Page 74 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

Exercise FROSTED BLADE
In the Army Reserve, Ex FROSTED BLADE is not a commonly understood or well-known exercise. It is in fact the Infantry ski racing
championship consisting of race teams on a B hill (novice and beginner racers) and on an A Hill (intermediate to advanced racers). The winners and best performers are chosen to represent the Infantry in future Army and potentially mili- tary championships. For 7 Rifles this was our first time and we submitted two teams of four.
For a long time now since commissioning, I have followed the Sandhurst Trust on Facebook and highly recommend others to do so regardless of their input into and position in the British Army or any other branch of the military for that mat- ter. The reason is that they generate a clear pic- ture of what it means for an OCdt to go through Sandhurst and the challenges and obstacles they must overcome. This gives a good indi- cation for those in the other services of what it means to have commissioned into the Brit- ish Army. How is this connected to ski racing? The Sandhurst Trust gives immense amounts of support to Officer Cadets in training but also to expeditions beyond those at Sandhurst, and, through the sharing of this kind of information, 7 Rifles was able to open a dialogue and get sup- port from the Sandhurst Trust for our expedition.
For 7 Rifles, Ex FROSTED BLADE was an exercise of trepidation with a grating of subtle confidence that we would at least success- fully compete in races without our racers falling over... The outcome was even better. Though overall victory was a little too difficult to achieve, my team really outshone themselves, though not without difficulties. On the second day of race training (the day before the racing began) a member of the A Team, rather frustratingly for himself, snapped his ACL. Up stepped Sgt Gary Hamilton, 53-year-old bandsman extraor- dinaire, to be the ACE in the hole should any-
thing go wrong (fortunately it didn’t, though Gary did go on to come 77th in the slalom, beating almost half the entire cohort of 150!).
7 Rifles gained two Bronze medals in the Vet- eran individual category and came 3rd on the final mixed slalom team category (sadly not a medal earning position). Overall, officially we came 9th of 37 teams – not bad for our first time.
To the Sandhurst Trust, I say thank you for your support to our cause, without which I may not have had the gravitas to push my exercise ahead with the same winning tempo that granted us the opportunity to be a well-known name on the Exercise. In addition, please keep post- ing on Facebook – in particular the #famous- friday posts, one of the few things I actually stop to read on my morning Facebook scroll...
To the Officer Cadets in training, I say good luck and keep in contact with the Sandhurst Trust upon commissioning, whether that be through keeping a dialogue with them or even following them on social media, as they will support you when it is your turn to run exercises in the future.
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