Page 27 - 2018 AMA Winter

Skimountaineeringracing,alsoknown centrepiece to a large military training (JSMTC) from Oberstdorf, Germany.
exercise spanning a six week period in March / April. As a neutral nation, not eligible to participate in NATO or other joint exercises, the Swiss use this opportunity to exercise many elements of their armed forces, including logistics, communications,artillery,alpineinfantry, support helicopters, medical treatment facilities and evacuation chains, as well as testing their civil-military coordination (CIMIC, J9) elements. This is done in order to prove their interoperability so that they are prepared for use in the case of a crisis.
The PdG route starts in Zermatt and traverses the Haute Route via Arolla to end in Verbier, covering a distance of 53km and including 4000m of ascent and descent. Over the two iterations of the race over
‘Over the two iterations of the race over 5000 competitors participate’
5000 competitors participate and the race includes an elite section that forms part of the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) championship races. Teams of three racers ski together over the entire course with glaciated sections requiring the teams to ski both uphill and downhill roped together, in order to guard against the risk of falling in to a crevasse.
This year’s PdG race included three British Army team entries: the Army Medical Services, the Royal Engineers and the Joint Service Mountain Training Centre
as Skimo or ski-alpinisme, has its
origins in the early 20th century in military patrol racing. This winter sport combines the disciplines of cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and mountaineering. Military Patrol races were used as a training opportunitytocombattestalpinetroopsto ensure they were ready to patrol, defend and fight in the high mountains. Modern skimo racing uses specialised lightweight alpine touring equipment. The skis have an adjustable binding where in uphill mode the heel is free to lift and the boots are fixed by a toe pivot that allows uphill skiing with the addition of a fabric skin to the bottom of the skis, that provides traction in the snow. For downhill skiing the skins are removed, the heel of the boots snaps into the rear binding mechanism and the boots are locked in ski position. A skimo race course typically consists of stages requiring the skier to climb on skis uphill, and then to ski downhill, but there are also short sections where the skis are mounted to the backpack and competitors must climb up and over short steep sections on foot to cross ridges in the course with the assistance of fixed ropes, in a mountain- eering fashion.
The Patrouille des Glaciers (PdG) ski mountaineering race was first held in 1943 by the Swiss Armed Forces, designed to test the operation capability of their alpine troops, using a section of the legendary Alpine Haute Route from Zermatt to Verbier. The purpose of the race was to mimic the delivery of a message along the Swiss-Italian Border in as short a time as possible. The 3rd Edition of the race in 1949 resulted in tragedy when a team of three Swiss soldiers fell into a crevasse while crossing a glacier and all died. This led to the race being discontinued for the next 35 years, until it was reborn in 1984 and has continued biennially since.
The Swiss Armed Forces continue to organise the PdG. The race is the
We participated in the International Military Patrols category alongside teams from other countries including France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Finland, Belgium, Russia and Slovakia.
The AMS team started training in December 2017 and over four trips to the Alps managed to accumulate an average of 25,000m of vertical ascent each, rep- resenting approximately 3 weeks training on snow. A short training camp was conducted alongside the AMS Ski Cham- pionships in February, and we participated in a number of races, including the Verbier night race in December (1000m vertical over 4km), La Grande Trace in France in February (2300m vertical over 21km) and Le Defi des Faverges in Switzerland in March (2800m vertical over 31km). The AMS racers came together in Switzerland five days before the PdG race for some final training, altitude acclimatisation and preparation before the start of the race on the 20th April 2018. The final team selection consisted of Lt Col Pete Davis (16 Medical Regiment) and Majors Tom Blankenstein and Thomas Woolley (Army Medical Services Support Unit), with Major Andrew Crockett (144 Parachute Medical Squadron) as team reserve.
The race started at 2230 in Zermatt and racers headed off initially running on foot through the crowd lined streets before putting their skis on at the edge of the village and embarking on the long 2000m ascent to the top of the Tete Blanche, initially in the shadow of the Matterhorn, before crossing on to the Stöckli Glacier and ascending through the night roped together. The roped was removed at the Col de Bertol at the end of the glaciated segment, just before a long and challenging 1400m descent under headtorches through moguls and ice to the mid point of the race in the town of Arolla just before 4am.
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