“I feel like Bridget Jones does skiing”, I mutter to my friend as we near the top of the gondola escalator, skis ever so elegantly slipping out of my grip and ski boots digging into my shin causing me to walk like John Wayne in his worst form. She turns around, giggles, and promptly agrees with me. “Let’s do this”, she said. And as those three empowering words escaped her mouth, I knew that the next few days were going to be unforgettable.

You may be wondering how I ended up at a banging dance music festival, with skiing as an additional activity no less, three weeks before the London Marathon. Well, let me tell you. I’m a weak ‘yes’ person who will not turn a fun opportunity down. And when I received the text asking if I was up for a week of two of my favourite things combined, music and skiing, I just had to say yes. Five days of hungover skiing and five epic Jäeger Bomb fuelled nights of debauchery. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

I have to put in a disclaimer here; I didn’t quite make it to see everything the festival had to offer. Over the course of the week, revelers are treated to an incredible amount of activities, spread out across the resort and up on the slopes. Things I missed included the street party, chair lift speed dating, Voga (a fusion of Yoga and Vogueing) and the Smirnoff Arctic Disco, but I hear they were pretty shit hot.

So what happens when two kindred spirits collide and decide to go to Snowbombing together? Sadly I can’t divulge exactly what happens, but let me tell you this – they have an inordinate amount of fun, create cute little rituals, partake in ab-defining laughter for days on end, talk to nearly everyone they meet, help each other out in that time of need (there’s always one) and of course come to sleep deprived blows in the final hours, making up with ‘I love you’s’ almost instantaneously.

Before heading out to the Tyrolean Alps, I only so much as glanced at the line up a couple of times. And there were two acts that stood out – Mike Skinner and Pat Sharp. I never thought I would write those two names in the same sentence, but that slightly surreal mixture completely epitomises the Snowbombing experience. One day you can be dancing to serious house music, the next you can be engulfed in a mosh pit singing along to the Antarctic Monkeys, and the next you can be watching Pat Sharp DJ whilst dancing the Macarena in the Fun Haus.

And that’s just the evening. In the daytime, you can ski with your friend one day in your own ski suit; the next you can borrow an 80s all in one masterpiece and ski without your friend, while she picks up Eddie the Eagle on a ski lift, only to spend the day pootling down the slopes with him and Pat Sharp. Not to mention skiing down to Rompa’s Reggae Shack for a spot of lunch and a boogie with Mr. Motivator.

This is Snowbombing, so the more surreal the better. At midnight that night, my friend received an invite to ski with Eddie and his random clan again the next day. And let me tell you, having had an eye watering two hours’ sleep and no chance for the alcohol levels to subside, skiing with a group of people that didn’t know each other, led by Eddie the Eagle, was very surreal.

So, how do you get there? Getting to a ski resort is never straightforward and my lack of planning related anxiety was very appropriately fuelled by the fact that neither of us decided to plan our travel very well. Luckily my friend had read the pick up location for the shuttle bus at Munich airport, but without tickets we were unsure whether we would be able to get on it. To my surprise we weren’t the only idiots to rock up without a ticket and with a short wait, we were given the last two seats on the bus. Result. The way back wasn’t so lucky and we ended up paying £80 each for a shared taxi to the airport. Trust me though, reader, at that point it felt like the best £80 I had ever spent.

Right now I’m sitting here having completed the London Marathon almost a week ago. Back when I started training, I wanted to complete it in 4 hours. I will admit I felt like I might regret my skiing festival trip, undoing all of the months of hard training I put myself through. But on Sunday 23^rd April 2017, I pounded the streets of London and finished one of the world’s most famous Marathon courses in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 57 seconds. So what does this tell me…? I think I would be stupid not to include unforgettable festival holidays into my training plan from now on.

For more information, head to the Snowbombing website.