Page 79 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

Following an eventful term, we were looking forward to breathing the mountain air and testing ourselves in the Alps. We set off early
in the morning to begin the six-day long expedi- tion in the beautiful Stubai region. We boarded our flight and immediately fell asleep dreaming of the combat estimate. Landing in Innsbruck and making the most of our car’s exciting lane assist feature, we set off for Oetz. That evening we met our instructor, Aljaz Anderle, who humbly recounted his career as one of the world’s lead- ing ice climbers and all-round mountain man. We were a little taken aback and very quickly realised we were in for an exciting
OCdt Lupton
Our next tour took us far from Kuhtai ski area. Aljaz had been up most of the night planning our route, something we are all keen to do as we progress in the future. Aljaz talked us through the many considerations and we drew compari- sons to our training here at Sandhurst. The route looked daunting on the map, but we were drawn in by the relatively flat and idyllic valley we found ourselves in initially.
We began in the lower valley with more training, this time focusing on avalanche awareness and transceiver searches. We all had prior experience
and very interesting week.
The first day was a baptism of
fire. Aljaz chose what must have
been the most challenging cou-
loir (death chute) in the Alps for us to practice our jump turns, and we were off. OCdt Lupton, the group’s most advanced skier, very visibly achieved the Adventurous Training objective of occupying one’s stretch zone and Aljaz beamed (it should be noted OCdts Hart and Hill also beamed).
The next day we set about training in some of the techniques required for steep touring includ- ing various kick turns. Aljaz made everything look very easy and we all yearned to be like him. Alas. Following an hour or so of initial training, we donned our skins and pushed up to the edge of the snow line. After a few hours of climbing, we reached the top and, although it was a minor tour, we felt a sense of achievement and were once again struck by the beauty of the moun- tains as we enjoyed our baguette lunch over- looking the neighbouring peaks.
The snow cover was disappointing with no fresh powder; however, we were excited to push off and ski down. We watched Aljaz set off down the very steep incline with ease and we quickly followed on. The windy conditions had formed a top layer of crust which made our turns less elegant than we had hoped; however, it allowed us to test our skiing and work on our technique. Our first tour was a success and we couldn’t wait for more.
of this but found Aljaz’s perspective extremely valuable if a little terrifying. Following our initial discussion, Aljaz set about burying the transceiver and individually we set off frantically with our probes and shovels in hand. The
gravity of this training was not lost on us and we all found it insightful, not least due to the physical effort it takes.
As we conducted this training, the face of the mountain loomed over us and a nervous energy fell over the OCdts. Aljaz was in his element. We set off, and after five hours of significant effort and a few wobbly kick turns we reached the snow line. We found it to be a significant achieve- ment and were relieved to refuel with salami and cheese just under the peak.
We ripped off our skins and launched ourselves down the mountain with Aljaz storming ahead. We found a secluded area on the mountain that
Exercise ALPINUM CADET
The first day was a baptism of fire.
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