Duke of Edinburgh Award Gold Expedition – The Alps 14th-21st July 2007

Saturday 14th July:
Wasting as little holiday time as possible, six Lower Sixth Formers Felicity Ardrey, Izzy Heywood, Minty Macleod, Georgie Webb, Freya Wileman and Emma Shepherd set off from Number 1 Car Park straight after Speeches and headed to Luton Airport to start a week long Gold qualifying expedition in the French Alps. With only a short delay on the flight the group arrived in Geneva Airport at around 2230 local time to be shocked by the heat - the first time this summer! An hour's drive to the chalet gave extra time for gossip and talk about the trip ahead. The chalet, the main base for the week, was a welcome comfort after the demands of travelling.

Sunday 15th July: (Emma Sheperd)
'Just when we were beginning to think that we could have a lie in - since it was the holidays - we were woken up at 07:30 to begin the briefing for the day ahead and immediately started to apply the sun cream as already the weather was hot. This day included a “mini expedition” to acclimatise ourselves for the long walk ahead. We set off to Chamonix and climbed on board a mountain train that took us, what felt like, near the top of the mountain. When we reached the station, we admired the views before setting off down towards the glacier Mer de Glace - the 'sea of ice'. Most of us were expecting the glacier to be freezing cold but in fact we found it quite refreshing compared to the heat outside. After going inside the glacier for a short while - a tourist ice cave complete with ice sculptures - we were forced to face the heat again and so walked back up the rocky path to stop for lunch and then down to the valley. In the evening we checked the long distance weather forecast, completed planning our routes - which were weather dependent, made route cards, and thinking about the very important issue of food for our expedition designed a menu! After more talking, we decided -in true girly fashion - that to watch a DVD would be good preparation for the expedition...

Monday 16th July: (Freya Wileman)
'It was another very early morning which meant a quick trip to the supermarket to get our supplies for the next four days. Despite our best efforts at planning our meals, we seemed to go for the sweets and chocolate approach rather than food we would actually be able to survive on! When we got back to the chalet about 3 huge crates of food later, we organised all the food into equal piles for us each to carry for the four day expedition – meaning we had a definite excuse for a good moan whilst walking up the mountains. After a quick sunbathe and dance about to the music channels on the chalet’s TV, we finally set off. We left the comfort of the chalet and began our first day of walking. After being told several times by Mr Batchelor the night before in planning our route that the first day was going to be 'only' a series of “gentle slopes” to our first night’s stay we were feeling rather upbeat - only to find that we kept slipping down these “gentle slopes”! After many hot hours we reached our destination - an isolated mountain hut - and slumped our heavy bags on the floor as we were greeted by Mr Batchelor and Miss Emma Henderson our assessor. We were then shown to our 'dormitory', which we were alarmed to see was just a row of mattresses on a bunk-bed of sorts – leading to a lot of talk over what kind of people we might have sleeping next to us. We relaxed for a short while before dinner, which included some very interesting dancing from Flick and then after eating supper we all climbed into bed and settled down and were asleep by 9.00pm! Luckily for us the only other occupant snored away behind a flimsy dividing wall.'

Tuesday 17th July:(Emma Sheperd)
'This was the day none of us were looking forward to – constant uphill and a steep climb - 1000 metres in total - before we could have lunch! We started early in order to reach the top of the Col.de Tricot. After a few hours walking and having overtaken a quad-bike at one point we were, however, getting fed up and feeling like we were’t making any progress. However, we reached our check point at the bottom of the slope before the Col. de Tricot earlier than expected, so our moods started to improve. It was only when we looked up and saw what we had to climb next that we began to dread the next 2 hours. We started slowly to get into a rhythm and by this time it was already clear that Flick - completing her PE A2 mountain walking assessment - was a lot more enthusiastic about this expedition than we were and she steamed, or rather, danced, up the hill. The heat and steepness of our walk was beginning to take its toll as we battled on. After an hour and a half we were near the top, but we found this last section a lot harder and it was difficult not to keep stopping and to complain to each other about Mr Batchelor for making us climb it.. come to the alps for a 'holiday' he said... be warned he can be very persuasive! When we reached the top at last, we threw our bags down and collapsed on the ground only to be greeted by very aggressive sheep, who helped themselves to our avocado! Minty saw them off, which meant we could finally look round and appreciate the incredible views. After lunch we set off again, this time downhill which we all preferred - and we all enjoyed walking over the melt water from a glacier on a rope bridge. A few hours of walking later we reached the bottom of yet another “gentle slope” up to our lodging for the night. This was another famous Mr Batchelor’s “gentle slopes” in that it was actually really steep and we were all tired from what we had climbed earlier and so stopped for a short break while we gossiped. After a prolonged chat, we decided we couldn't’ put the last stretch off for any longer and started to climb up the path. This part of the day was easily the worst for most of us, in what should have been a 20 minute walk, we cried, sat down and promised never to move again, pushed each other up, pulled each other up, threatened to push Flick down for being overly keen, tried carrying our bags in about five different ways, threw strops – mostly aimed at Mr Batchelor, and practically crawled to the top. However, we were pleased to see Mr Batchelor and Emma who were at the hut for us - who were waiting slightly anxiously as they wanted to take the last cable car back down to civilisation; they would have had an extra two hours walk down if we had been five minutes later! They left us with one of the world's best views of Mont Blanc from our accommodation's high advantage point. After comparing sunburn, we spent an enjoyable evening in fits of giggles at the topics of conversation, sat on the 'windowsill' watching the sun set and clouds roll in over the mountains.'

