An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir April 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | REPoRT & PhoToS by CPL TOMáS EVERARD, NO 3 OPS WING, AIR CORPS After lunch we had a ski ability assessment, followed by off-piste and Nordic ski assessments. It was immediately clear there were different levels of experience, so the course was split into three groups, from those with a good skiing ability to the complete beginners. On the second day, we were taught skills and advanced techniques on the piste, to be used later off-piste and spent the morning practicing these. After lunch we had a lecture and practical demonstration on how to locate avalanche victims via a transceiver of the type that everyone involved in the course wore at all times. Using probes as well, we practiced on a number of buried transmitters that could be switched on remotely. The next day we refined our newly-learned skills on the piste for most of the day. In the afternoon we went back to the classroom to prepare for our tour the next day. On day four a short train journey first thing in the morn- ing brought us to Oberalppass, the start of the tour. My group comprised seven students, each of whom would lead a leg. Our route brought us from Oberalppass, up and down mountains to L'ai da Tuma (Lake Tuma), which is the source of the river Rhine. From here we had another few kilome- tres to our destination, a cabin in the mountains where we spent the night. We left the cabin early the next day, heading back to barracks the way we came. On the way, we simulated a casualty and assembled a sled using his skis and a few extra pieces we were carrying. Using this method we found it sur- prisingly easy to get our casualty off the mountain, needing only two or three people to transport him. We then had the weekend free to relax and practice our skiing on our own time. Week two started with a full-scale avalanche exercise, with students playing the roles of chief of operations, log writer, and team leaders. The scenario had ten 'victims' bur- ied in the avalanche, eight with transmitters and two with- out. Thankfully we had the help of a rescue dog and handler to help us locate the two victims without transmitters. Although conditions were difficult for both the rescue team and the dog because of soft, fresh snow and a breeze that threw off the scent for the dog, we eventually found all ten victims. Later that evening we received more equip- ment for our bivi the next day. Day seven started with a short hike to our bivi location where we dug snow caves to spend the night. Caves of dif- ferent capacities were dug and as our two-man cave was relatively quick to dig we spent some time melting snow and filling water bottles for the rest of the course. I was a bit nervous about sleeping in a cave with more than a metre of snow above my head but my Canadian buddy put me at ease and reassured me that he had plenty of experience building these. I have to admit, in our sleeping bags, and with the addition of an arctic candle, the sleeping area was surprisingly cosy to sleep in and we had a great night's sleep. We left straight from our bivi site the next morning for our next tour, which brought us to the summit of Paxolus- tock at 2,740m. This was our last chance to practice leading a tour before our final test the next day. In the evening we were back in the classroom again to plan a I n January of this year myself and two members of the ARW took part in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Winter Moun- taineering course, which was hosted by the Swiss Army in Andermatt. In addition to Swiss participants there were students from five other countries: Canada (1), Israel (4), Poland (5), Kyrgyzstan (2) and the three of us from Ireland. The course started after breakfast on Monday 12th January, with an introduction and brief by the course commander, Lt Col Luciano Fieschi, who welcomed us and outlined the objectives of the course. He also introduced us to the three mountain guide specialists who would be overseeing the course: Julian Beermann, Thomas Lustenburger and Michael Illien. Following this we were brought to the stores and issued with cold-weather gear, skis, boots and any equipment we'd need on a day-to- day basis for the next two weeks.

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