Page 16 - 2010 AMA Autumn

“IT’S S##T, BOSS, I’M GETTING OUT”
We were also introduced to the concept of crevasses – cracks in the glacier that may be several meters wide into which the unsuspecting mountaineer can, and fre- quently does, fall into. With this somewhat unappealing thought fixed in our minds we were taught the methods of firstly avoiding this situation and secondly how to minimize the danger by roping up in teams and ways of rescuing each other and ourselves should anything happen. With newly learned knots, ice tools and techniques racing round our heads, we returned to the campsite to prepare for our 4 days out in the mountains and to relax with a well earned pint.
Day 2 saw us leaving early for the Bordierhütte, our overnight rest stop. We set off into a beautiful blue sky day with a river running along side us, making progress up the valley to the Reidgletscher, a vast glacier wall which we climbed alongside before eventually crossing. Here we got our first view of crevasses – but not our last and cer- tainly not the closest! On arrival at the Bordierhütte we sorted out our kit for the morning, had a hearty meal of pasta and sauce and settled down for the night in the ‘massenlaage’ – imagine 10 people in one long bed and you’ve just about got it.
On our third day we had the skills we had learned on day 1 really put to the test. In teams of three each of us took turns to literally be thrown down a crevasse. Some slid in almost gracefully, the largest of our team however decided to add a
bit of realism and threw himself in with an enthusiastic shout, requiring some rapid and aggressive use of ice-axes and crampons to prevent him disappearing too far! Once the fall had been
Nick Fisher
“It’s sh*t, boss, I’m getting out.” These words lingered with me as I packed to head off to JSAM – the Joint Services
Alpine Meet. They were uttered by my final patient of the day – a young soldier who had signed off and for whom I was performing a release medical – when I had asked him his reasons for leaving. Sadly, he had never been involved in adventurous training or Army sport. As I got my kit together and prepared to trav- el down to Switzerland, I
wondered if he had done, whether his opinion would have differed.
JSAM is an annual event, and is a unique opportunity for service
personnel of all ranks and abilities from complete novices to high-level experts to gain knowledge and experience within the beautiful setting of the European Alps. This was my first attendance as part of the build up training for Exercise IMJA TSE- a Defense Medical Services expedition to Nepal in October this year. As with all adventurous training, the aim is to intro- duce a new skill set to a serviceman or woman, to allow them to build on that skill set and then to pass what they have learned on to the soldiers they work with- it should be enjoyable, but is frequently ardu- ous, sometimes dangerous and should put the individual in situations where they are out of their comfort zones. For me, this meant starting at the bottom of the pile from an alpine mountaineering perspective and doing the Alpine Mountain Proficiency course as part of JSAM 2009.
There are several aspects of alpine moun- taineering that differ significantly from the climbing which can be done in the UK. The peaks are higher- many above 4000m and as such have snow and ice on them all year round. Many have glaciers, and gaining knowl- edge and experi- ence of walking and climbing on glaciers was a fundamental part of what we gained from the AMP. Day 1 saw us fixing crampons to our boots, many for the first time, and learning the
‘John Wayne’ walk to ensure they didn’t catch on loose trouser legs.
14 ARMY MOUNTAINEER