1063 – ‘Alpine Slide’ – S Germany

Following the 24 hour journey by mini bus the 4 Yorks team arrived in Sonthofen in the Allgäu region of Germany, ready to attempt the Basic Ski Proficiency Alpine qualification. What was left of the arrival day consisted of signing out the necessary equipment and settling into the accommodation.

The exercise was planned and conducted by Captain Yates from D Company 4 Yorks, with Major Atkinson the Battalion 2IC providing the instruction. The aim was to provide Junior NCOs and potential future NCOs with a challenging experience and to train the basic ski skills, so they could eventually progress to more complex expeditions and perhaps become instructors and to lead future exercises themselves.

Day one started with a 20 minute briefing outlining relevant safety procedures and how the equipment worked before the team hit the slopes. The first lesson consisted mainly of the team making fools of themselves on a gentle gradient that led into the car park, as the local population watched on. We were introduced to basic sliding and starting and stopping. This all went OK until turning was introduced into the equation and this made things interesting. After a couple of hours, our instructor deemed us ready to move onto bigger things. This in the main resulted in bigger crashes but, in all, the day was a success.

On the second day there was no messing around on the small slopes – we had moved to a new area and with it a new challenge. We spent the day developing the skills we had learnt on day one and a few new ones to get us out of trouble if we encountered slopes beyond our new-found skiing ability. One of these was how to traverse steep slopes to get to more gradual gradients that we were able to ski down. The visibility wasn’t ideal and resulted in some interesting route choices but this didn’t stop the whole team from taking advantage of what were excellent snow conditions. By the end of the day everyone was able to complete linked turns on various gradients.

Day three and everyone was feeling confident of their new-found skiing ability. Some people turned out to be a little bit over confident – in particular Captain Yates whose interesting use of a concrete wall to help him abruptly stop was impressive. By now everyone had progressed from the pedestrian pace of the previous two days to a speed that was fairly respectable. This even resulted in us actually overtaking some other skiers. We spent most of the day skiing at an altitude of nearly 1,700m and above cloud level, with some amazing views. By now the team was able to handle most things that Major Atkinson would throw at us, although there were still a number of crashes that kept us entertained. The group was starting to move away form the use of plough turns and progressing to parallel turns which are a much faster and more efficient method of turning. The evening was spent down at the local swimming baths and a self administered pool based PT session. This was a chance to stretch our tired muscles and relax after three days of skiing.

With our new found turn of speed we spent much of day four going from the top of the mountain to bottom as quickly as possible. People falling over was now becoming rare, but the increased speed and gradient of the slopes made any fall all the funnier. We even had some time after lunch to practice a vital skill we could use to impress our fellow skiers, mainly skiing backwards. Now bearing in mind that we had only been skiing in a forwards direction for four days you might think that this might be a bit of challenge. As a matter of fact it turned out that some people in the group can ski backwards better than they can forwards. After half an hour or so it was time to go and show the other skiers our skills back on the main slopes. We spent the remainder of the day practicing skiing on uneven ground and trying to refine our parallel turns ready for our test the following day.

Assessment day had arrived and after several days of learning the basic ski techniques it was time to put these new skills to the test. We were split into two groups and put through our paces. After 3 hours of testing, Major Atkinson told us we had all passed. Now the pressure was off, we spent the remained of the day skiing in the Oberjoch area. This was different to the areas we had previously used. We were able to traverse the slope for long distances before having to grab a ski lift back to the top of the mountain. It was on one of these descents where Private Clarke had what seemed like a ‘nothing crash’ at no more than 5mph. Normally we would have laughed this off but his scream and moist eyes told us it was more serious. After a trip to the hospital and a couple of x-rays it was found that nothing was broken. This was a bit of a reality check for the rest of the team and highlighted the fact that although we had passed our test earlier that morning we still had a lot to learn and should ski within our capabilities.

For the final day we headed to the Fellhorn. This was a much more popular resort and we had the added challenge of dodging fellow skiers. This also took us the the highest altitude we had skied at all week, over 1,900m. We also left Germany and entered Austria for some of the day. These longer runs allowed for more variety and we found ourselves negotiating narrow runs through woods and traversing ridge lines. During the course of the day the temperature remained high and snow particularly on the lower slopes became soft and slushy,  giving an extra element to contend with on the way down at the end of the day.

In all, the week’s training had been a success. We had all passed the basic qualification and identified the key areas where we need to improve ready for the next level of progression.

I would like to offer my thanks on behalf of those soldiers from 4 YORKS who participated in the exercise for the kind donation towards the exercise costs.  All those who attended greatly enjoyed the experience and were able to gain a basic qualification which hopefully they will be able to improve on in future years.  Without the generosity of organisations such as yours some of these soldiers would not be able participate in training of this nature, it is very much appreciated.

LCpl G Williams, D Coy, 4 YORKS.