Page 11 - 2007/08 AMA Winter
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ODYSSEY 2007
TERRITORIAL ARMY ON EVEREST
The world’s highest ing up the reins of a Territorial mountain still conjures Army (TA) Command there up a sense of mystery was no shortage of volunteers and intrigue - few childhoodtos participate in this particular
tional modus operandi. After much liaison with the civilian mountaineering fraternity, two points emerged. Firstly, the advantages of a small cohe sive team with a light logistic footprint were compelling. Secondly, a ‘high altitude dress rehearsal’ would dis proportionately increase our chances of success. Cho Oyu, the ‘turquoise goddess’ which at 8201m is the world’s sixth highest mountain seemed an appropriate
objective. Our lightweight approach paid dividends and on the 9 October 2006 all expedition members, which included Lieutenant Andy Wilkinson RMR and the fol lowing TA ranks: Sgt Gordon Clark, LCpI James Lancashire and Pte Dom Porter, and myself, reached the summit of Cho Oyu (8201m). This expe dition was not without further excitement with the Chinese Army over running Base Camp and engaging Tibetan refugees with small arms fire, the rescue of an Italian Climber at 7300m and rub bing shoulders with Maoists at an Illegal Vehicle Checkpoint on our return to Nepal. We lived to climb another day and the expedi tion proved that a small team was a viable option for ‘mere mortals’ with every member being given the opportunity to summit with disproportionate merits regarding team motiva tion, cohesion and morale.
Armed with the lessons iden tified from Cho Oyu, we start ed the process of raising mili
pass without some exposure to Everest (8848m) and the mystery of Mallory and Irving - last seen ‘going strong for the top.’ Fewer people will be aware of the totality of the British obsession with clim b ing Everest over 4 decades until Lord Hunt’s successful expedition in 1953 that sum- mited via the South Col on the Nepalese side, with the news breaking in time to mark the Queen’s coronation. Whilst the emergence of commercial expeditions with professional guides has put the summit of Everest within reach of the wealthy enthusiast this has not eroded the sense of chal lenge and historical intrigue. My own failure to trouble the scorers regarding selection for the last three military Everest expeditions (92, 2003 and 2006), coupled with the periodic fly past of time’s winged chariot, suggested self help was the only remain ing course of action. On tak-
CORGI (Commanding Officer's Really Good Idea) and mid life crisis was tem porarily put on hold.
Historically, the military have not achieved a high degree of success in climbing the w o r l d ’s f o u r t e e n 8 0 0 0 m peaks and there appeared merit in reviewing the tradi
By Simon Hall RM
On the summit 0800 22 May 07 with the Philip Green Memorial Trust flag.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 9
