Page 12 - 2006/07 AMA Winter
P. 12
Cirque of the Unclimbables. Canada.
Big wall climbing. The expedi tion will involve 4 climbers experienced in big wall tech niques and 4 climbers with no experience, but climbing at a good grade. Climbing devel opment and b'g wall tech nique training will be carried out to prepare for big wall ascents by the experienced climbers. The expedition area is the Cirque of the Unclimbables, near the border of the Yukon and Northwest Territories in northern Canada, with the Lotus Flower Tower as the climbing objective. This 22 pitch route takes 2 days and the expedi tion will take place between Jun and Aug 07. This expedi tion will be advertised on the website in due course.
Objective - Achieve an AMA first ascent on this adventur ous big wall route.
Leader - Capt Rob Lawrence Outline costs - £30K
Atlas Mountains. Morocco.
Altitude trekking in North Africa on 4000m peaks, culmi nating in an ascent of Jebel Toubkal, at 4167m the highest peak in the
Atlas
Mountains.
This expedi
tion is aimed at
novice develop
ment and will
involve 8 junior sol
diers from Harrogate plus lead
ers in Feb/Apr 07. In addition to the leader, another experienced instructor has been selected and a Harrogate staff member will act as point of contact at the college and partici pate in the expedition.
Objective - Introduce junior soldiers to AMA activities in the mountainous environ ment.
Leader - SSgt Daz Doyle. Outline costs - £10K
Lotus Flower Tower
A word on adventurous training
The Army supports adventurous training because of the exceptional opportunity it gives to prepare service personnel for operations. The AMA considers climbing and moun taineering in particular are ideal adventurous training vehi cles for this purpose, because they can involve decision making in high risk environments and operating under stress for extended periods. The range of expeditions selected for AMA50 encapsulate the breadth of adventur ous training opportunities the AMA can offer and will give
all the participants the opportunity to experience the pro found personal and professional development adventurous training can offer.
The AMA's fiftieth anniversary year follows the mounting of a large and demanding expedition to Everest West Ridge (EWR) in 2006. The EWR project received much support and publicity from the Army, not least because it involved a slice through the organisation in terms of length of service, experi ence and rank. AMA50 seeks to replicate this slice, indeed to improve on it by creating a wider-bottomed pyramid, and to capture the imagination by the sheer variety of the activities and environments involved in the different expeditions.
Geordie Taylor leading the way during the ski mountaineering training for
the Shisha Pangma build up.
10 ARMY
