On the 15 February 2014 a group of 48 cadets and adult volunteers from Derbyshire ACF had the opportunity to travel to Austria to experience an exciting adventure training programme.

The event, known as Exercise Dragon Venturer Ski Cadet 2014, is an annual winter event in which Derbyshire ACF carry out a range of team building activities, such as building a snow shelter and skiing in varying conditions, as well as learning more about practical snow survival and receiving an introduction to using equipment to help locate people buried under avalanches. This included the use of transceivers and snow probes.

Colonel Chris Young, Commandant of Derbyshire ACF, led the expedition and said: “On arrival in Austria, we dropped off our bags and left for St Jakob to visit to the ski hire centre to be fully kitted out with boots, skis, poles and helmets and concluded with an early night before the skiing programme started".

The first day was spent at St Jakob alpine skiing with 6 groups varying from absolute beginner to advanced. The next three days were based at Steinplatte near Waidring, an excellent training area which caters for all levels of skier and provided the facilities to carry out the snow and mountain survival phase of the exercise. The final phase was conducted at Fieberbrunn, again an excellent area providing challenges to all on the exercise.

All of the cadets completed various levels of the snow-life sports award scheme, which is great news. The senior cadets in the group achieved level 8 out of 9 possible levels.

The feedback has been great from the group who were delighted to have pushed themselves out of the comfort zone to learn new skills and achieve personal goals. Overall the trip was a great success.

Thank you to the Ulysses Trust for supporting this exercise, without which the expedition may not have happened.