Page 15 - 2008 AMA Summer

Ipaused, planned my move, took a deep breath, and then swung out onto the
within the Parachute and Scottish Regiments. It was undertaken in memory of Alex Fairey, the Parachute
to LA, taking advantage of the free booze! Landing in NZ we were met by Ann, who had organised food and accom­ modation in Mt Cook Village. She also worked tirelessly, backstage, along with her Husband David (Col Ret), throughout the trip.
During our 36 hour stay here we covered remote emergen­ cy first aid under the tutelage of trainee doctor Lt Chris Abbot, crevasse and avalanche rescue techniques and rope work with Maj (ret) Phil Ashby, followed by equipm ent distribution and additional team building in the tim e-honoured m ilitary method of ‘getting on it’. The highlight was Mark from 1 Scots (V) trying to dance in time with the Brazilian gui­
tarist to the bewilderment of the locals and the joy of our team - he looked like a pup­ pet from Team America in a fight scene!
For the next 6 days we had an excellent training package, located at the Kelman hut; a venue with awesome views at the top of the Tasman Glacier. This was organised by Tony Johnston OIC of the trip and proved to be a well-judged preparation for what lay ahead. The team climbed several summits in and around the area, including Mt Almyer, the Hochstetter Dome and Mt Abel.
It was a typical initiation to New Zealand alpine climbing, characterised by unstable maritime weather, unconsoli-
huge east face. ‘F#@king hell,
Jules, this is outrageous!’ I Regiment Officer who sadly
thought to myself. Somewhere between my feet and more than a kilometre below were our tracks made 8 hours before in the moonlight. We were tired but our enthusi­ asm remained. We knew we had to move fast, there was still a big clim b ahead and time was tight. Another brief pause. “Get the feet right, is the axe in proper? Right let’s do it!” I headed on up towards the summit.
Expedition Pegasus Kiwi,
mission - to climb Mt Cook, in
the New Zealand Southern
Alps, and to teach and however, we did get to know encourage m ountaineering each other better on the flight
died ten years ago and who’s mother, Ann, created the Alex Fairey Memorial Fund (AFMF), which has greatly contributed to adventure training within the Parachute Regiment, Scottish Regiments and young people in the Test val­ ley area.
We did not manage to summit Mt Cook but the experience was rich with camaraderie as well as hard climbing and per­ sonal stretch.
Most of the team met for the first tim e at Heathrow,