Barnes, Kane Lewis, Punir Mehta and Matthew Hilary with Dominic Griffiths operating the sound system in the background performing as 5boyz. Don't call us ... etc.
The hotel was really quite new and excellent. The evening meal was a proper three course silver service affair always starting with plenty of lovely pasta to fill up on. Some boys were a bit dubious about the rabbit we had one evening but for me the best meal was the salmon en croute we had on the Friday.
Just to finish off and to get us back on the skiing side of things here are, from left to right, Joseph Russell (on the ground), Daniel Sofaer and his father, Clive, Kane Lewis, David Lister and Tom Barnes with a suitably alpine background.
© St. John's - DTP, 1999 & 2005 - N. Pauli