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THE ROYAL ARMY PHYSICAL TRAINING CORPS NORDIC SKI TRAINING CAMP

22 DECEMBER 2012

SSgt (SSI) EC Hargreaves RAPTC

The trip to Sjusjoen Norway was the irst of its kind for the

RAPTC. The aspirations of Capt Best were to create a
team to compete in the Army Biathlon Championships in
future years. The purpose of the trip was to gain interest and
knowledge on the subject within the Corps. Sgt Kate Lord was the

exercise coordinator and did an excellent job of organising a very
successful training camp.

The exercise consisted irstly of learning about the ski equipment

and understanding the difference between skating and classic
skiing techniques. Secondly, we learnt how to use the biathlon
riles and how the competition works with the transition from the
range to the ski course.

On the irst day in Sjusjoen the irst task was to get from the bus
The RAPTC Nordic Trg Camp team
onto the Skiloyper, and put the skis on with the aim of getting
up the hill to some latter terrain. The majority of the team had
very little previous experience of Nordic skiing. Typical PT Corps

grit managed to get us round rather than any technique, but that
soon changed as everyone picked up the moves fairly quickly,
enabling us to go for a couple of hours skiing with minimal pile-ins
or teddies being thrown!

WO2 Patton was in charge of our intensive training programme
with very little rest. Each day an early start was required to ski
down to the range and set up for the day ahead. On top of the

physical training, the team also had to endure temperatures as
low as minus sixteen, whilst only wearing spandex. Having gained
in conidence from our irst days training, we decided to watch a
local Biathlon race that was taking place in the area. It was then
that the realisation dawned on the team that we would need to do

some serious training if we were to have any realistic chance of Typical training session weather
competing at a decent level.

The pace of training increased, now everyone had a reasonable

technique so we undertook some classical hill interval training with
gruelling uphill sections and fast down hill sections. By the end,

The author
honing his skills