Rob Stewart caught up Oli Hammond, aged 24, about why he and his friends planned a ski holiday in Argentiere with Action Outdoors and the UCPA in the French Alps last winter. He told him all about the reasons and how it all went.
“I’d been on a few student ski trips before I graduated but got the bug and wanted to go again this winter. My friend Will had mentioned Action Outdoors and the UCPA centres and the value they provided and it sounded perfect. I agreed to arrange the trip for the four us, me and Will, Chloe and Nick – we are all good friends from uni, although we hadn’t skied together. In fact, Will had never skied before, but it didn’t matter as they ran courses for all levels.
Nick is a little older, a mature student, and reckons himself to be pretty handy on skis and wanted to book on the introduction to ski touring course and me and Chloe were just happy with normal ski lessons, although we decided to book on an introduction to off-piste skiing course. We all shared a room as that’s what we asked for, although apparently you can get twins too.
The centre in Argentiere is great, a really old building but completely modernized, with a large restaurant serving three great meals a day and a bar, where we made a bunch of friends on the first evening, including people our sort of age from Scandinavia, France, Holland and even Singapore. There’s a real international feel and something going on every evening, live music, DJ’s and games nights.
Pretty much everything is included in the price, lift passes, lessons, equipment hire and all your food and spending money was a few beers in the bar. The room worked out well, we were friends, but the great thing was the people we met through the week. We’re planning our next trip and now there’s eight of us for the same week next year. I’m looking forward to it already”.