Ian Richardson
13 Aug 2024
RAFMA returns to the Alps
Ian, how do you fancy leading a Royal Air Force Mountaineering Association Alpine trip this summer?
Of course, my answer was ‘yes’, even though I only had a few months to find other instructors, team members, gain approval and financial support. A lot had changed since I had left full-time Royal Air Force Service in 2017 and rejoined as a Reservist – organising an overseas, multi-unit expedition was a bigger challenge than I remembered. Nevertheless, with great support from the Royal Air Force’s Robson Resilience Centre and my lead instructor, Wing Commander Jonathan ‘Percy’ Percival, we made it to the Swiss Alps.
Expedition Aims: The Alps are a challenging mountaineering environment, requiring good mountaineering skills, physical fitness, resilience and teamwork. It takes a long time to gain the necessary skills and experience to be an Alpine Mountaineering Leader or Instructor and the Royal Air Force Mountaineering Association’s cadre of experience had diminished significantly over recent years. As the expedition leader, I decided that our focus should be the delivery of the Joint Services Alpine Mountaineering Foundation course.
Percy and I selected the four students that we considered would benefit most from those that applied. Our four students needed to have the minimum experience or qualifications to be able to undertake the course, as well as benefit from the aims of Adventurous Training – developing resilience, teamwork, management of risk and leadership. There can be few other activities that have the same impact as mountaineering in supporting the development of military personnel to undertake their roles in demanding and hostile situations. ALPINE VENTURE certainly took the team outside of the ‘comfort zones’!
From the earliest stages of the expedition, I stressed my priorities, which were:
Have a safe trip.
Enjoy ourselves.
Deliver Alpine Mountaineering Foundation.
MOUNTAINEERING: We arrived in the Swiss village of Saas Grund on 16th June 2024, for our ten days of Alpine Mountaineering. There was significantly more snow than usual for the time of year and our planning had to carefully consider the challenging conditions. These challenges became all too obvious on our first day, when we took the cable car to a glacier at 3000 metres for a day of ‘Ecole d Glace’ – instruction on ice axe, crampons and crevasse rescue techniques. The snow was deep and soft and breaking trail in the sun and soft snow was particularly hard work.
Moiry – 18-19 June: The next morning saw us walking up to the Cabane de Moiry, situated just West of Zermatt at 2,800 metres. A night in an Alpine hut is quite an adventure if it is your first time. The altitude makes everything seem hard work and the conditions are quite basic, with everyone sleeping in a line in a small room, no hot water or showers and sometimes only bottled or boiled water to drink. However, this hut had been renovated several years ago with huge windows looking out over the glacier and, like most huts, good and plentiful food at dinner. A good choice for a first hut for our students.
The next day we left the hut to traverse the Pigne de la Lé, a relatively easy Alpine peak at 3392 metres. The route took us up to a col on snow from the hut and then up a snowy ridge interspersed with rock steps, along a final snow ridge to the summit before descending snow and a glacier to the hut and our walk out to the car. The deep and at times soft snow added significantly to the physical challenges, but it was still an ideal introduction to Alpine Mountaineering.
Wiwanni – 21-23 June: With the challenging snow conditions, we opted to stay a bit lower and chose the wonderfully named Wiwannihutte as our next venue. This hut was smaller and more basic than the Cabane de Moiry, but as the only guests on our first night, we were very well looked after. The next day, we climbed the Wiwannihorn via its Southwestern flank and descended its Western ridge. Most of the routes were on really good rock with a small technical aspect to them, which allowed us to demonstrate techniques that were not needed on the Pigne de la Lé.
We opted to stay a second night to try another route, but the next day brought poor weather and we walked out instead, so that we could reposition for the following day’s good forecast.
Wiessmies – 23-24 Jun: The Wiessmies had always been a key objective for us. It just breaches the magic 4,000 metre mark, standing at 4,013 metres and the traverse covers two very different flanks of the mountain. After descending from the Wiwanni Hutte and getting back to camp, we had a quick lunch, showered and re-packed for our walk into the Almagellerhutte at 2,894 metres. What is usually a very pleasant walk through a lovely valley, passing a small mountain hotel on the way, was somewhat marred by drizzle and sleet. However, we all made it to the hut in good time and enjoyed a lovely spaghetti Bolognese to refuel and prepare us for the next day.
The altitude seemed to make a couple of the team’s snoring even worse and with breakfast at 4:00 am, it was hardly the greatest night’s sleep for the day’s exertions! The students had already learnt loads and we started slickly, being the first out of the hut. It is a long ascent to the summit, with the first part of the South-southeast ridge being a bit of a trudge. Fortunately, the ridge becomes much more interesting the higher you go with some rock steps before an amazing, knife-edge snow ridge to the summit. The ridge is on the border of Switzerland and Italy, and it is not a joke when briefing that: if someone falls into Italy the other must jump into Switzerland so that the rope between them keeps them safe!
The descent to the lift at Hohsaas is down a steep snow face that has huge crevasses and sometimes massive, tottering blocks of ice called seracs. It can be an extremely dangerous route, but for once the snowy conditions were in our favour and we were able to descend swiftly and safely through the potential dangers. Some of the students were undoubtedly feeling the efforts of the ascent and there were a few ‘jelly legs’ towards the end of the day. To wrap it all up, I even had a group of tourists want to be photographed with me at the lift station – my attempts to look like a bronzed mountain guide had obviously fooled some people!
Lagginhorn – 26-27 June: Following a poor weather rest day, we took the lift back up the valley for a short walk into the Weissmieshutte at 2726 metres. Our objective for the following day was the 4,010 metre Lagginhorn via its West-Southwest ridge. Unfortunately, only one group made it to the summit, but it was another challenging Alpine day for our students and provided further opportunities for them to practice, the crampon, ice axe and ropework skills we had been developing through the week.
CONCLUSION: Despite the challenging, early season conditions, we all had a great two weeks in the Alps. We successfully delivered Alpine Mountaineering Foundation to four students and improved the Royal Air Force Mountaineering Association’s cadre of Alpine experience. As the Officer in Command and one of two instructors on the trip, I was the only Reservist and I would like to thank The Ulysses Trust for their support in making our trip possible.