Page 48 - Army Mountaineer Winter 2022

SKIMOUNTAINEERING
THE PATROUILLE DES GLACIERS
Miles Hill, Technical Rescue and Industrial Instructor, Outreach Rescue
Setting the scene amongst the snowy tops of Snowdonia, Miles Hill takes you through his epic
journey to compete in the Patrouille des Glaciers, from his unexpected selection to gratefully crossing the Swiss national ‘L’Alpini Ski’ finish line
The astute amongst you may have read, and may even remember, Pete Davis’s article (La Pierra Menta) in the last winter edition, extoling the virtues of ski moun- taineering or ‘Skimo’. (To summarise; it’s a race, small team, lightweight everything, skin uphill as fast as you can, try not to faff transitioning, go full banzai downhill, repeat some ups and downs until the finish line.) I read it too and concluded that this is an activity which has taken all the least enjoyable aspects of skiing and made them into one, holistically hateful sport. Properly peak Euro, attracting needlessly athletic, swamp your race suit to save 30 seconds, might stretch to a demi of light lager if they won types. Usually found in the shady backstreets of Chamonix with an expresso and a headband. That said, I had a slight wave of nostalgia about friends getting out in the mountains and enjoying the back country, no matter now perverse the method.
Without dropping the C bomb, clearly the 2020/2021 ski seasons were sig- nificantly curtailed for the majority of us, with no trips to the Alps. Granted, I fared better than most, by virtue of the
fact I live in North Wales, and we had the best snow winter since I’ve lived here. If you squinted hard enough, the southern bowls of Moel Cynghorion and Elidir Fach could almost have doubled as the Meribel home run into the Folie Douce. There was pretty much 2 weeks’ worth of skiing to be had. Of note, a dawny ascent and ski descent of Parsley Fern Gully and a door to door of the ‘Snowdon Skyline’ incorporating Elidir Fawr, Y Garn, Glyder Fawr, Yr Wyddfa, Moel Cynghorion and Moel Elio (a 35km day on skis in Wales was pretty cool). Word reached a Royal Marine Reserve friend and me that a mutual friend had boarded Central Trinity. Que another dawny to try and potentially do the first ski descent. From the entry bowl looking into the gully, we quickly concluded that said board descensionist must have chosen snowboarding as there was no way he could get his legs close enough together to ski, with the requisite cahunas. Further, he must have had several servings of Weetabix and possibly be abusing aerosols. If anyone was in any doubt as to the validity of his descent, he
Col de Reidmattan boot pack
went back the next day, did it twice, then did Trinity Right Hand. Such is Llanberis.
I stumbled across the DIN for the ‘patrouille des glaciers’ (whatever that is) on the AMA website, henceforth to be known as the PDG. It sounded like skiing and foreign, two of my favourite things. When I actually read the DIN it transpired that the PDG is a big ‘ol skimo race. In a moment of weakness, that I can only ascribe to the fact that the ‘big C’ had prevented me taking part in infantry alpine racing event ‘Frosted Blade’ and therefore, removing my only legitimate outlet for wearing tight Lycra in public that year, I pinged off an application (a month after the bid by date). Assuming it would be wildly oversub- scribed and the organisers having better things to do than reply to some muppet who can’t read deadlines, I wasn’t overly surprised not to get a reply.
On a Thursday evening in February, I had an email asking if I could make it to the PDG training camp. This was a surprise for two reasons. Firstly, being a busy
Alpini Ski start line
48 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER