PRE-Christmas training over, many local units are now in Serre Chevalier for Exercise Spartan Hike, the UK Land Forces ski competition.

22 Engineer Regiment's Alpine Race Team completed the Corps Championships. The team performed well throughout and got a podium place of third in the Slalom event.

Individually, Sapper Peebles came eighth and Sapper Saw 18th, out of 96 racers this year, leaving high hopes for the New Year’s training and Divisional Championships. Unfortunately, Sapper Hewitt broke his third metatarsal two days before the end of the competition.

The 4 RIFLES Nordic Team spent five weeks in France with some excellent results under their belts. The final race was a 10 km Individual Biathlon sprint, which coincided with a visit from the Chairman of Infantry Winter Sports, Brigadier Roly Walker.

The Riflemen skied five laps of a course made harder by a fresh dump of snow that morning. The race included four shoots with penalties given for each missed target. Again they performed well, gaining from 7th to 25th place with Riflemen Marc Boulton achieving 9th place.

A presentation ceremony was held on the final evening. Despite missing out on the prizes the 4 RIFLES team was placed 4th out of 15 teams.