Page 7 - 2007/08 AMA Winter

50th ANNIVERSARY
EXPEDITION -
AMA50
by Cath Davies
AMA Chairman and AMA50 Project Leader
group, team, altitude and of course, cost!) was the attempt to make a ski moun­ taineering ascent of Shisha Pangma, the only 8000m peak that lies wholly within Tibet. This three year project was led by W02 Geordie Taylor, who must have been particularly devastated by having to make the decision to call off the final summit attem pts due to the horren­ dously dangerous conditions; however, as he was one of the team who had to evacuate the tent at Camp 1 that col­ lapsed due to the heavy
The aim of AMA50 is to altitude trekking expedition to organising and leading this snowfall and extreme wind, celebrate 50 years of the Atlas Mountains. This expedition. Daz’s excellent he at least had the consola­ AMA achievements by gave six Junior Soldiers from article about this venture was tion of being at the pointy end showcasing the range AoFf C Harrogate their first taste published in the last Journal. when he did it! The Shisha
activities undertaken by AMA of operating in the high moun­ members, the geographical tains and although unseason- spread achieved by AMA ally early snowfall denied expeditions and our ability to them their summit, the young offer new challenges to our soldiers experienced all the
members, no matter at what stage of mountaineering experience they may be.
HighAltitudeTrekking thanks go to SSgt Daz Doyle, spent, it was felt better to
The project started well with the highly successful high
Capt Jen Robbins and Sgt leave it until July 08. Those of John Belsham for you climbing hard who desire to take the next step to big wall climbing, watch the web­
site for more details!
Exploratory Alpine Mountaineering
adventure that combating the
elements and dealing with the
novel, both environmentally
and culturally, provides. Our tion and value for money
Pangma article is also in this Journal, so read it if you want a flavour of what high altitude mountaineering on a big mountain feels like.
Ice Climbing
The ice climbing expedition to Canada, which will give ten AMA members the opportuni­ ty to ice climb in the Rockies and a team drawn from them to compete in an ice climbing com petition will take place in December. The ice climbing com petition form s part of the Canmore International Ice Climbing Festival.
Lessons learnt
All in all, 56 AMA members, was the exploratory from Junior Soldiers in the alpine m ountaineering first year of their service to expedition to North East Senior Non Commissioned Greenland, led by W01 Officers and Officers with f Sam Marshall. His article many years of mountaineer­ ing experience will have par­ ticipated in AMA50. The expeditions will have encom ­ passed all the activities our m em bers have enjoyed over the past 50 years, from rock maps surveyed in 1910 with climbing to high altitude m ountaineering and have taken them all over the world. We will have achieved a num­ ber of firsts: first expedition to clim b in Andreesland, NE Greenland, 29 first ascents, first time the Army has ranging from snow mounted a ski mountaineer­ ing expedition to an 8000m peak and the first time we have competed in an ice PD to D. Read all climbing competition. And all about it on page 26. this has been com pleted
Big Wall Climbing
Unfortunately, the big wall trip planned for July has had to be postponed due to change of leader and operational com­ mitments, but in order to ensure maximum participa­
The next great adventure
50m contour
on the expedition is in this Journal; suffice to say, eight AMA members boldly climbed where no man had clim bed before, braving logis­ tic difficulties, 1:250,000
intervals and no accuracy beyond what could be seen from the valley, and numerous
dodgy river crossings. They achieved 29 first ascents,
plods to face routes, loose rock to black ice and grades from
High Altitude Ski Muuntaineering
The biggest expedition of the project (in every way; training
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 5