Page 29 - 2009 AMA Winter

KELVINSIDE CCF – PYRENEAN EXPEDITION
11th – 30th July 2009
I’m breathing heavily. My calves, thighs and shoulders are burning. The sweat is running into my eyes bringing a substan- tial amount of sun cream with it, just for that little extra sting. Up the hill I can make out the blurry image of Hugh, with Sam wavering in the distance. Behind I hear a call for a stop; turns out David have dropped off the trail again for another toilet stop. I stop and rest my bag against a con- veniently placed tree and catch my breath. That’s when it hits me. This isn’t another small hike up a Scottish Munro, this is a 14 day expedition across some of the most remote (and hot!) stretches of the Pyrenees, and it’s only day one! With a groan of relief I lower more of my pack’s weight onto the tree and wonder why I’m here? As I am contemplating this rather depressing question I look around, gazing to my left I look down the hill at our start point of Parzan, only 20 minutes behind, but which felt like a good 2 hours in this heat. I glance down the road which the bus had travelled down, tacking my sun hat with it, willing it to come back and rescue me. But then I look to the right over the edge of the cliff and I see a sight that takes my breath away. Rising up out of the other side of the gully is a sheer cliff face; dotted across it are trees and rivers providing the detail to this huge monument. Looking upon this view I begin to remember why I came, why I do these kinds of things for fun. Admittedly I could also have been the sweets offered to me at that moment by Michael, but I chose to believe that the magnificence of that view and with the promises of so much more to come, was what made me feel I could do this.
Travelling through the Pyrenean Mountains in our 11 strong group was one of those once in a life time moments for me. That promise on the first day of the beauties to come was wholly fulfilled throughout the
On route to Tavascan
entire trip, especially basking in the sun at campsites such as the one outside Refugio de Viadós, looking down over the valley at sunset up into the mountains to come, and, near the top of Pico de Aneto, rapped up in our Rab jackets, watching the clouds swirl over the huge glaciers all around us.
I’m not going to pretend it was easy, simply because it wasn’t. It was difficult because of the heat, which for 7 school kids fresh out of rainy Scotland was extreme. It was difficult because of the distance, which after the most strenuous trip being a Duke of Edinburgh expedition was a definite shock to the system. Basically this trip was something out of all of our comfort zones. A lot of you reading this will probably have been on more extreme expeditions into much more inhospitable terrain than the lush mountains of Spain with a Refugio
every 20 miles. However, for us school kids’ fresh out of a school year where the most we have to walk a day is a few miles, and the heaviest thing to carry is our school bags with chemistry books ready for 3rd period lessons, this was an achievement of monumental proportions.
Getting out the tent before dawn on day ten to discover the 2 youngest members of the group, David and Sam, already up and packing was definitely a surprise. I saw a lot changes in people on this trip. Being out on expedition, knowing you had no choice but to go on made people who normally sit back pick up their game. That, apart from the wonderful views, was what made this trip, and every trip like it, worthwhile.
Cadet RSM Stuart Dougal Kelvinside Academy CCF
In the Brec just short of Pico de Aneto (3404m)
Aimee Mackenzie leaving Estany Cap de Llauset
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 27