Being in the military reserves offers many opportunities for travel and adventure; skiing is one of them. Imagine being transported to Germany for two weeks of skiing, all inclusive quality lodgings and the company of a ski instructor all day everyday. On top of this, also imagine getting paid for all of this and only having to pay for beers in the evening. Such a holiday would cost a small fortune on civvy street and I came away from this a fairly good skier. How could I not be when I skied every day for nearly 2 weeks from 9AM till 4PM with a one hour lunch break?

At the end of two weeks a couple in our group became overconfident. On one occasion, I sped down a slope and was surprised to see someone flash past me. He had hit a snow bank and cartwheeled past. I stopped to prevent myself hitting him as he came to settle but then immediately someone else hit the same snow bank and came to the same fate. Very amusing. It could have been serious though as the second chap narrowly missed me but hit and bent my sticks.

Oberjoch is a location that has few foreign tourists so the area has a very German feel about it and none of the tackiness you can sometimes see in the international ski resorts. The invasion of young British squaddies gave it a reassuring familiarity though so lets just say that some good apres-ski occurred. In one bar there was a local lass who evidently made it a hobby to go through British Army. She had a different squaddie on a a number of nights and on at at least one occasion was the meat in woman sandwich.

With the two week troop turnover, by the end of ski season the crabs must have been jumping off.