Page 61 - The Light Dragoon 2024

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Tpr Davison in the start
Got the stones
Tpr Bulmer steadying the nerves
Working hard
Lt Ferguson on the GS course
crash of the exercise. This saw Lt Ferguson go the wrong way around the first gate, point his skis downhill in frustration and humili- ation, resulting in him crashing and losing both skis when he wasn’t even racing. Due to poor race conditions towards the end of the exercise we were unable to compete in Super G. With the most competitive field the instructors had seen in the past few years, the Light Dragoons put in a very valiant effort. Considering our team took the highest ratio of novices to experienced skiers the team did very well. All in all, WK 40 was an excellent training and race camp, with new friendships made not only within the Light Dragoons but across other regiments in the RAC and AAC. With half the team returning to the UK a composite team of Lt Ferguson, Cpl Neighbour, Tpr Davison and Tpr Bulmer went to Army Qualifying Championships (Divs.)
The thing to note about Les Contamines is that it is as far from Verbier culturally as one can get whilst remaining in the Alps. The skiing however is phenomenal. To
ensure that we didn’t get full withdrawal from Switzerland, the Div’s Team stayed in Verbier for a few extra days just to practice those vital turns. On moving to Les Contamines it was straight into a seeding race for Giant Slalom. We had an excellent run at it and moved up several bibs for the individual event the following day. No medals at this stage but we were just getting warmed up. A couple of RAC and infantry companions had joined us, and the Scots Guards provided good company on the hills. ‘Cav Corner’ consisted of the RL/KRH and QDG teams; unmistakable in our Jordanian coats, the cavalry had arrived, no one panic. The weather put on a good show and the next three days forced our hand to enjoy Chez Gaston after racing, a wonderfully affordable restaurant at the top of the resort with spectacular views over the next valley. Tactical discussions on who the main competition were, and how many bottles of rosé were needed filled the afternoon before heading back down to service skis for the next events, Slalom, a technical discipline that clearly the rest
of the field had been practicing hard at. A couple of missed gates for Tpr Davison and Cpl Neighbour were unfortunate, however, in the team event a respectable 8/25 was earnt.
The next few days brought snow, and speed training. Fresh snow and speed do not mix, indeed our second training run ended up counting as the final result due to poor conditions on race day. This was beneficial in two ways. The team earnt bronze in the downhill training; not perhaps the best technical skiers but have the minerals to fly over a blind roller at 100kph. The second is that Chamonix is just round the corner and a well earnt spa evening was on the cards. Wrapping up the championships, we were presented with our downhill medals and caught up with the Deputy Commander 1(UK) Division Brigadier General Armel Dirou, former Commanding Officer of the 4éme Régiment de Chasseurs. A fitting end to our alpine season and a benchmark for next year.
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