At 0500 on the
morning of the 15th February we departed to make our way to
Rhupolding in Bavaria Germany. After a
long drive we got to Munich
and spent the night in a hotel, the next morning we continued on to Rhupolding
were we met our landlady for the fortnight Frau Schmidt, she greeted us and
told us the rules of the house. As we
arrived on the Sunday we used the day to settle into our accommodation and
prepare the equipment for the competition ahead. Monday and Tuesday were both training days for
the first seeding race on Wednesday so we went out both on Monday and Tuesday to
get used to the snow and finding our ski legs again.
Wednesday was the first competitive day using the Grand
Slalom course as a way to set the seeding for the competition this is when you
get given your starting bib number at the beginning of the competition. You
then aim to lower that bib number as the competition progresses. The first race
was the GS (short for Grand Slalom), a course marked with flags that you must
pass through to complete the race, any gates missed resulted in
disqualification from the competition, the 159 Regt team did well in this
discipline and completed with no serious injuries.
After two days of the
Grand Slalom all teams were given the weekend to use as they see fit, most
teams rested. 159 Regt Ski team made the most of their time and travelled to
Huetel on the Saturday to train and on the Sunday we went to Saalbach ski
resort in Austria,
a breathtaking but challenging resort with picturesque mountains and towns. On Friday
night the alpine teams had a fancy dress in which 159 Regt team dressed as
doctors and nurses.
On Monday the competition continued, first race of the week
being the Super G, a course designed so you can pick up speed with long
turns. The conditions were very slippery
and conditions worsened throughout the day. The Super G ran for two days followed then by
the Slalom, which was a technical course full of turns and the conditions
resulted in a lot of falls from even the most experience skiers. These
conditions resulted in two members of the 159 Regt team being hospitalised for
dislocations and a broken arm.
The final night in Ruhpolding was spent at the prize giving
ceremony which LCpl Thompson received best Novice for the Nordic skiing. The
159 Regt team internally awarded prizes to Major Dave Paget for the fastest
time down the hill in a blood wagon and Corporal Green for taking enough
tranquilisers to knock out a grand national winner before his helicopter flight
to the Krankenhouse.
The next morning we
travelled back to England
and on the way our sat nav took us on a detour through Brussels city centre in rush hour on a
Friday. We eventually made it back after 18 long hours to England late on Friday the 28th.
An epic journey, preceded by an
amazing few weeks - roll on next year!
LCpl Conaghan
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