Page 38 - 2017 AMA Winter

Ex Dragon Toubkal 2017
“High Altitude Journal”
By Ellie Hayes
To look at us, you would not have thought that by the end of our adventure, twelve out of the thirteen of us would have made a successful summit of the highest peak in North Africa. Led by Captain “Dutch” Holland and Sergeant Simon Hall, the gaggle that would eventually call itself a team consisted of personalities from multiple sub units from 6 Regiment Army Air Corps. 678,675 and 679 Squadrons were all represented on Exercise Dragon Toubkal, which was the first of its kind for 6 Regiment Army Air Corps, with the par- ticipants unwittingly exposing themselves to a real life remote challenge that would exceed all of their expectations.
Our adventures started in the UK, we climbed the Glyders in Snowdonia as pre training, over two training weekends before Captain Holland and Sergeant Hall approved us to come on this High Altitude Remote Trekking 10 day Expedition. After a rope rescue, a phone casualty and a large infestation of mosquitoes in Wales, the seal of approval for us all had been stamped. We were issued final instructions to report to John Howard Barracks in Milton Keynes on Sunday 2 July. Excited and apprehen-
sive we arrived in good time, and after more mountain lessons from Sergeant Hall on all the various subjects required for the Summer Mountain Foundation (SMF) quali- fication, some pizza and sleep were next. Before we knew it, in the early morning we had managed to clear Luton airport security without causing too many major international incidents and had boarded the easy jet three-hour flight to Marrakech.
Once landed in Marrakech, we were greeted by our local support team from Tour Dust – who, by the way, provided the most delicious biscuits on the planet! We chivvied onto the (air-conditioned!) mini-bus
for the wearied commute to Imlil for our first night on Moroccan Berber soil. After being dropped at the bottom of the village of Imlil with all of our bags, we originally tried to persuade the locals that we could carry our own kit to the Gite. We were promptly laughed at. Let’s just say that not even halfway up the unexpected 50m almost- vertical walk we very quickly realised how important our personal mini-herd of mules would end up being!
On our first walking day, we hiked from the comfort of the Imlil Gite at 1,740m to our first campsite in Tiziane, via Aguersioual and Matate. This was our first introduction
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