An adrenaline rush and facing fear: How the Army snowboard team prepare for success
The best of the UK Armed Force snow sports athletes gather once a year to compete for ultimate glory.
The snowboarders fighting it out across three events.
There's Boardercross, a pacey competition with four racers, Slopestyle, which is all about creativity and expression, and the Parallel Giant Slalom, which focuses on tight turns and bends
This is how it's done, but what does it take to get to the podium?
In order to find out, the British Army Snowboard team let us in for an insight.
Board prep took place in the basement of a chalet - and that was where the team's coach could be found late into the night, making sure the snowboards were perfect for the upcoming events.
No stranger to the hard graft involved, coach Major Simon Nicholson raced for the Army for several years and is now a full-time reservist.
He said it can take anywhere up to an hour and a half to get a single board competition-ready, and of course there are many different types of boards.
Some may question how transferrable the skills are between snow sports and soldiering.
Conquer the fear
Maj Nicholson's response was that it pushes people and gets them to experience fear.
Lance Bombardier Jordan Buckley is one of 16 racers in the team. She's been a reservist for four years, having recently mobilised for six months on UK operations.
She pointed out how she can compete whilst being a reservist, and more women are now coming through to snow sports.
Captain Katherine Robbie usually works at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, and this was her first Inter Services competition.
She explained how she had received great support from the Army, which made it affordable, and then there was the adrenaline rush of actually competing.
All that prep work paid off, with the men taking the team Gold in the Giant Parallel Slalom.
The British Army Snowboard team were also crowned overall Inter Services team champions in the men's.
So it was a successful Inter Services competition for the British Army team.
However, funding and operational deployments will decide how many of them will get the chance to compete next year.
Either way, the development they've made here, both personal and technical, will stay with them throughout their military careers.
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