How much do you think it would cost for similar training to be done in civi street then Mike? How much do these ' seminars' that top brass and managers cost per day and what do they get out of them?
The costs would have included everything from getting the aircraft and troops there, the daily pay rates for the troops, cost per man hour for flying the cabs themselves, the cost per man-hour for keeing the cabs serviceable, fuel. Any time they spent skiing is classed as adventurous training - or would you have preferred them to mount a second deployment back out to Switzerland, with all its attendant costs for that?
Now lets see what they would have actually got out of this "jolly" Other than the aircrews getting experience in flying in high and cold conditions, there is the management and leadership experience gained by actually putting together the deployment - especially if given to one of the JOs who had not done that sort of thing before; the benefits the entire deploymet gained from operating in a testing unfamiliar environment ... because we never go on deplyoed ops these days do we - god forbid we might want to practice for an upcoming deployment; and if nothing else, an increase in morale - you know - one of the fundametal components in any fighting organisation, the lack of which can scupper the best equipped and trained unit and render it totally useless.
Show me how much that lot would have cost if Bristows had decided to do it and I bet you we got better value for money in terms of costs and the benefits gained than any civi firm would have done. I still stand by my argument that it was money well spent.