#SkiSafe with the Post Office

Just over a week ago, a flurry of snow fell across London transforming the usual grey, smog-ridden capital (I love you really, London) into a winter wonderland. Whilst some rejoiced and ran face first into the snow (me), others grumbled and hibernated at home until the cold weather passed. Rather conveniently, I had a ski-themed event to attend right smack bang in the middle of 'snowmageddon' and it was as if the team at behind the event had persuaded the weather gods to put on the snow show just for the event.

The event itself was hosted by The Post Office and was held within the cosy Monkey 47 winter lodge pop-up behind the prestigious Holborn Dining Room & Rosewood Hotel. The decor of the pop-up itself was inspired by the lodge that the founder of the Monkey 47 gin brand, British Commander Montgomery "Monty" Collins, lived whilst developing his famous gin recipe. Whilst I have never been on a skiing holiday before, the lodge resembled exactly how I picture a typical venue for après-ski shenanigans; the wooden-panelled walls, sheepskin style rugs, antique cuckoo clocks and twinkling fairylights. A particularly nice touch that was definitely appreciated in the subzero temperatures were the heated benches that I managed to sneakily warm my coat up on before leaving later that evening.

The purpose of the evening was to highlight the Post Office's #SkiSafe campaign, which urges people to take out adequate travel insurance before hitting the slopes and not doing anything that may invalidate that insurance. The premise of the evening was that we were to participate in virtual reality skiing whilst completely sober, note our score, have a few cocktails and then have a shot at the slopes again whilst under the influence of alcohol to see how it had affected our reflexes and reactions. Obviously, the clear hypothesis was that our score would be worse when drunk, indicating that you shouldn't ski whilst under the influence of alcohol. Makes sense, right? Well, here's how the evening went...

So upon arrival, I was ushered straight past the cocktail bar and taken to test out our ski skills on the virtual reality slopes whilst completely sober. As someone who has never ever skiied before, I wasn't expecting to do so well. Turns out the first time round on the VR simulator, I somehow ended up skiing backwards (!!) whilst hearing the voices around me in the room either hysterically laughing or proclaiming in awe, "I don't even know how you're managing to do that!". This lasted in all for around 2 minutes before the brash 'GAME OVER' text appeared in front of me. Did I mention that I was completely sober at the time too?

Luckily, I was given a second shot at my sober attempt on the VR slopes because my first attempt was really that bad. My second shot only delivered a measly 4, 907 points but it sure was better than a score of 0, eh? After that absolute disaster, I slipped off my virtual reality headset and headed to the bar to start the next phase of the evening: drink as many delicious, warm, gin-based cocktails as I could!

After a couple of hours drinking and laughing with my fellow ski buddies for the night in an après-ski style setup and discussing ski safety over a few bevvies, it was time to hit the VR slopes again. After my first dramatic failure at VR skiing whilst sober, I was feeling even less confident about manoeuvring the mountain whilst tipsy. 

Surprisingly, somehow I defeated all the odds and pretty much doubled my score whilst drunk and came away with 9, 699. I put it entirely down to liquid confidence and the cocktails making me feel a little bit more cocky in my skiing abilities. Technically, I proved the hypothesis and the whole concept of the evening completely wrong by suddenly becoming better at skiing whilst drunk - whoops!

Despite this, would I recommend skiing whilst drunk? No, absolutely not. It invalidates your insurance so if you did end up hurting yourself on the slopes after you've had a drink, your insurance wouldn't cover you for being such an irresponsible human so don't do it. If you injured yourself on the mountain and your insurance was invalidated or you didn't take any out, it would cost around £2, 500 for the helicopter alone before you even reach the hospital! I don't know about you but I definitely don't have a casual two and a half grand laying around spare, so it's never worth the risk.

Despite my shockingly bad scores on the evening, I'm now craving a winter sports holiday. Needless to say, I'll definitely be making sure I purchase insurance and I'll definitely leave the cocktails until I'm off the slopes!

Photos by Kaye Ford.

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Disclaimer: This post was written in collaboration with the Post Office but all words are my own.