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Skiing, 'Phoenix Cockney Slide', France, Apr 2011, ID 1117

71st (City of London) Yeomanry Signal Regiment (Volunteers)

Phoenix Cockney Slide was a Distributed Training (DT) Level 3 overseas exercise for beginners to advanced skiers, taking place over the period 1st – 9th April 2011. It was based in Tignes, South France. The intent was to take seven inexperienced skiers (Officers and soldiers), and provide them with the instruction in order to gain the Basic Ski Proficiency qualification and, additionally introduce them to Ski Touring.

Day 1 & 2: The longest day

The exercise started at Bexleyheath TAC at 1600hrs. The kit was loaded and we got out the gate at 1700hrs, first stop Sainsbury’s for food and drink in preparation for our 14 hour journey. The journey went smoothly, arriving at about 0700hrs at Tignes Les Brevieresto to find we were homeless until 1600hrs. We therefore managed to get some personal admin in and catch up on some shopping. Still, the sun was blazing, our bindings needed fitting and the area exploring. Check in time and what a delight! Our chalet was lovely, cosy and compact but with everything we needed. We had our own heated ski store and a good sized kitchen table to gather round after our days on the slopes for our basic ski proficiency lessons.

Day 3: Ski legs and a tan

After reveille at 0700hrs, a hearty breakfast and packed lunches picked up, we drove half way to Tignes Le Lac before I mentioned the ski passes, whoops - U turn. Our group split into two – the novices were myself, LCpl (Jo) Giles, LCpl (Roz) Whiffen and Cpl (Mani) Ghandi and our instructor was SSgt (Jackie) Smith from 32 Signal Regiment (V) in Glasgow. The more experienced, Capt (Mark) Speeks, Sgt (Charlie) Woo, Sgt (Adam) Tear and SSgt (Paul) Thwaite were the other group. We all needed to first find our ski legs and ensure application of sun lotion - there were a few "wrinklies" around the resort that reinforced the need for factor 30. Under SSgt Smith’s excellent instruction, myself, LCpl Whiffen and Cpl Ghandi got stuck into a blue run, both LCpl Whiffen and Cpl Ghandi ended up with broken skis, and all three of us suffered broken egos! But come the end of the day, with SSgt Smith doing some first aid on the slopes after a young girl took a rather nasty crash, we felt we had given it some serious effort, accumulated sufficient bruises and were looking and feeling a lot better on the slopes. The other group got run into the ground by SSgt Thwaite who according to Sgt Woo was a "slave driver who ragged them all over Tignes up and down every gondola and run possible".

Day 4: Wind burn

What a change from yesterday, waking to low cloud and rain. We wondered if we would get a full day skiing but we headed up anyway, arriving to poor visibility, wind burn and some serious hail on the chair lifts. Cpl Ghandi provided us heaps of entertainment, with a 50% success rate at departing the chair lifts, taking out either myself or LCpl Whiffen in the process, he also became very familiar with the ski staff and the females in the ladies toilet – to be fair there were no signs on the doors! Capt Speeks, SSgt Smith, SSgt Thwaite, Sgt Tear and myself skied back to Brevieres. Little did I realise that this would involve moguls!!

Day 5: Accidental black run

Sun back, I joined the more experienced group which was great, as I came on leaps and bounds as we skied many blues in the morning and a few bits of reds - I actually felt like I was carving!  LCpl Whiffen and Cpl Ghandi also progressed nicely on the gentler slopes. We all met up for lunch, but then in the afternoon when trying to follow Piste H into Le Lac we managed to miss the turning and instead ended up on a red which then turned into a black! Sgt Woo and myself struggled a little but felt a great sense of achievement, I only stacked it once!

Day 6: Shut run and ski lifts

Today SSgt Smith joined us and SSgt Thwaite stayed with LCpl Whiffen and Cpl Ghandi. However the day didn’t start too well, we headed down a red to find that the run was actually shut and practically out of snow! What a nightmare, it took us half an hour to get down about 20 meters. I just couldn’t turn, kept loosing my skis and falling over. All good practice though and we spent the rest of the day exploring the Val D’isere side of the valley, including the Glacier De Pissailias at 3400m!

Day 7: Slalom and slush

The good weather continued which was lovely and we spotted marmots coming out of hibernation. However some runs were running out of snow and the final runs in to the resort were turning to slush by the afternoon. In the morning we all stayed in the same area where the snow was soft and fluffy, we then headed down the Borsat run as a "oner" having a bit of fun doing a human slalom and practicing some tight turns. We all found the slush was becoming more manageable by now so when we arrived in to Le Lac, I still felt I had more run left in me, so we headed up the Lanches lift to do the Double M red run, which was awesome, the only run straight into Le Lac that was still in good condition come 1600hrs. It was an excellent run to practice those parallel turns. Another great days skiing.

Day 8: The face and downhill racing

As it was our last day on the slopes, we decided to do the timed slalom run. SSgt Thwaite came in fastest at 36 seconds, with Cpl Ghandi winning the wooden spoon award with a time of 1 min 30 seconds. It was a great effort by all and everyone was pleased with our efforts! Next it was time to attempt the black Olympic run, AKA ‘The Face’! Sgt Woo and I took our time negotiating moguls, slush and a rather steep gradient, yet come the bottom we both decided that despite our big grins once was very definitely enough!

Day 9: The return

With the accommodation handed over in good order and all our equipment loaded, it was time to head for home. Sat Nav’s set and if the roads were clear, the journey would take us about 12 hours to get back. We arrived in good time to catch the early train and arrived back at Bexleyheath at 2100 hrs. The kit cleaned and packed away, it was time for farewells and family and a look forward to work Monday morning, great!

We very much appreciate your generous grant from the Ulysses Trust which contributed to the success of the exercise.

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