Prior to its deployment on Operation Tosca (United Nations tour of Cyprus), members of 104 Regt RA (V) travelled to Mittersill, Austria, to embark upon Exercise White Dragon, an adventure exercise combining both alpine skiing and ski touring.
After skilfully managing to fit all our luggage and ski equipment into a combi van, we departed to Dover by minibus. We arrived at Dover with about 4 hours to spare, and negotiated, in our finest pigeon French: "Un earlier ferry, silverplate".
Our first day skiing was met with glorious weather, we were split into groups according to ability or experience. The quivering wrecks also known as ‘beginners’ were taken trembling to the nursery slopes. After half an hour of head scratching and confusion, they concluded that there actually is no left or right ski. Following this arduous aptitude test, an introduction was giving in the principles of ski touring and an explanation of the equipment used. This was followed by an easy tour for the students to find their ski legs. The evening comprised of lectures on avalanche risks and avoidance of cold injuries, a practical demonstration was also given on waxing skis.
By day two, we had found our feet and were coping quite comfortably with red slopes, where it was also discovered that Gnr Lowes could gracefully perform the splits.
Over the next couple of days, conditions became more testing with heavy snowfall, blizzard conditions. However, this served only to improve our confidence and co-ordination, especially with judging turns in poor visibility and flat light, which meant contours were practically invisible.
Day three began with a ski touring expedition, which Gnr Byrne had not so enthusiastically described as ‘stinking of effort’, but by the end of the day, she was a convert and hopes to go to Norway for the 5 day Tour Leader Trainer course.
After sticking the skins to our skis, we took it in turns to trail blaze a course, through almost waist-deep snow, up the mountain to a pre-designated area, where we found a ‘body’ buried in an avalanche using peps transceivers. We were also taught how to gauge the depth and stability of freshly fallen snow in potential avalanche areas, how to probe for avalanche victims, and how to build snow holes to increase your chances of survival in an emergency situation, and how to use and emergency shelter.
Towards the end of the week the advanced group had progressed sufficiently to tackle the notorious Hahnenkamm run, renowned as one of the toughest slopes on the world cup circuit, where speeds of up to 90mph can be reached, along with a jump of 80 meters. This was the highlight of the week for the advanced skiers, who travelled about 35k in total that day.
The expedition was exceptional, despite a minor glitch in the form of mild D and V – less the V… which made for a few emotional runs down the mountain. Everyone, bar none, gained something from the trip, whether it be a qualification, a new found love for the sport or muscles in places they didn’t know existed.
The aim of the expedition was to develop leadership, courage, team spirit, fitness and the qualities necessary to enhance the performance of the students, especially those that are due to be mobilised and encourage retention and recruitment. These aims were achieved in spades despite the extremely bad weather at times, which brought out the qualities of discipline and the determination to succeed, these are the types of qualities which increased all the members operational effectiveness overall.