Page 12 - Wish Stream Year of 2017

Exercise GOLEM CADET
OCdt Griffin
After finishing Sovereign’s Parade on the previous day, marking the end of another gruelling term at the Academy, the expe- dition members met at London Gatwick at 1730hrs, ready to depart for AT in Catalonia. The flight went smoothly, and we arrived at our accommodation by 2330hrs. The accommoda- tion was basic, but had self-catering facilities to allow us to take full advantage of our CILOR. After a quick meal in one of the local restaurants we settled down for the night in preparation for the next day’s training.
On the first day we headed
to the Els Gegants crag in
the Coll de Nargó area.
Here we decided to ease
in by training, as many
had never climbed before.
The first two climbs we
did were Bifida I Pecora
and Espero Adamello,
which were graded FV. This is the easiest grade in the French system, and helped the novice climbers in the group to develop in confidence and ability. After a picnic lunch, we ramped up the difficulty, tackling Fissura (F6a), which the majority of us found testing, but achievable.
Day two saw us return to the same crag, but attempt more difficult grades. Having estab- lished an F6a benchmark average across the group we attempted No t’Hoperds (F6a+) and Lo desterrat (F6a), which most of the group suc- ceeded in climbing. A few members began to struggle with their fear of heights; however, by developing the physical courage to overcome this they made the training more beneficial.
The next day we tried somewhere new – the Paret del Grau crag. Having built our confidence on the previous days we decided to try Expedient Obert (6b+), which was a good deal more challenging than what we had done before. The instructor found this route offered great training value, and we spent the day developing new techniques and learning new ways to tackle problems.
Tuesday saw us heading to Coll pique, where we tackled a number of climbs.
...which the majority of us found testing, but achievable
10 SANDHURST