Page 8 - Army Mountaineer Winter 2022

AMAHQ
60-SECOND INTERVIEW
BRIGADIER ADAM CORKERY
NEWLY APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF THE ARMY MOUNTAINEERING ASSOCIATION
How long have you been an AMA member and what motivated you to join?
Since 1997 when I was at Sandhurst. I was a fanatical climber at the time and it was a great opportunity to get involved with a like-minded group of individuals.
What is your preferred mountain discipline and why?
If I had to choose one, it would be ski-mountaineering. It is such an all-round test of mountaineering skills, and often in the most spectacular of locations. I love the blend of skiing, climbing, really deliberate risk management and technical ropework – all in a challenging mountain environment.
What has been your greatest achievement since joining the AMA?
I was exceptionally fortunate to have been part of the AMA expedition to Baffin Island in 2019. The trip had that rare combination of a great bunch of people, incredible place and culture, superb ski-mountain- eering and a real exploratory and wild feel to it. I’d go back tomorrow!
What has been your most unusual mountain experience?
As a young officer, making the most of an Easter leave to go alpine climbing in Switzerland. We didn’t realise that snow doesn’t really go hard in the Spring and so spent a week sinking to our knees in boots and crampons wondering why all the locals were on skis!
What more could the AMA do for its membership or to improve its appeal? I’m not sure. I’m forever impressed by the energy and dedication of all of the volunteers, both on the committee and from the wider membership to lay events on. It’s an area that I’m absolutely keen to explore though throughout my period as President.
8 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
LT COL PETE DAVIS NEWLY APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE ARMY
MOUNTAINEERING ASSOCIATION
How long have you been an AMA member and what motivated you to join?
20 years but I was a member of the RN& RM Mountaineering Club beforehand, from 1986. I joined in order to meet like-minded colleagues who shared a love of climbing.
What is your preferred mountain discipline and why?
Ski-mountaineering. I share the view of Sir Arnold Lunn (founder of the Alpine Ski Club in 1908) that ski-mountaineering is mountaineering in its purest form. I love the combination of climbing and skiing skills, moving rapidly through the mountains and the connection with the winter landscape. Understanding the weather and how it interacts with the snowpack, and then being able to navigate through complex terrain, is both challenging and rewarding and this adds another dimension to the simple hedonism of skiing in untracked snow, or climbing to a summit.
What has been your greatest achievement since joining the AMA?
In terms of service mountaineering, my ascent with colleagues from 45 Commando of the Cassin Ridge on Denali in 1990 remains the single ascent of which I am most proud. However, my greatest achievement since joining the AMA would have to be that of being one of the small group of clinicians that conspired to deliver the concept and initial operating capability of MERT (Medical Emergency Response Team) in Afghanistan during HERRICK 4 in 2006. We developed the capability to administer critical care in the rear of a helicopter flying at 160 knots in hostile terrain. This was a milestone in military medicine, and it contributed greatly to the overall success of the trauma system in that theatre of operations.
What has been your most unusual mountain experience?
During a sortie into the Khumbu ice fall on Everest in 1992, a colleague and I came across an abandoned tent and belongings from a previous expedition’s Camp 1 that were lying among the debris from a serac collapse and which were slowly making their way down to Base Camp as the icefall advanced. Amongst these abandoned belongings was an artificial right lower limb! This macabre artefact made its way back to the UK at the end of that trip, and it lay at the back of my parents’ garage for many years. I’d forgotten all about it until one day while driving into work at my hospital in Glasgow – probably around 2006 or 2007 – I found myself listening to Jenni Murray on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour interviewing its owner! Tom Whittaker had climbed Everest at his third attempt, thus succeeding in becoming the first amputee to do so. His tale of his first attempt in 1989, and subsequent retreat from the mountain, unequivocally identified him as the owner.
What more could the AMA do for its membership or to improve its appeal?
I believe that the AMA is already successful and will continue to appeal to its membership because it is willing to evolve to meet its members’ needs and it welcomes new disciplines. The best example of this is sport climbing; thirty years ago, the traditionalists within the British Mountaineering Council treated the concept of sport climbing with cynicism – even derision. Of course, this attitude has changed and sport climbing is an Olympic sport now, but the AMA has really embraced sport climbing and it has wide and diverse appeal within the AMA membership. The AMA is a big fish on the British sport climbing scene. Similarly with ski mountaineering: the AMA has supported ambitious ski expeditions to areas other than the Polar regions, and has supported SkiMo competitions such as the Patrouille des Glaciers patrol race. The AMA exists for its membership.