Page 9 - The Light Blue Volunteer 2019

Ex SACRE BLEU
Early January a coach full of loud, overexcited and boisterous OCdts began the long journey to Tignes. The energy soon dissipated as the journey wore on, but excitement was far from misplaced – it was set to be an eventful and action- packed week.
Arriving into the stunning scenery of a blue-skied Tignes, spirits were high, and a flurry of frenzied activity ensued to complete a mass of admin. Groups were assigned, with abilities ranging from novice skiers in SF1 groups to the gnarly veterans doing SF2 continuation.
Experienced SF2 skiers took the first morning to get back into their groove, whilst those on SF1 started on the basics. After a long day, all groups RV’d at Cocorico Aprés bar to share stories and sort out group switches so that, staying true to the spirit of AT, everyone could be pushed beyond their comfortable limits.
Over the course of the week, skiers improved in leaps and bounds with beginners soon turning parallel down blue runs and the more advanced groups being ragged along blacks, off-piste, through trees and down waist height mogul fields, until truly nothing phased them.
To supplement the skiing, and ensure that SF2 groups would be safe touring and skiing off-piste, lectures were given covering weather, avalanche safety and cold-injuries. SF2 groups also learned how to find an avalanche casualty using transponders and dig them out, culminating in a competition to rescue a casualty (day-sack) from a mock scenario, with my casualty emerging well and truly hypoxic after a painful 14 minutes under the snow.
The last day was an opportunity for friends to ski together. Everyone met at La Folie Douce to take a unit photograph and sample the delights of the Cabaret before the long journey home.
2Lt Hodgkinson-Toay
THE LIGHT BLUE VOLUNTEER 9