Page 34 - 2018 AMA Winter

EXPEDITIONNEWS
EX DRAGON’S TROLL 18
LYNGEN ALPS, NORWAY
By Martin South
Exercise DRAGON’S TROLL 18 was a Level 3 Adventurous Training Expedition over the period of 9-19 Apr 18 for personnel serving at 14 Sig Regt
The exercise took place in the superb
introduce and train soldiers in ski-touring, providing valuable log book experience for junior soldiers for further Joint-Service AT qualifications.
Although those already holding Ski Foundation and Ski Leader qualifica- tions can be strong skiers, their moun- taineering experience can be limited. Therefore, time on-mountain is particularly valuable in development of skills such as quick and efficient personal administra- tion, navigation, mountain awareness, weather patterns, and how they affect the snowpack etc which were all repeatedly highlighted during the training in order to reinforce the mountaineering aspect of skiing.

small orange people with green hair that help Willy Wonka make chocolate.
I’m in the very lucky position to be able Lyngen Alps area of arctic Norway. to have on call those all-round top blokes The aim of the exercise was to and highly respected AMA ski-mountain-
eers, Geordie Taylor (yep, fellow AMA-ers, the Geordie Taylor) and Richie Simpson. The fact that the exped personnel were being taught by those two individuals with their level of mountaineering pedigree was just superb, and very much appreciated by everyone. Modest and undemanding as always, in exchange for both their mountaineering services, Richie simply demanded fresh edelweiss flown in from the Süd Tirol to adorn his breakfast table every morning (which to be fair did dent my Non-Public quite a bit), and Geordie just needed to be supplied with Norwegian lompe. To those not familiar with lompe, it’s a Norwegian potato scone which Geordie is a connoisseur of, as opposed to an Oompa-Lompe, who are
Lompe
Oompa-lompes. Not the same thing.
34 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
A Lyngen day at the beach. The descent from Russelvfjellet (794m)