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By kind invitation of the Royal Artillery, 16 Canfordians set off for
Alpe d’Huez at the end of the Christmas term amid the best snow reports
for the time of year for fifteen years and much excitement and
anticipation of what was in store for them.
After a comfortable night
at the hands of the chalet staff in Les Eterlous, day one saw the group
skiing generally around Alpe d’Huez to get their 'ski-legs' back and
allow Colonel Jonathan Calder-Smith to assess the individual skills.
Following that and a dive over the edge of the piste down a sleep slope
by Becky Duckett, the group was split up and slotted in amongst the
Gunners, many of whom had recently swapped the hot hostile deserts of
Afghanistan for the snowy sunny slopes of France.
Training continued
for the next four days spending many hours racing through the poles
under the beady eyes of the Ecole du Ski Francais instructors leaving
aching legs and damaged dignities with ignominious falls – at least for
some of us that was. And then finally the race day arrived with the
slopes set up for the Royal Artillery preliminary race; a giant slalom
course of thirty plus gates down the Le Signale run. It was ski-Sunday,
well Saturday, all over again, except this time L-J, from the Artillery
was there with a bottle of cherry brandy on hand to sooth the nerves
and warm those skiing in thin lycra before sending us on our way - and
then it was with the words 'Quand vous voulez' that the starter sent
you flying down the slope, turning every two seconds.
Times were flashed
up on the boards and gradually the picture unfolded with an early lead
from Ed Johnson being taken first by Claudia Culley and then a few
others before finally Hugo Langlois emerged victorious after round one.
His lead of three seconds proved unassailable and he eventually beat
Tom Calder-Smith into second place after the only other threat
evaporated when Jamie-Calder-Smith crashed out for the second time. The
podium saw Hugo winning with Tom second and George Davidson third,
whilst Claudia Culley beat Becky Duckett and Lottie Murphy into second
and third places respectively. Each trio was duly pelted with snow
balls before we trooped off home for Christmas after a fantastic week
of thrilling skiing and competition.
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