Skis make travelling more fun

Escaping the slippery conditions on the roads and footpaths, one Co Tipperary couple took to the hills yesterday and skied to work.

Ms Frances Fogarty and Mr Sean Whelan, managers at the Aherlow House Hotel, at the foot of the Galtee mountains, found the skis not only safer but speedier.

"It normally takes us five minutes to walk down to the hotel. It took just 30 seconds on the skis," said Ms Fogarty, the hotel's general manager.

The two have been on a number of foreign skiing holidays but, she said, none compared to being able to ski in your own home county.

"It's fabulous, a completely unique experience. Hopefully it will last a few days more, even if it is causing havoc."

The hotel has hosted three wedding receptions over the past three nights and has another one this evening. On Thursday, said Ms Fogarty, only half of the guests arrived although "luckily, the bride and groom and the priest made it".

The hotel was recently redeveloped with the construction of Austrian-style wooden lodges on the hill above the main building where she and Mr Whelan were living. All that was missing now, she joked, was a ski lift and "we might be able to design a new market for ourselves".