What, you might ask, could an Essex girl teach an Austrian boy?

The answer is skiing.

Nineteen-year-old Karen Milton who, when she's not skimming down black runs high in Austria's magnificent Alps, lives with her family at Linnet Drive, Chelmsford, is just finishing her second season as one of the country's youngest ski instructors.

A former Moulsham High School pupil, Karen started her working life in an office. But a skiing holiday at St Wolfgang in Austria's famous lake district changed all that.

"I clamped on my first pair of skis and was totally hooked," she said. "The ski instructor encouraged me to enrol for an instructor's course and everything took off."

That was two years ago and today Karen is a firm favourite with fellow instructors and pupils alike. "I don't speak that much German, but the Austrians are so welcoming and friendly that I get by with the little I have picked up,' she said.

Austrian children learn to ski almost by the time they are walking and as we spoke a posse of tots, most of them only knee-high to a ski boot, flashed past us at the speed of light.

"I have a lot of British children in my classes who see the Austrian kids and are inspired," said Karen. "They learn much more quickly than adults. By the end of a week they are tackling slalom runs like little champions.

"I get a tremendous buzz when I get a group of people who have never been on a pair of skis, but who learn enough so that by the end of a week they come down the ski race. That's really terrific.

"I've had a lot laughs in this job," she said. "Like the time I had a group who didn't know if they were coming or going. They arrived on piste with their boots on the wrong feet and were trying to get their skis on back to front!"

Does she miss home? "There are times when I would give anything for my Mum's cooking," she said.

"I was very homesick for my family and for my boyfriend Don at Christmas, but you get over it." Karen's contract ends in a couple of weeks when she comes home to look for a summer job to tide her over until the next ski season.

"Then I'll be back here. Just look at it," she said, sweeping an eye over a glistening wonderland of snow-covered mountains against an azure sky.

"This beats working in an office any time."

Steady on: Karen gives nine-year-old Kelly from Hertfordshire a couple of tips on the slopes.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.