Page 27 - 2013 AMA Spring

Exercise
Alpine eMu
By Joseph Robertson
The sun glared off the snow outside the Breithorn’s upper ski lift and two Japanese tourists were enthusiastically tak- ing photos of our novice rope team. Roping in was proving a nightmare and after being told to ‘stop f*****g around’ by our considered and understanding instructor, I hauled over Jonny to sort my harness out. The sky was completely clear and the steady gradient of the Breithorn lay ahead of us. It was the accumulation of 10 months organising for myself and Joe, a number of months of preparing for our team, and now we were about to climb our first 4000m summit.
Ten months previously, I received a text from Joe, out of the blue, informing me that we would be organising the unit alpine moun- taineering trip and that I, with my extensive lack of alpine experi- ence, would be the 2IC. Like most intellectual masterpieces, the itinerary of the expedition was born inside the hallowed walls of Weatherspoons. We fervently spread our maps over the table and several pints later we began. The next step was the small matter of convincing the CO into supporting our cunning plan and then the panel of wise mountaineering gurus at Army HQ into authorizing it. I’d like to thank them now for being good sports and playing along. The team went on Summer and Winter Mountain Proficiency courses in Scotland and after several months of book cooking, instructor searching and a delightful visit to Bicester we were set.
We arrived in Saas Grund, Switzerland in September and once the 9x9 had been sniper-taped together, the trailer stocked with only CILOR approved items, we dossed down for the night ready for our Alpine Mountain Proficiency (AMP) training the next day. Eve- ryone was keen to don crampons and wield ice axes and soon we were doing short hikes over the glaciers and snow drifts. Crevasse
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