Page 77 - KRH Regimental Journal 2022

The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 75
Ex LION’S CHALLENGE The Army Alpine Championships, Jan 22
As Exercise WHITE KNIGHT (2021-2022) ended, the King’s Royal Hussars (and wider Army Winter Sports) believed they were finished with skiing for the season due to COVID-19 rear- ing its ugly head again and cancelling the Divisional Alpine ski competition.
However, Ex LION’S CHALLENGE appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The British Army Alpine Ski Championships were back on! With 48 hours’ notice, 2Lt Brown dropped all attempts at starting troop leading and headed back out to the Alps along with the experienced hand of Sgt Kingston. Between the two, they made up one third of a hastily thrown together Royal Armoured Corps team, the rest comprising of 2 RTR, one Lancer and a Light Dragoon.
The team took to their trusty combi-vans once more and ven- tured to the sunny slopes of Serre Chevalier for 10 days of high intensity racing. Once settled in, the absence of a Corps Team Captain was noticed (apparently RMAS put a higher priority on work than Winter Sports!). The 2IC took over as TC and 2Lt Brown took up the mantle of 2IC.
Despite not bringing a coach the RAC team undertook an inten- sive few days of self-training before the competition started in earnest. The normal four disciplines were being competed; sla- lom, giant slalom, super G and downhill, for which there are both individual and team categories. The opening slalom turned out to be a baptism by fire for the RAC team, who due to a tricky snow year were more used to racing on the baby slalom slope in Verbier at some quarter of the length.
After some unsatisfactory initial results dropped most of the team into the bottom third seedings, they were left with an uphill battle against the results sheet. As the competitors progressed through the different categories, the RAC team slowly climbed the rankings, ultimately finishing 10th overall out of the 17 teams that qualified. In the super G and downhill 2Lt Brown finished in the top third (there’s a first time for everything!) Meanwhile, Sgt Kingston continued his unbroken form of spectacular crashes, miraculously without serious injury.
Despite not achieving all the results on the racetrack that they desired, the RAC team refocused their efforts on the niche mar- ket of impromptu skicross and are eagerly awaiting the British Army’s first skicross championship.
Whilst Op CABRIT and D Sqn’s planning for the doomed Op HARFA put the brakes on the KRH’s ability to defend its Alpine skiing trophy cabinet for 2022/23, we still kept a hand in the fire. Maj Williamson slipped duties as OC B over the Christmas period to run Ex WHITE KNIGHT (not racing, on pain of death from his better half) and ensured that RAC Alpine was kept tick- ing over in good order until the KRH can return to Verbier in late 2023. Come then we’ll be fighting with a double size team, renewed vigour and hungry for all the silverware.
The not so synchronised colour coordination of the ad-hoc RAC Alpine Ski team
Sports
Sgt Kingston and 2Lt Brown demonstrate “balance and control”
AMB
The RAC Alpine ski team looking for their trophies