HUGGINS TOURS

St Anton 2001

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The Holiday

The trip was organised by the NatWest Ski Club through the specialist ski travel agency Mark Warner. In return for booking out almost every room in the Rosanna Hotel for the week, the club secured a generous discount for the party of about 65 in total. Mark Warner staff manned the entire hotel, so the party had no language difficulties and certainly no aversion to the food.

Amongst our party, Mark Guilford didn't make it as he had a better offer - a once-in-a-lifetime NatWest work trip to Canada.

The major event of the holiday was John and Sally's engagement, announced on the final night.

The Skiing

There was excellent snow cover at the start of the week and as the weather wasn't too warm this lasted to the end of the week with only a slight dusting one night (more fell in Lech and Zürs), but more on the final day. The pistes were quite hard in places, and the off-piste runs were deep in places but quite well-used in others. A few of the pistes in St Anton were closed in preparation for the world championships which began just a week after we left.

We had 4 beginners: Delboy was very keen, especially once he had some Dutch courage in him, and made it to ski school every morning, just a couple of hours after he went to bed; Dave Peachey withstood the stress on his knees for 4 days and managed to ski down from the Mooserwirt after the infamous all-afternoon bender with Delboy; Sarah also succumbed after 4 days to the 'flu but had full control of her snow-plough by then; Linsey had picked up a lot in her dry-slope lessons prior to the holiday and did well in ski school.

Several others joined ski-school, Rafi being demoted a class after managing to push his instructor off the T-bar and Francis being promoted after his tutor allowed just him from the class to follow him down a red run. Phil joined Rafi & Francis for their Friday trip to Stuben which involved an agonising wait in mid-air on a chair lift as it paused late in the afternoon with nobody else in sight. They were also over-optimistic in hoping to get the chair lift back after numerous photo stops and ended up having to catch the bus.

Stephen, in his 2nd week's skiing ever, joined an intermediate class with Sally, and was soon throwing himself down the slopes with reckless abandon. His instructor would occasionally halt the rest of the class and ask Stephen to follow her over the nearest jump, with hilarious consequences. However, this paid off in the end as he was definitely the most improved member of our party, able to join the Huggins Tours fast group and handle the steepest reds and occasional black runs by the end of the week.

Vince dedicated the week to snowboarding, joined for the first three days by Stu who decided he may not survive too many more high-speed falls and converted to skis to join the Huggins Tours fast group later on. By Saturday Vince was happy to descend red (and even black) runs in full control, and was relieved to escape the blue runs with their frequent flat and even uphill sections.

Sally accidentally took Delboy's skis on the first day and then had an awkward fall on the second day and had to have her leg plastered due to a torn ligament. Ian Huggins won the Mark Warner prize for the worst wipe-out of the week, attempting a jump just a few feet away from the Mark Warner guide. Apart from that, his technique is clearly benefitting from Ian taking 3 skiing holidays a year.

The Huggins Tours fast ski group normally consisted of Paul, Simon, Ian, Chris, Linda, Charlie, Steve, John Lawson and Stuart (later in the week). Some of the group had a private lesson during the week and thereafter Linda was keen to ski off-piste whenever possible. The slightly less speedy group was usually Bob, Christine, Jill, Margaret and John Huggins. Both groups went to Lech and Zürs on Tuesday and Friday, joined for lunch right at the top by Vince & Stu on their snowboards on Tuesday.

Aprés Ski

As mentioned, Delboy and Dave Peachey spent several hours one afternoon in the Mooserwirt, ending up dancing on the tables, struggling to find their skis for 15 minutes and skiing down in the dark. Margaret and Jill also made the most of the aprés ski bars and were indeed awarded the Mark Warner Ravers of the Week award for their efforts, including dancing. Angela was unable to ski due to a knee injury, but managed to meet up with the skiers at lunchtime and was a lively participant in the evenings. Apart from that most of us tried the Krazy Kanguruh and Mooserwirt, but we usually made it back in time for afternoon tea and cakes at the Rosanna, followed by an early evening nap for those people planning a night out on the town.

The most popular organised activity was the tobogganning, no doubt enhanced by having to share the sledges. Simon and Angela took a major tumble on each run with Angela falling off the back. Vince and Claire were grateful for the catch-netting on at least one occasion.

Nightlife

Several of the younger members of the group did their best to explore the full potential of St Anton's nightlife venues. Regulars were Francis, Stephen, Rafi, Vince and Delboy. Favourite venues were Bar Cuba, Piccadilly's (where Delboy was stung for ATS500), Kartouche (where Phil lost his wallet) and the Underground bar. Most of our party joined them on Friday night for some drinking and dancing in Bar Cuba, and on Saturday night at Bar Cuba followed by underground house at Kartouche.

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The Party (27)

Paul Huggins
Simon Huggins
Chris Woodard
Linda Perle
Charlie Woodard
Linsey
Steve Pearson
John Lawson
Bob Jones
Christine Jones
John Huggins
Sally Giles
Ian Huggins
Jill Newbrook
Ben Newbrook
Margaret Wolfe
Stuart Mazdon
Sarah Davies
Vince Patel
Francis Akinfe
Rafi Khan
Philip Street
David Peachey
Stephen Davies
Derek Norcott
Angela Marshall
Dave Beecham
 (NatWest Ski Club)