It was Friday the 8th February, about 9am and I was running around like headless chicken. Why is it that no matter how well you prepare for an ACF event, everything seems to go wrong last minute? Cadets seem to have not organised lifts for themselves, ring you at 8am because they still haven't got the right rucksack, or because they have lost their medical form. This however was no ordinary weekend camp to our local ACF centre in Nottingham, this was an 8 day trip to Austria to take 15 cadets skiing, 13 of whom had never even seen a piste before.

Maybe I should back track slightly. This whole idea started a few years ago when myself & two other adult instructors went to a well known music festival in Mayrhofen for a week and were asked by a few of our senior cadets if they could come too, the answer was obviously no. However the idea of a Squadron ski trip did get implanted in my mind, dismissed every now and again due to the amount of work it would take to organise. A year later however I was still being pestered by my cadets to get something organised - even just a day trip to a nearby snowdome, so I finally gave in.

I quickly recruited 4 other adults to take part in the trip, PI Chris Marriott - who although had never skied before was more than up for the challenge, my housemate SI Maria Bott - an solid intermediate skier, Lt Paul "I am the second best?" Wilde - who although not hugely experience, was ridiculously competitive and Sgt Jamie Fisher, who I had skied with the year before and has tried to kill me by wiping me out more times than I care to remember. Japanese World War Two pilots could have learned a lot from his style of skiing.

Next came the obvious problem of money. We had decided to organise the trip through a school trip company, this meant that everything from ferry fares to ski passes would be organised for us. However this luxury came at a price, and we couldn't expect a lot of the cadets within our Squadron to be able to afford the entire cost. My mantra has always the more the merrier so with this in mind, I set about fundraising. Having come from a Students Union background, I am used to begging for money for good causes... two months later we had raised over £5000.

Some of this money came from traditional sources such as raffles on camps, donations from our County Headquarters, the ACFA, our Squadron funds and our sponsor regiment - The Queen's Royal Lancers who were all more than generous when it came to donations, however at this point I must also say an enormous thank you to all of our commercial and local sponsors, who really made this all possible.

I think it is only fair if I name them all: my employer - 23red, Sgt Fisher's company Ren-Test Industria, Adam & Sam Canty at CFS Hull, Innes England, Duke of Edinburgh scheme supporter Terry Keely of Belfield Furnishing, Lesarge Cement but most of all Nottinghamshire County Council who donated £1400 altogether via various councilors. A special thank you goes out to my hero and local councilor, Darrell Pulk.

The Reader's Digest version of this was that we raised the money, got the paperwork done, had a cadet drop out the day before due to passport problems, quickly replaced him with a cadet from another company and off we went.

The coach ride out there consisted of a lot of dvd's, junk food and travel scrabble, interrupted with the occasional toilet break where at least one cadet or adult instructor would need to clean the pen off their faces drawn on them whilst in an unsuspecting slumber....

At 16:34 hours, Austrian time, we arrived at our lodge greeted by our rep Linda, a three course dinner and some very cheerful chalet staff. After we had eaten and issued out ski passes we headed into nearby Radstadt to get all our ski equipment fitted. Although sleep deprived and smelly, there was no denying the excitement in the air for everyone. This excitement was increased when we informed the cadets we could make use of the sauna & steam room facilities shared with the sister hotel next door to our chalet!

After unpacking and settling into our spacious rooms, complete with balconies & en suite bathrooms, we bedded down for an early night ready to hit the slopes at 9am the next morning.

Over the course of the next 6 days our novice cadets went from snow plough to snow wow... with the help of our amazing instructors, Wolfgang and Rollo they spent the majority of the first day on the baby slopes learning the importance of balancing and how to use your weight. Day two consisted of linking turns and snowploughs and some of the groups tackled their first blue run. After this there was no stopping the Squadron as they skied run after run, constantly falling, constantly laughing and carrying on again. The instructors were more like friends teaching the cadets some useful German such as ‘Opolla!' (forgive my spelling) for when you fall over and in turn we taught them useful phrases such as ‘speed is your friend' and others best not mentioned.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the piste, the adult instructors and the two more experienced cadets built jumps, slid down the grand slalom track, got lost in trees, fell through some mogul fields and took lots of film and pictures.

On an evening we made our own entertainment by building kickers in the snow covered fields next to the hotel and trying out some snowblades, going for pizza and to the local swimming baths. Wednesday night saw Cpl Duggan's 16th birthday so we planned a little outing to a nearby hotel for a torch lit ghost walk followed by punch and some mega German disco music at a log cabin. When approaching the log cabin, we saw it had already been occupied by an enemy school, so the Squadron performed a full section attack complete with snowball ammunition and this quickly.

The week rounded off with a manic last night in the hotel, our super bus drivers, Bob and Steve made a disco for us on the coach as we couldn't go to the big schools disco due to lack of tickets, so we made do (in true ACF style) with what we had and loved every second.

The final day we skied in our own little ability groups, all making sure we got in our favourite last runs of the day, taking early leave from the slopes to make sure we got our equipment handed in in-time. We headed back to the hotel, had dinner, packed up the coach and waved goodbye to a fantastic trip. With only one broken light bulb, a lost helmet and no injuries the adults were relieved to go home with a clean bill of health although a few Euros lighter.

So apart from a day off school - what else did our cadets actually get out of this trip? Well for many of them this counted towards their Duke of Edinburgh modules for skill or sport and for other s it meant extra module points on their BTEC award. For most it was the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to try a sport not easily accessible and a chance to go abroad, for some the first time ever.

All in all the trip was one huge logistical vortex, but one I will definitely be doing again for 2009 with some very fond memories, but with a lot of lessons learned!

If you want to come on next year's squadron ski trip, please contact Lt Kate Steventon by clicking here