Wednesday 18th July:(Freya Wileman)
'After a good night’s sleep we were ready for another days walking... really! With increased confidence we reached our first point earlier than expected and admired the views from the top of Le Prarion, our first real alpine summit and took several pictures of the ever present Mount Blanc. With our iPods in.. we were all merrily singing along as we walked, not far down the other side of the hill Flick once again amused us with her “Spiderman” routine as she slipped down a rock and landed in a Spiderman pose. Once we reached the route for Les Houches we bopped along the paths - through the destruction of a ski resort - which are totally awful in the summer - and were certain that we were lost at more than one point. We stopped for lunch just off the main path and lazed about in the sun for an hour – far longer than we should have done - so we in the end we had to hurry along the track and find the right path to get us into the valley and began the homestretch along the main path to the night's accommodation. Close to a village we were met by Mr Batchelor and Emma Henderson - we begged him to drive us up the final hill but despite our best efforts we were left plodding up to our night's accommodation'.

Thursday 19th July:(Emma Sheperd)
'Our final day of walking! We were all in high spirits despite the heat as we were yet again climbing but we were promised that it would go downhill… eventually. We were relieved to see that it did and offered yet more amazing views of the main Chamonix valley and surrounding area. After promising to the group the night before that it was uphill at the beginning but downhill the rest of the way, a lot of angered faces looked at me when the route then took us uphill again, considerably. It is a point of reflection that these gentle alpine slopes make any hill encountered previously in the United Kingdom seem flat - where were the days of walking along the Brecon to Abbergavenny cannel, albeit in the wrong direction on our practice! In reality it was only a short duration uphill, the equivalent of climbing Pen Y Fan - before we levelled out again and sauntered through a small village before joyfully reaching the car park where we had agreed to meet Mr Batchelor and Emma Henderson. Fifteen minutes later we greeted them both and happily skipped to the van with our bags. As soon as we got back to the chalet we rested on the sofa before making ourselves 'normal' after four days of strenuous walking and waltzed into Chamonix for a meal out, where we had a traditional French dish of raw meet that we cooked ourselves on hot stones…'

Friday 20th July:(Freya Wileman)
'SHOPPING DAY! This is where we got our revenge and tortured Mr Batchelor in what he counted as seven hours of hell - shopping! Half of us went for a swim in the local pool and sunbathed by the lake there with Emma Henderson, whilst the other half went shopping in town with Mr Batchelor. We all met up for lunch and continued shopping afterwards, avoiding the torrential rain! We all thoroughly enjoyed this day and as well as treating ourselves to some luxury items we thanked Mr Batchelor and Emma Henderson by buying them gifts. After all the shopping was over we watched another DVD and found out that some people don’t even cry at the end of Moulin Rouge! Forgetting all about the packing we needed to do by Saturday morning.'

Saturday 21st July:(Emma Sheperd)
'A seriously early morning added stress to the already traumatic last minute packing attempt, which involved us all running round the chalet collecting our possessions, which had gone far and wide during the week! We threw our bags in the boot of the van and said a quick goodbye to Emma who was waiting at the chalet for another school's group to arrive. We left for the airport and tried to sleep but failed. After going through check-in, we headed straight for the duty free to buy last minute presents for friends and family. Finally, we were called to boarding to be told on the way to the gate that the flight had been delayed by almost an hour so we sat outside the gate listening to music, talking about the trip and moaning about the English weather we had to go back to not realising how bad it was. We boarded the plane and before we knew it we were back in England and stuck on a stationary M5 in the traffic jam due to Herefordshire's floods.  It took us nearly four hours to get back to Hereford from Worcester, but we managed it in the end, with the helpful intervention of some traffic police who took pity on a minibus named 'Hereford' Cathedral School who escorted us around to the M50 which they then opened!