Page 18 - 2022 AMA Summer

EXPEDITIONNEWS
EXERCISE DRAGON’S TROLL
14 SIGNAL REGIMENT IN THE 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 Signal Regiment. The exercise took place in the superb Lyngen Alps area of arctic Norway. The aim of the exercise was to introduce and train soldiers in ski-touring, providing valuable log-book experience for junior soldiers for further Joint-Service AT qual- ifications.
Although those already holding Ski Foundation and Ski Leader qualifications can be strong skiers, their mountaineer- ing experience can be limited. Therefore, time on-mountain is particularly valuable in the 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.
I’m in the very lucky position to be able to have the support of those highly-re- spected AMA ski-mountaineers, Geordie Taylor and Richie Simpson. The fact that the expedition personnel were being taught by those two individuals with their level of mountaineering pedigree was very much appreciated by everyone. Modest and undemanding as always, in exchange for both their mountaineering services, Richie Simpson 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 funds quite a bit), and Geordie Taylor 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 small orange people with green hair that help Willy Wonka make chocolate.
For the Ski Foundation Level 3 (SF3) group, the first on-mountain day was an easy
touring day to get the expedition famil- iarised with the alpine touring equipment and introduce new skills. Rønestinden is recommended as an introductory peak to the Lyngen Alps, so it was a good choice for the first day. Richie Simpson took the SF3s on some introduction to skinning and transceiver work, with everyone getting used to their avalanche safety equipment. Geordie’s group headed-off to the summit. Now dear AMA readers, at this point I’ll need to take you on what I’ll call ‘a journey’. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll call this individual ‘Dave’ (which is a bit a coincidence really, because his name is Dave, Dave Gomez actually). So folks, stick some more Joe in the Aeropress®, rip open your favourite Clif Bar and settle back for this real emotional rollercoaster. We first took ‘Dave’ to Lyngen two years ago but unfortunately, he was the unwitting victim of that glaring training objective omission in the JSAT Ski Scheme (HQ JSMTC folk, please take note) – “Fashion Sense”. Two years ago, Dave’s look could
18 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER