Page 63 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Ex FROSTED BLADE
The 2013/14 ski season saw the
3 RIFLES’ ski team’s return to the Infantry Alpine Skiing competition, Ex FROSTED BLADE, in Val D’Isere France. After many years in abeyance due to operations commitments, the battalion team returned to the exercise to
reclaim the success
that they had enjoyed
in previous years.
The team consisted of eight men, four complete novices and four ski gurus
. Over the weeks
that followed, the novices made rapid progress under instruction by the French ski school ‘Evolution 2’. By the third week of the exercise the novices had gained the sufficient proficiency to attempt
gate training for the first time. The more experienced skiers, led by Ex FROSTED BLADE old faithful Capt Connor Maxwell, worked themselves back into the swing of things with a week of training on the slopes before starting their progressive gate training package. The gate training focused on practising through giant slalom gates, with a few days on
slalom and downhill runs prior to the championship week.
As the championship week loomed the ski squad coalesced into
the two teams: an A and a
B team. For the most part
the novices formed the B team,
apart from Rfn Ball who had performed sufficiently well in qualifying races to
be good enough to compete for the A team. Unfortunately, LCpl Smith who
had worked as a ski instructor before joining the Army was extremely unlucky when his knee found Capt Tom Brown’s head. The combination of helmet and the thickness of Capt Brown’s ox like skull meant that LCpl Smith’s knee came off the worse and he was unable to partake in the rest of the championships.
During the race week the teams performed well. Maj Matt Woodward was awarded ‘the best in the senior division’, winning a bronze medal in the downhill race overall. Rfn Ball was awarded third best novice for the exercise and won a
LCpl Smith was extremely unlucky when his knee found Capt Tom Brown’s head
bronze in the novice division of the super giant slalom race. Capt Maxwell was came eleventh in the overall competition for points won in all four race categories, out of a field of over 180. It
was a successful season for the team and next year the battalion will look
to build on these successes
and push for even more
silverware.
Lt Rob Baggott la Velle OC 3 Platoon
A 3 Rifles skier attacks the slalom on Ex FROSTED BLADE
THE RIFLES
THIRD BATTALION 61