Page 26 - 2011 AMA Summer

THE INN PIN
Philip Maddox, HBF
Upon arriving at 2 Signal Regiment in York, the RSM, WO1 Al Combe a friendly face from way back in the heady 216 Parachute Signal Squadron days of Aldershot (early 90’s something, too many fuzzy days to pin point the exact date/s!), welcomed me into the Regiment and suggested we run an Adventure Training trip up to Torridon & the Isle of Skye.
Great news; I had just left JSMTC Unspellable and unlike the desk pushing of the last two years (not strictly true!); I was already penciled in to go away and do some AT.
My gym 2IC, Cpl Paterson had just passed his APTC Selection in Jan 2010 and as a way of giving him some valuable SNCO experience was tasked to organise, set up and conduct the trip to Scotland. Oh, and he was a Jock too so it was a bit of time back in his own land - Scotlandshire!
Days past, weeks past, and eventually months past, Cpl Paterson was slowly but surely ticking off the pages of the JSATFA and phoning the relevant land owners and accommo- dation personnel at Cameron Barracks in Inverness to get the whole expedition off the ground. With only a few days remain- ing all that was left to do was collect the stores from Bicester, do the Recce (carried out the weekend before the exped) and then wait for the soldiers to arrive.
Wed 28 Apr we set off on the 8hrs drive north to Inverness and Cameron Barracks as a stop over in order to carry out a recce of the potential training areas; my god that is a long drive! I had done two postings up to Fort George but had still man- aged to forget just how far away Inverness really is. I will not forget again!
Thursday 29 April we drove over to the Torridon Mountains and scaled Beign Alligin and walked the famous 3 Horns before descending back to Inverness. With no snow worth mentioning we then decided to carry on up the neighboring peak of Beign Eighh. There was always going to be the poten- tial that due to the mass of snow that fell this winter in Scotland that these particular peaks would still be too cov- ered with snow ice, but we found it reasonably easy going. With both peaks recce’d we drove back to Inverness and then on to the Isle of Skye to recce the infamous ‘Inn Pin’
We took another at Balmacara House, situated just a few miles away from the small village of Kyle of Lochalsh and the Bridge over to Skye. This is an amazing lodge run by Defence Training Estates and they are really welcoming. You really need to phone Georgina first before speaking to the central booking agency, as Georgina will give you the very most up to date availabilities for your bookings. I did this as we were driv- ing to Scotland and managed to book our party in for Thu
24 ARMY MOUNTAINEER