Page 26 - 2019 AMA Winter

EXPEDITIONNEWS
EX NORTHERN LION 3
HQNW/4 LANCS – AUG 2019
By Lee Magowan
As with any expedition, the question is...what needs to be achieved? Well this expedition was to push novices and those who have some experience of Klettersteig to a whole new level...stretch (elastic) but not break!
HQNW and 4 LANCS jointly delivered an expedition to Bavaria in southern Germany. Those in
attendance were from a number of cap badges, there were reserves, FTRS, Regular, soldiers and officers, a right mix!
DAY1AND2:
We set off from Fulwood Barracks in Preston and drove to Dover where we sailed to Calais. This sounds like a simple task and really boring but the usual administrative hurdles will always be there, European driving matrix, left hand drive familiarisation, radios, bonnet briefs, European shell cards, sat nav’s and driving hours had to be mashed together quickly to ensure a smooth journey. And of course as this was a flash expedition and we were out of the Bicester loan pool timelines (Ridiculous 60 days) to get kit, so a local purchase enabled the expedition to be suitably prepared and much more comfortable than issued kit from Bicester.
Now we were on the continent and moving close to an adventure, it’s a fairly long drive from the French coast to Bavaria, particu- larly Oberstdorf. Many stops, espressos and croissants, change driver and pedal to the metal into Germany! (Felt like the race to Bagdad to be honest).
The expedition leader chose to stay in the Oberstdorf hostel just outside of the main town, it was a great choice and a quiet isolated location, its perfect to prevent people from wondering off easily, highly recommended.
The first thing was to get into the accommodation, kit issue and then kit demonstrations, fitting and technical discussion... Cpl Stafford had his tightest PTI top on for the demonstration; it was hit with some of the older local German men.
The expedition leader Lt Col Johnny Lighten, 2IC CSgt Paul Cockram and guest instructors Capt Lee Magowan and Cpl Shane Stafford got together to discuss the plan for the trip with alternative plans for poor weather; this is necessary and absolutely required to be reviewed on the
hoof. The plans didn’t change except a few tweaks here and there to give a bit of variation to the itinerary mostly reactional due to unwanted weather systems.
DAY 3:
It was hot and steep... yes it’s the Kletter- steige Tegelberg that remained constant the whole day, for some it felt like it was never going to end. Regrettably the group experienced the sight and sounds of a climber fall past them; the fall was seen by our lead group and the impact and settlement of the body, including the whole search and rescue procedure
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