Page 7 - 2006 AMA Summer

10 Alpine tips for 2006
1. Photocopy guide book pages of the route - it saves time trying to find the page when on route and it also saves weight.
2. If your decent passes close to the approach route, stach excess gear in a bright bag / marked with a ski pole. Some people have suggested that you can use a GPS to mark the stach but if the batteries run out be warned..
3. Check your gear before you head off, try to get information on the route so you do not take more kit/weight than required.
4. Use your pockets to position equipment on stops that you may need when you are moving e.g if you stop prior to dawn make sure you have sunglasses ready to put on without having to stop.
5. If the route looks too hard for the grade check around the corner and look for signs of upward progress.
6. If possible recce route start
point in daylight the day before, if this is not possible then borrow look photos friends or search online for photo of the route.
7. Make a decision on the balance of hydration verses weight to gain optimum speed. This very much depends on your own physiology.
8. Take useful a note of useful Alpine web pages on paper, so that you can save time when in the valley and trying to get information. Below are a couple of useful links:
Meteorological site - www.wetterzentrale.de/topkart en/fsfaxsem.html
Routes - www.alpinisme.camptocamp.com
Translation -
www. babelfish .altavista.com
9. Seek out the JASM Defence Instruction Notice (DIN) under Personnel section of the January DIN and hit the French Alps this summer.
10. If you wish to start Alpine climbing use the JSP 419 and book on to an AMP course.
EVERESTWESTRIDGEEXPEDITION ALPINE TRAINING
By Major Ian Comber
I awoke to a sodden sleeping bag - “Oh no not again”, I thought, “I only had a couple of beers last night!!!” However, the sound of torrential rain battering against the outside of the tent startled me out of my dream-like state. The rain had been continuous for three days and my tent had flooded. However, rather than this being the start of yet another high
. altitude survival story, this jfej^episode was actually mid-
way through the Everest West
training meet and was taking place in a previously benign campsite in the village of Lauterbrunnen in the Swiss Alps.
The valley was cut off with the only escape route being by helicopter at a cost of £100 per person. This precluded all but the highly paid doctors on the team from leaving the
campsite. The telephone lines were down, there was no electricity, no mobile phone coverage as the
mast had been washed away, and we were hearing reports of deaths and destruction across the whole of Switzerland.
There were also rumours that the water level had reached neck height in our valley after the river had broken the banks - however this was qualified as being measured against Dave Bunting, so the rest of us were okay at this stage. Yet again, the weather conspired to dash plans and aspirations of bagging
the huge range of peaks that surrounded us in the Bernese Oberland.
Training had started with our normal routine of revision of crevasse rescue, belays and ascending techniques at the nearby Sustenpass. The weather at this stage was poor; we witnessed a cycle race en route to the glacier with sodden, lycra-clad bikers
Onroute to the Eger
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 5