Exercise Dragon Ascent 22 – Tyrol, Austria – 1st to 14th August 2022
Officer Cadet Oliver Goldsack – Exercise IC
Exercise Dragon Ascent 22 was a 14 day adventurous training exercise which took place this summer in the Austrian Alps. On Monday 1st August, 12 Officer Cadets from East Midlands Universities Officer Training Corps left the UK for the first time in over two years, some for the first time. We drove through France and Switzerland to Gaschurn, Austria, which was an adventure in itself! We were accompanied by three highly experienced instructors from various Army Reserve units, who took the group up 13 Klettersteig routes across the region, while sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience with us. We conducted 9 days of Klettersteig – a form of climbing found in the alps that uses metal wire and iron rungs embedded into the rock face that allows you to climb routes that would otherwise be inaccessible with normal climbing techniques.
Klettersteig routes are not found in the UK and by travelling to Austria we were guaranteed (almost) perfect weather, in order to complete our training as it becomes much more slippery and dangerous in the rain. This allowed us to really push ourselves with the difficulty of the climbs and to climb longer, harder routes as the trip went on. Cumulatively over the 13 routes in 9 days, we climbed 4545m of vertical height each. We also spent a day in the local climbing centre during the one day of bad weather we had. This was great as we had the chance to develop skills we had learnt on previous rock climbing courses and learn from the instructors. These skills are vital in order to move onto the next level of rock climbing qualifications.
All participants emerged from the exercise itching to return in the future, and having been pushed and challenged in a safe yet high risk environment. Multiple Officer Cadets from this exercise will now go on to plan and lead adventure training exercises of their own making.
I can, as the Officer Cadet who proposed, planned and ran this exercise, say that the planning element in itself has been a huge help to my future career in the Army. We are truly grateful to The Ulysses Trust for the generous grant, which made this exercise financially viable and accessible to all involved. Below are two extracts from some of the Officer Cadets on this exercise.
“The highlight of the trip had to be the day we completed a mountainous ridge [Arlberger Klettersteig] route where we aimed to complete five named peaks in one day. We had to take two gondolas up the mountain before we could start the climb itself. It was my favourite route due to the incredible amount of exposure and the vast scale of the landscape. It was personally the most difficult route of the trip as I struggle with climbing downwards which was required in navigating between each peak. One slip could result in a fall of up to 5m and it really forced me to trust my abilities and to have confidence in myself. Unfortunately due to unexpected delays in the morning with the ski lifts and early closure of the returning ski lift, we were only managed to summit Knoppenjochspitze (2680m) and Lorfekopf (2689m) before we were forced to make a situational judgment to abort the route. In the future I’d really like to return to complete all five peaks in one go.”
By OCdt Gracie Birch
“Our adventure training in Austria was a great experience, allowing us all to explore a new place and activity. We maximised all our time there by climbing in a different area every day and sometimes doing two climbs in a day! My favourite part was finding waterfalls to climb beside and challenging myself to harder routes later in the trip. The biggest challenge I found was climbing for 10 days and doing longer routes on tired muscles (but the views were worth the pain!). I’m really glad this trip was able to go ahead with the generosity of Ulysses Trust funding us as it was a brilliant experience for us all to be a part of!”
By OCdt Cate SimmondsBelow is a selection of some of the best photos from the exercise, I hope that they do it justice!
All the Officer Cadets at the top of the Verhaltensregeln Klettersteig which was an exciting and rather different Klettersteig climb as it was on the face of an active dam! It made for a fun end to the first day of climbing on the exercise and everyone was buzzing as we walked back to the vans while the sun was setting.
Six of the Officer Cadets and one of the Instructors on the face of the dam, enjoying the awesome view!
One of the groups taking in the view up and down the valley while they snack on a ledge. It was a very vertical drop below us!
One of the groups at the top of Ballunspitze, 2671m. This involved a really vertical technical section of climbing on the Klettersteig which had some amazing views of its own. The other two groups returned here the following day after hearing how good it was. We were fortunate enough to have one vehicle per group of four cadets and their instructor. This allowed us to mix up the groups every day, complete different routes in different locations, and no overwhelm the locals with 15 of us clogging up a route!
One of the last routes completed on the exercise, the Arlberger Klettersteig. This photo was taken on the top of Lorfekopf, 2689m. For many this was the highlight of the exercise. It was really cool to look back at the rest of the group on the route, dotted along the ridge line behind. We took a chair lift down the mountain after we completed two of the five named peaks on this ridge route. We had to exit the route off a scree slope to make it to the chair lift before it shut early for the day! This route involved some very exposed overhanging climbing with limited amounts of pins in the rock to use as foot rests. There were some outstanding 360 degrees views of alpine mountains as far as the eye could see. A very fitting route to culminate all the skills learned in the prior eight days on the mountains.
One of the last routes completed on the exercise, the Arlberger Klettersteig. This photo was taken on the top of Lorfekopf, 2689m. For many this was the highlight of the exercise. It was really cool to look back at the rest of the group on the route, dotted along the ridge line behind. We took a chair lift down the mountain after we completed two of the five named peaks on this ridge route. We had to exit the route off a scree slope to make it to the chair lift before it shut early for the day! This route involved some very exposed overhanging climbing with limited amounts of pins in the rock to use as foot rests. There were some outstanding 360 degrees views of alpine mountains as far as the eye could see. A very fitting route to culminate all the skills learned in the prior eight days on the mountains.
All the Officer Cadets at the top of the Verhaltensregeln Klettersteig which was an exciting and rather different Klettersteig climb as it was on the face of an active dam! It made for a fun end to the first day of climbing on the exercise and everyone was buzzing as we walked back to the vans while the sun was setting.
One of the groups at the top of Ballunspitze, 2671m. This involved a really vertical technical section of climbing on the Klettersteig which had some amazing views of its own. The other two groups returned here the following day after hearing how good it was. We were fortunate enough to have one vehicle per group of four cadets and their instructor. This allowed us to mix up the groups every day, complete different routes in different locations, and no overwhelm the locals with 15 of us clogging up a route!