Laurin Rupp, Year 12
If you’re going to go cross-country skiing, then my only advice for you is to start off with a small country. Unfortunately, the International Award gold and silver groups who spent 4 days in the wilderness of the French Jura learnt this lesson the hard way.
It has been quite some time since we last mentioned the International Award, which is perfectly normal since most people try to banish those painful memories from their minds permanently; however, I’m afraid that I didn’t succeed altogether. For those of you that don’t know, the International Award (which is also referred to as the Duke of Edinburgh’s award), is a program promoting outdoor activity, and looks good when applying to universities (which is, honestly, the main reason people do it). To obtain it, one needs to go on one or two training expeditions as well as one assessment, which vary in length depending on the level, and could be considered survival courses. Furthermore, participants must also do a physical activity, a service, and hone a skill through out a longer period of time.
This year, the cross-country skiing assessment took place from Thursday 10 till Sunday 13 of March, which was the weekend before the Easter vacations so we haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet. For cross-country skiing, the people stay in huts (a very generous description), which can vary greatly in terms of comfort. The first night the hut had neither electricity nor running water, meaning it was pretty cold inside, with more than 2 meters of snow pressed up against the walls. To the teacher’s surprise (and perhaps, dismay) everyone survived and from then on the huts were more comfortable. On average, students did about 25 km a day (so 100km in total), which doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me it is if you combine it with heavy backpacks and dangerously little sleep. Fortunately, the weather was quite nice the entire time: the only complaint was that it was too warm, so that the snow started melting and stuck to the skis making skating very difficult. Inevitably, by the last day everyone was dead tired and barely breathing. Still, it was also a lot of fun, and in the end we left the pistes very happy and looking forward to a comfortable bed.
Join the International Award, and not only will you get to see some amazing views, but you will also appreciate a proper house so much more afterwards. Just contact Ms. Wilson or Mr. Cameron.
