Page 56 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

54 EAGLE AND CARBINE
The sun hits Wiedersbergerhorn first, slowly painting the face orange as it rises. The snow creaks on the rooftop and the slow drip of melt from the eaves becomes a steady drumming beat as the day warms. I step out onto the balcony with a cup of coffee and look up the valley towards the rising sun. The church bells ring out over the village and the daily chorus of early morning breakfast bustle begins: a distant engine hums, pots clatter together, neighbours can be heard hailing “Servus” to one another, ski boots crunch against fresh salt grit.
On the mountain, a thin white snake of pisted snow under the cannons stands out against bright green grass below. It looks a few feet narrower today and a shade closer to grey, as more rocks peek through. It hasn’t snowed for almost two weeks now and everyday has been bluebird and warm, getting warmer. Looking back at the night we arrived – driving late through heavy snowfall, flakes as big as ping pong balls, the headlights only penetrating a car’s length ahead, the lines on the road hidden beneath a deepening blanket and the trees sagging under the weight – it’s hard to believe we are in the same wintery Tirolian village.
I can hear the house below coming awake now, so I down my coffee, don my ski gear and head to the locker to load the vans. Bleary eyes tell the tale of Jakob’s hospitality the night before in Jakobar, but five minutes in the crisp, fresh, mountain air are a proven cure. I munch a large bowl of granola and pack some Fuel bars to keep us going. Vans loaded and all ten booted and ready for another day of race training,
we trundle past the church and turn left at the river towards Inneralpbach. Someone does their best to tune the radio and we listen to 80s pop and news from Munich. Gerhardt is waiting for us at the T-bar and we gather around him, beginning our daily warm up. The QRH team have arrived around the same time and stories of the previous night’s adventures are shared, much to the amusement of Gerhardt who chimes “How is the alcohol in Alpbach?”.
Then the lift starts turning – an early opening just for us. We gather the race gates and pair off, carrying them up the T-bar with us. The course is set, the gates are drilled in, snow is shovelled over the road that cuts across the middle of the slope, shin guards are fitted, poles adjusted and we ride back to the top of the lift. Today it’s GS or Giant Slalom, next week it will be Slalom. Gerhardt gives us the brief and some thinking points for the day. Then it’s game faces on and we work hard at our technique for a couple of hours. Giant slalom is the formula 1 of ski racing: a combination of speed and technique that requires absolute concen- tration and coordination. Make one late turn or let your edge slip and your run may be ruined. Once you get off the racing line, it’s very hard to recover.
At the divisional championships in Serre Chevalier next month, we will only get two runs in each discipline. In GS, each run will be on a different course. The top 10 finishers will likely be less than a second apart. The margin for error makes things exciting if frustrating: “The snow is too soft so I lost my edge when it gave way.” “The snow is too hard so I couldn’t get my edge
ALPINE SKIING
Lt Rory Edwards
Slalom training
The training paid off!