Page 145 - The Rifles Bugle Autumn 2019

After a while a message came through from the “missing” group, simply stating their location coordi- nates by a dropped pin. A team was put together, we were now on a rescue mission!
We went back through all of the harsh roads to the location they had stated. The roads got rougher! We couldn`t see them anywhere and it was starting to get dark. But then in the distance we saw a bunch of figures walking down this dirt path. IT WAS THEM!!
Everybody was ok, phew! It turned out that the planned route had safety critical misdemeanours on it, so an emergency method that had also been planned took precedent. This wasn’t an actual pathway though, but was the quickest and safest way to get down considering that time was against them.
All in all everybody had a fantastic time and learned new things, some even gaining some relevant quali- fications. It was a great team building event that we would definitely do again.
Author LCpl Danni Murrow
A perfect selfie of some of our hill walkers
THE RIFLES
Skiing in Bavaria, Germany and Austria
Each day started with a daily brief and early breakfast. We usually travelled about 30-40 minutes each day up the mountain roads to our destinations. The first couple of days we spent sorting out the various abilities of individuals, so they could be grouped accordingly.
By the third day, everyone had settled in to their normal skiing routines and were doing quite well. However; from then on it went downhill, no pun intended. Firstly, LCpl Purchon managed to fall off a two person chairlift (she was the only person on it) before it had even started to move! Once we finally got to the top of our intended slope, we heard over the radio that there had been our first casualty of the trip. WO2 O`Hanlon (of ATR Winchester) had been taken out by an out of control hit-and-run skier. This resulted in him being knocked unconscious and whisked off to hospital with a suspected dislocated shoulder, which was later then confirmed. This meant an early coffee and cake break for the whole party.
The Foundation Skiing Level 1 group (FS1) were then starting to attempt some off-piste skiing, but on their second descent, it looked like a “rogue sniper” decided to take out OC Delhi Company (of ATR Winchester), Cpl Barker, and Cpl Jacobs, with each one falling within seconds of the other. Meanwhile LCpl Nauth`Misir (of medical centre ATR (W)) and Musn Hellewell decided that they wanted to play in the deeper snow either side of the T-bar.
This actually meant them falling off the T-bar........again.........and again! But they eventually made their way up to the starting point.
After lunch while some members of the group were waiting to collect items from a locked minibus, Cpl Jacobs, LCpl Purchon and I joined a more advanced group (FS2`s) of skiers for a blue/red route. This resulted in me gracefully sliding on my unmentionables for about 50m after falling over, completely stacking it! We then joined the remainder of the group across the valley, to partake in some comfortable blue routes. Having successfully negotiated an extremely long descent, we finished the day on a high, with all of us successfully mounting the T-bar and completing the final run without any hiccups............or did we, WO1 Gatfield (Ex RIFLES Band BSM)?
Author Cpl Chris Barker
LCPL PURCHON MANAGED TO FALL OFF A TWO PERSON CHAIRLIFT (SHE WAS THE ONLY PERSON ON IT) BEFORE IT HAD EVEN STARTED TO MOVE!
A ski group selfie on the mountains
THE BAND AND BUGLES OF THE RIFLES 143