Skiing
with both groups to enjoy the wide open runs and fresh powder. After a few warm up runs, both groups split again. I then took my group for some more off piste techniques which they all started to pick up well, apart from Tpr Yarrow who seemed to like burying himself in the powder. After realising how much effort it took to keep picking himself up, Yarrow started to get the hang of skiing in powder; lumps, bumps and all. By the end of the morning my group were skiing really well, so I decided to take them down an itinerary which is a marked off piste run. The itinerary was not the easiest run to ski being fairly steep and lots of bumps starting to form into mouguls. It took some coaxing to get the lads to ski down but once they found their legs they all skied really well. After meeting up with the other group and my group boasting they had just skied an itinerary, Lt Carefoot decided he would come and ski with the group and see what all the fuss was about. I took the group back to the top of the itinerary we had
Après-Skiing
just skied before lunch and all started to ski down. After a few turns, we stopped to check everyone was ok, I looked up the mountain and saw Lt Carefoot was still at the top and not moving and was frozen to the spot. I tried to coax him down but he was embarrassed that a group of beginner skiers were watching him and he insisted we left him to make his own way down slowly. My group nicknamed the run Crowfoot Mountain after Lt Carefoot. The next day was spent skiing back over in St Anton, consolidating all the skiing techniques learnt over the last few days and finishing off in the legendary Taps bar for some well earned Après-ski action. The last day’s skiing was spent back over in Lech, where both groups spent most of the day skiing together showing off all the techniques they had acquired during the week and a few runs in the ski park doing some small jumps. Later on that day everyone was given the choice of doing their own
CoH Eade, LCsoH Perry and Hulatt have another hard day in the office!
thing as long as they stayed in a small group. Some made the most of the last few hours skiing and some decided to make the most of the Après-ski in the sun, lead by LCoH Dimbylow. No one was looking forward to the long drive back the following day, realising that it had all come to an end and we were all due to be on a dismounted exercise in a few days. A great week was had by all and for some it was their first experience of winter sports and being in an alpine environment.
Exercise IRON SPIRIT C Squadron CT0 Training in Dartmoor 4-8th Feb 2013 by Lance Corporal of Horse Thomas
T
he very mention of exercise on Dartmoor is enough to make the weakest men trundle off to the medical centre for a sick chit, however throwing it in to the mix in February was nothing short of a man test. Having only bad memories of a previous exercise there in 2004 with C Squadron, my advice to the junior call signs in the Squadron was “Pack socks, socks and some more socks”. The idea behind the week’s training was low level navigational skills and personnel administration; no training area available to UK troops could test both of these more fiercely. However, the news that it was to be a low key affair without weapons and being non tactical was music to everyone’s ears, as the only thing we would really have to contend with now would be the weather and terrain. The Squadron heads off into the heart of Dartmoor
We deployed from Windsor on a cold
Household Cavalry Regiment ■ 43