In October 2024, 16 members of The Honourable Artillery Company set off to conquer Himlung Himal (7,126 meters / 23,379 feet), a remote Himalayan peak on the border between Nepal and Tibet. Armed with crampons, dreams, and not quite enough mars bars, we battled thin air, frozen boots, and each other’s bad jokes. Base camp was a circus of tents, gear, oxygen cylinders, frequent mules, and occasional yaks as well. As we climbed higher, one member commented that
“the camaraderie grew, just as altitude made life more difficult.”
The summit day started at 8:30pm and lasted for 19 hours of battling rock and glacier, crossing crevasses, and ascending a bleak 50m ice wall. At 11am on 01 November 2024 a mixed team of five successfully summited Mt. Himlung Himal – the first British Military team ever to do so. From 7,126m, we could see the curvature of the Earth and were reminded “how small we humans really are”, as one member commented. The remainder of the team, hampered by the effects of altitude or simply the constrained summit window, pushed forward to gather data for micro and nano-plastics research. Exhausted and triumphant, the team descended with looser fitting clothes and mountain-high memories.
The team achieved the expedition’s primary aim – for all members to ascend to extreme altitude (5,500+ meters / 18,000+ feet) to test their aptitude, ability to acclimatise, and to prepare for the challenge that lies ahead: to summit Mount Everest in 2025. All 16 team members achieved this primary aim by reaching Camp 2, which sits nestled on a snow shelf above a glacial valley at an intimidating 6,200 metres (20,341 feet).
The team’s final aim was to take glacial samples for G.A.P.S. 24-25, the Global Atmospheric Plastics Survey. This survey is the first of its size and will capture a comprehensive global overview of the types, sizes, and distribution of airborne nano- and microplastics through a series of expeditions. The samples we collected have contributed to a foundational dataset which will support future research into atmospheric transport of plastic pollution and its broader environmental cycle. We were eager to step up to this challenge and contribute to this world first study.
Thank you to the Ulysses Trust for supporting the expedition and making it possible. Your donation has been a force multiplier for everything we were able to achieve on the expedition. We are happy to brief other units on the expedition and how we went out planning it.
