Page 60 - The Chapka 2016

58 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) Alpine Skiing
The Alpine Ski team has enjoyed a successful 2016/17 sea- son. Deploying as usual to Verbier for Exercise WHITE KNIGHT, we were disappointed to find that for a second year the snow Gods had slightly let us down for the early season race training.
However, thanks to the tireless efforts of the snow cannons, the pisteurs and their brand new piste machines we were – none- theless – able to get down to some great training on good, hard pistes - even if there could have been cattle grazing on the off piste parts of the mountain! At one point, we even found our- selves heading the wrong way on the mountain, volunteering to compete in the Army category of the annual Uphill Night Race.
The gruelling 4.42km course runs up to one of the highest points in the resort and was, for most of us, the first time on touring skis. Lieutenant Henson won the Army category, with Lieuten- ant Paterson fifth and Lieutenant Jibb ninth. Exercise WHITE KNIGHT culminated in The Royal Armoured Corps and Army Air Corps Ski Championships, which was a great opportunity to put our race training into practice and we enjoyed some strong results. This was then followed by the 1 (UK) Division Cham- pionships in Les Contamines. Lieutenant Henson, Lieutenant
Lieutenant Paterson at the Army Championships
Paterson, Lance Corporal Hitchcock and, Trooper Childs and Blackburn were selected to represent the Regiment. Here we re- ally came into our own, enjoying a very successful week of racing and punching well above our weight against experienced teams.
This was also our first opportunity to compete in the Downhill and ‘Super G’ speed events; the whole team relishing in the challenge and showing good courage to beat our bib numbers by many places. Overall, the team finished a brilliant sixth out of 34 teams, beating many more-highly-rated teams. With the Nordic Team also finishing strongly we won the Combined Nor- dic and Downhill RAC Champions’ Trophy. Trooper Childs was overall Junior Champion and finished second in the Novice cat- egory, showing a large amount of promise for the future. Lieu- tenant Paterson qualified for the Army Championships in Serre Chavalier, and at the time of writing is there representing the Regiment and as part of the RAC Team.
Overall, it has been a productive and enjoyable season for all in- volved. There were some very impressive novice performances which has certainly set the conditions for further success in the coming year.
CNGH
The Divisional Championship Team buzzing after thriving on the Downhill
Exercise WHITE KNIGHT - Trooper Blackburn, Trooper Alder, Trooper Childs, Sergeant Moore, Lieutenant Jibb, Lieutenant Henson, Lieutenant Paterson, Lance Corporal Hitchcock, Trooper Tape, Lance Corporal Hawkins