St George’s Windsor – Morzine June 2019

We were delighted to host St George’s Windsor Year 8’s for an action packed week of adventure in Morzine last week. Here is how it went…

Monday – Arrival and Hike

They landed at 09:10, we arrived at our accommodation by 11:20 and were at the top of a mountain by 13:30! That’s a strong start to a trip, especially when you consider it had been pouring with rain on and off all morning.

At the top of the chair lift the pupils were given the choice to go to the Ranfolly view point or start the 5km cruise down into Morzine. They chose to crack on up to the top – we knew we were in for a good week at this point.

5 minutes later the rain started again and didn’t stop all afternoon! Nevertheless they made it to the top and back down again…

Hike on Day 1
For context, this is what the view was like when we were they 3 days before – that’s Mont Blanc!

Why are we here?

When we got back from the very damp hike we had a chat as a group about why we were here. The pupils collectively said 2 main reasons:

1. Have fun. 2. Develop team skills.

That suits us, so in order to achieve this we then broke fun into 2 types. Type 1 & Type 2.

  1. Type 1– In-the-moment joy and gratification. Loving every minute of it.
  2. Type 2 – Fun on reflection. Often weeks or years later. Longer lasting and more enduring but takes hard work and perseverance to achieve

We agreed that this week was going to be a mixture of them both and was going to be different for each and every person.

We then discussed that to achieve both types of fun they were going to have to work together as a team which led us nicely onto their second objective. To have fun in the outdoors in a safe manner pupils were going to have to demonstrate both good leadership skills and followership skills. We came up with the following traits for each and discussed how pupils will need to use both during the week.

  1. Leadership Skills – Respect for others. Knowledge of what you are doing. Charisma
  2. Followership Skills – Listening to leaders. Doing what is required. Understanding your part of a team and you might not know the full picture. Give your feedback where appropriate

We finished by discussing what leadership & followership skills were being demonstrated on our hike that afternoon and how we can improve during the week.

Tuesday – Gorge walk, kayaking & high ropes

Unfortunately Tuesday was a little damp as well. A few tweaks to the programme and we kick off with a tour of ‘Devils Gorge’. I think we all agreed it was best that we weren’t rafting the river that morning as it was surging through the gorge.

Going into Devils Gorge

We then headed to Lake Montriond for some kayaking. Skills were learnt, games were played and lakes were jumped in…

Kayaking on Lake Montriond

To round off a rather action packed day we went to the Go Ape style high ropes course in Morzine…

High Ropes


Wednesday – Hike to Switzerland

With the weather improving we set out from Lac des Mines D’Or with the aim of making it all the way to Col du Coux on the Swiss boarder. Here is a video of our journey…

Time to cool down on the way up…



And some photos…

Hike to Switzerland

There was certainly some talk of Type 2 fun on the way up as the calfs were burning. We even created a Type 3 fun where your instructor thinks you’re having fun but you’re not! I am pleased to say ALL pupils made it to the border at the top of the col. Some even pushed on to another summit close by. Nice work team.

We then headed to a local swimming pool for some well earned relaxation time.

This tweet sums up Wednesday evening quite nicely…



Thursday – Climbing and Mountain Biking

Pupils really stepped it up a gear for this with everyone pushing their own personal limits – here is a video of the session…

Here are the pupils climbing

Next up, we received the devastating news that mountain biking was delayed by 30 minutes so we had to wait in this terrible place…

Relaxing at Lac Mines D'Or

After a kick around and an ice cream, it was time to get kitted up for some mountain biking…

Mountain Biking

Friday – Whitewater Rafting

The river had dropped enough by Friday to a playful level which made for a rather fantastic end to the trip…

Whitewater Rafting

What better way to end the week than with a sing-along in the river side bar…click HERE if it does not play.

IMG_9683

You can see all the photo albums from the trip on Flickr HERE

All in all a great week.

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