SU Holidays: SNOW Camp Story
Hi! My name is Gillian and I am a staff member here at SU Scotland. I am also part of the team that runs the SU Holidays Snowsports trip to Austria every year, and this year was my 17th trip! I started going when I was a teenager and then latterly as part of the team, and it is the highlight of my year.
The Snowsports trip is the only international Holiday, and therefore the furthest away event in the SU Holidays timetable! The trip normally runs in the first week of the Easter school holidays, leaving on the Saturday and returning the following Sunday. We travel by coach, leaving Glasgow on the Saturday morning, crossing via the Channel Tunnel in the evening, and travelling the rest of the way to Austria overnight, arriving by lunchtime.
There were 55 of us on the trip this year - 33 campers, 18 leaders, 3 children and 1 baby! 46 travelled on the coach and the remaining 9 flew out to meet us there. We stay in the Sonnenburg Hotel in the Ehrwald region of Austria, where we have access to multiple ski resorts, providing us with lots of options for the week.
We normally do 5 days of skiing on the trip. This year we started with 3 days at Ehrwalder Almbahn, then 2 days at the Zugspitze Glacier, where we were on Germany’s highest peak (9718 ft above sea level)! We take our own instructors with us as part of our team, so the young people are in ski or snowboard lessons in the morning, with free-skiing in the afternoon.
A normal day on the trip starts with breakfast, then we all jump on the coach and head to the ski resort. We all have lunch together at a café on the slopes, then head down to the coach together at the end of the day. Back at the hotel, there’s time to shower or even take a walk into the local town before dinner. In the evening we do quiet time groups, then have our main meeting which includes worship and Bible teaching. This year, everyone got the opportunity to choose an evening at the local climbing wall or swimming pool, which was a lovely treat on the Wednesday evening. And no SU Holiday would be complete without a ceilidh to finish off the week!
Our times of teaching and worship are a particularly special part of our week together. Our focus this year was on the book of Ruth, looking at the characters of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz, and how their story leads to the genealogy of Jesus. It was amazing to see young people responding at the end of the talks and seeking prayer. On the final evening, we were able to pray individually for every single young person on the trip, and one young person became a Christian that night! It was wonderful to hear that 3 of the boys have started a weekly Bible study group since they got home and are looking at the book of Luke together. Our prayer for the young people would be that, as they settle back into the rhythms of life at home, they will still feel Jesus’ presence with them, and shine their light to those around them.
