Page 131 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

EXERCISE FROSTED BLADE 32
In January this year 6 RIFLES deployed a team to compete in Exercise Alpine Frosted Blade 32, the Infantry Alpine Ski Championships held in Val d’Isere, France. Our 4-person team competed against Regular units who had spent the previous month ski training in resort before the two weeks of racing in the four Alpine disciplines of Slalom, Giant Slalom (GS), Super G and Downhill. The exercise aim of developing and testing courage was certainly ful lled with teams tackling some of the most challenging courses that racers will encounter before the Army Championships.
Our team, along with the other Reserve units that were competing, received two days of race training from the excellent Val d’Isere Evolution 2 ski instructors, this gave an insight into what type of GS course we’d be racing and with some spectacular crashes it clearly demonstrated to us that solid, tuned up race skis take no prisoners whatsoever. The competition is split into A and B Divisions with a team of 4 competing from each unit in each division, the B Div being for more novice ski racers. With just a 4-person team naturally we entered the A Div which Maj Evans at least had some experience of before; for the rest of us it was somewhat of a baptism of re.
Seeding day was a GS race with two runs and the best time to count, the Regulars had already had a seeding race so were already in some kind of ability based start order but the Reservists started at the back with the joys of skiing ruts in the snow caused by the previous 120 racers. On run one I ejected myself from my skis through a gate marker but recorded a time on the second to place 73rd, Maj Ted Evans did extremely well and placed 34th after starting in the 120s and 2Lt
Jack Maymon and LCpl Adam Frost also placed well ahead of their bib numbers in the 80s. It was all immaterial, though, due to the unique way in which Alpine seeding is calculated we all started near the back the next day anyway!
The race events went by in a blur with gradually increasing speed from GS, to Super G to Downhill followed nally by the slower but more technical slalom races. We made progress, feeding off Maj Evans’ experience as much as possible but often learning how it all worked somewhere between the start gate and the nish gate of each race. Crashes and missed gates were punished with DNFs and DQs but we developed as a team and learned a number of valuable lessons about memorising the course, line choice, ski choice, that downhill is terrifyingly fun and that skin suits don’t keep a freezing wind off your nether regions.
In the end, due to a full on commitment to speed surpassing our racing ability (my missed gate on the Super G and a couple of other spectacular DNFs in the team) we did not have enough individual times in all disciplines to place an overall team result, but individually Maj Ted Evans nished 22nd overall out of a eld of 129 in the Infantry Individual Combination competition which was an outstanding performance.
Next year the battalion will enter a team again, standing in the start gate above a downhill course can be terrifying and individual courage and resil- ience is most certainly tested, but with developing experience, technical competence and team equipment each year, the 6 RIFLES team has an ever increasing chance to place well.
Capt Lachlan Bucknall
2LT JACK MAYMON AND LCPL ADAM FROST ALSO PLACED WELL AHEAD OF THEIR BIB NUMBERS IN THE 80s
Ex FROSTED BLADE Team; Capt Lachlan Bucknall, LCpl Adam Frost, Maj
Ted Evans and 2Lt Jack Maymon