Page 5 - AMA Summer 2023

PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD
WBrig Adam Corkery
elcome to the Summer edition
of Army Mountaineer. I
actually started penning this introduction from the Vignettes Hut in Switzerland, 3100m up on day 5 of Ex Tiger Haute 23, an Army HQ ski-moun- taineering expedition to ski the Haute Route (there are, after all, only so many games of Monopoly or Uno one can play when stuck in a hut for an afternoon). More on that trip later in this issue.
Being in the mountains again with a group of like-minded Army people reminds me of the value of the activity that we, as AMA members, love. Whether it’s sports climbing, trad rock, mountaineering, waterfall ice or walking in the hills, there
is something cleansing and life-affirming about it – delivering an effect on us long beyond the end of the trip itself.
Talking of trips, this edition, as ever, has a feast of mountaineering tales. Highlights include Adriana Brownlee’s guest article on her conquest to be the youngest person to complete all fourteen 8000m peaks; we have a duo of Signal Regiments reporting on expeditions to Yosemite and Peru, and the SJFHQ doing likewise from Antarctica. Chris P reports on summiting Mera Peak in April and closer to home, we have a couple of meet reports – both heartening to read. As the evenings become lighter and the days warmer, we look forward to a summer of events across all of our disciplines. If you
don’t yet have something planned, have a look on the website and get involved – and of course if you don’t see what you’re looking for, tell us. The club exists for you.
My thanks once again to the AMA committee for the hard hours they put in for the benefit of the association, and of course particularly to Mark for pulling together another great issue of our favourite magazine!
For me, the next injection is a week’s Via Ferrata in the Dolomites with another group from Army HQ. Whatever your next adventure, enjoy it, and have a great summer.
EDITOR’S FOREWORD
IMark Gregory
find myself writing this editorial from the beer garden of the Lamb Hotel in Penderyn, a quaint village on the
outskirts of the National Park formerly known as the Brecon Beacons. How I got to this point is best left to my employer’s lease company but let’s just say it involved a new company car and a pesky roadside rock. You know the ones! It’s those that protrude from embankments to attack unsuspecting divers who are simply too courteous to others.
I don’t recall any other time this year where we have been fortunate enough
to have such a prolonged spell of dry weather. Naturally, I headed to the Bannau Brycheiniog to make the most of ‘flying solo’ this early June weekend for a round of the Ystradfellte Reservoir, starting and finishing at the wonderful riverside location of Blaen Llia. The weather was so good in fact, that I forewent my usual black and grey Montane trousers in favour of shorts whilst wilfully avoiding the tourist trap that is Pen-y-Fan. You could clearly see the glistening effect of the overflowing car parks in the valley below.
As striking as this experience was, I have also been taken aback by the gracious service that many of our members have paid to the journal over the past year. I took a risk moving to three editions a year, but the response in terms of con- tributions, especially from new authors has been equally striking. You will see in this edition so many new names, and I thank both the regular and new writers for their unceasing efforts. This is why our journal is such a success.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 5