Page 15 - 2016 AMA Spring

Exercise PATAGONIAN CADET
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Officer Cadet Bowen
It is now six weeks weeks since 11 participants of Exercise PATAGONIAN CADET returned from the varying climes of the Patagonian region of Chile. Nine Officer Cadets from Sandhurst, accompanied by two mountain leaders – Sergeant Davies (RAPTC) and 2Lt Joe Robertson (RE), navigated the ‘O’ trail of Parque Nacional Torres del Paine over six days.
The expedition was organised by OCdt David Landells, a keen mountaineer, who jumped at the chance to organise an expedition to an area he has long wanted to tackle. The aim was for eight of the nine officer cadets to achieve their Summer Mountain Foundation (SMF). Helpfully, the Patagonian summer goes from December to February.
The group departed Sandhurst in two waves, with the first leaving immediately after the end of term Sovereign’s Parade. No sooner had No. 1 dress been left in our rooms than we were relaxing in Heathrow departures, all looking forward to getting some sleep on the flight to Madrid, from where we would be heading directly to Santiago.
There was one notable perk of being in the first group, this being a day of acclimatisation in Santiago. This was followed by a nights rest prior to the journey to Puerto Natales (via Punta Arenas), where we were scheduled to meet the rest of the group and catch a three-hour bus to the park. Group B had a more restricted journey, whereby they went straight through from Santiago to the southern town of Punta Arenas, where they spent one night, before getting the bus up to Puerto Natales.
The internal flights were surprisingly good, covering the 2000km journey from Santiago to Punta Arenas in no time and with some decent Christmas films on board too.
As a region, Patagonia presents some interesting challenges, from experiencing all four seasons in one day, to the extremely diverse environment. It really is a mountaineer’s paradise. If you’ve seen the Top Gear Patagonia Special (the one with the angry Argentin- ians), then you’ll get a good idea of the variety in terms of terrain and conditions.
Once we’d all arrived in Puerto Natales, we accustomed ourselves to temperatures near enough identical to those of the UK in December. It made a change from the 30-degree heat in Santiago. The benefits of being closer to the equator!
Getting into the Christmas spirit!
The view from the start
That day we conducted arguably the hardest navigation of the entire trek – the local supermarket – where we purchased our rations and some last minute niceties (in my case, coffee) before we grabbed the bus to the national park.
The trek began later that day, where we first stepped foot on to the ‘O’ trail mid-afternoon. Fortunately, it was a shorter day, which allowed us to get used to kit and equipment and set off at a decent pace. Overall, we aimed to complete the trek in 6 days, rather than 11-12 as stated in some guidebooks. The entire route would span roughly 120km with the greatest height gain and loss coming during the middle of the expedition, when we started to traverse the ground around the North-North West of the park.
As we reached the campsite, we were treated to something resembling a half-decent arrangement. Showers, toilet, small hole- in-the-wall shop and tap water. They wouldn’t all be like this, but then again, there were also the refugios to look forward to.
It became clear early on that we wouldn’t need excuses to take photos. It’s a stunning environment to be in, and it is clear why the Chilean government is so adamant as to the protection of this natural environment.
The group moved well and we covered the ground quickly. We managed to live quite comfortably too, with some decent food and coffee fuelling us on our journey. A staple dinner consisted of: noodles, chorizo, soup sachet (as a sauce) and a handful of fruit cake, which most of us used as some kind of pillow/protective padding at the bottom of our rucksacks.
One of the many footbridges crossed above Lago Grey
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 13
AMA Spring 2016 text.indd 13
01/07/2016
15:41