Page 63 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Exercise MAYRHOFEN CADET
An early start and a quick flight saw Exercise MAYRHOFEN CADET land in Munich and the start of our exped. The scope of the exped was to conduct five days of hillwalking in and around the town of Mayrhofen in Austria. During the first couple of days we experienced somewhat suboptimal weather conditions with the cloud down to 600m, making the higher peaks somewhat an unpleasant option.
This low-level clag would not stand in our way and the first day saw us doing a quick circular walk up to Gamshutte at 1927m. After a quick coffee and strudel break, we began a rapid descent to the valley floor. The next day dawned somewhat similar to our first; low-level cloud and damp conditions all round. We gathered ourselves and began an adventure around the Brandberg Valley – this very much became a navigation exercise that would have made the directing staff at Sand- hurst proud, seeing the group using the full range of skills developed in the previous terms to navi- gate through a featureless Austrian spruce forest.
The latter half of the week saw the weather start to break our way and the cloud lifted. The deci- sion was made to start bagging some peaks, and our eyes were caught by the nearby Ahornspitz as a first challenge. In the end, Ahornspitz was not meant to be. The ice proved to be a chal-
OCdt Wilkinson
lenge too much; after a regroup we decided to tackle Toreggork and its knife-edge ridge. Here was a true alpine moment with the knife ridge, providing some serious stretch for members of the group, and in the end a sense of accom- plishment for all. The later parts of the week saw a successful summit of Rastkogel and Hippol- dspitze, followed by a polar plunge. The group’s reactions to this icy water certainly made the hills alive with the sound of music. A fitting end to the trip. The group left certainly better navigators, and, through the mentorship of Lt Col Cheales RE, with a better understanding and apprecia- tion of Army AT.
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