Page 64 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Nepalese Army High Altitude Mountain Warfare Course
I was fortunate to be able to be offered
a place on the Nepalese Army’s High Altitude Mountain Warfare Course from August to September 2013. The course involved six weeks at the Nepalese Army’s Mountain Warfare School in Jomsom on the Anapurna trail.
The school is reached by Nepalese military aircraft from Kathmandu to the world’s highest airfield. Four British students from the Army and RAF Regiment formed up with a course of twenty from Nepal’s regional and strategic allies, including Pakistan, India, South Korea and the US.
The first three weeks were spent rock climbing on the school’s on site cliff face and building fitness on daily marches in the hills around the local villages. For the fourth week we moved up to a mountain base camp and made
The Nepalese Army 2013 High Altitude Mountain Warfare Course
daily expeditions to
a glacier where we
learnt the Nepalese
techniques of ice
climbing, including
the highly quaint ice
drill. This latter activity
can be most likened in a British soldiers’ experience to recruit drill, calling out the time, but with crampons and ice axes to climb the ice walls.
The course finished with two expeditions, the first to accelerate our acclimatisation at high altitude to Tilicho
a four day expedition. We climbed led by Nepalese junior NCOs who were
very comfortable in the Himalayan environment, but the challenges of
altitude caused a number of the foreign students to have to withdraw from the expedition. The final ascent began soon after midnight and very quickly required the team member to don our crampons as we cleared the first steep ice face. Dawn found us just below the summit, roped
an enlightening experience working with the Nepalese Army
Lake, claimed by our instructors to be the highest lake in the world, followed by the final ascent of Thorong Peak. This mountain stands just over 20 000ft (6144m) and our ascent was planned for
up in our teams of four as a precaution against any team member falling into crevasses in the ice. The final assault on the summit tested all the climbers as the thin air made caused everyone to gasp for breath with at every small effort.
Reaching the summit alongside colleagues from around the world
who we had worked with and grown close to over the past two months
was an awesome experience, with the crystal clear Himalayan airs showing
us the whole region laid out before us.
A fantastic achievement for me as a Platoon Commander, and an enlightening experience working with the Nepalese Army.
Capt Will Bailey OC 7 Platoon
Capt Will Bailey at the summit of Thorang Peak, 6144m above sea level
62 THIRD BATTALION
THE RIFLES