Expedition Reports

50mph winds and snow halt summit attempt On Mt Mgoun Mt Mgoun is not well known but at 4068m/13,346’ it is the second highest peak in North Africa, second only to Mt Toubkal; both are in Morocco. The aim for this rather mature group (average age was 50!) of Territorial’s was to cross the High […]

After 2 years of study, the culmination of the National Diploma in Public Services course is a 12 day trip to the Pyrenees in the south of France. For all of the students, who are also cadets with Gloucestershire Army Cadet Force, this is an opportunity for them to complete their final assessments in adventurous

Exercise Water Cockney was a military sub-aqua diving expedition in Malta. The expedition consisted of 20 personnel from a mixture of TA and regular units. The exercise was organised by MOD Leighton House and all diving and accommodation was co-ordinated via a local dive company “Selkies” based in Sliema, Malta. The country of Malta consists

Under the watchful eye of our Contingent Officers, Major Patchett, Captain Willmore and Lieutenant Macgregor, we loaded up the coach with our kit for the first leg of our journey to Edinburgh Airport on the early evening of Monday 4 April. We were about to embark on what was described as a tough, challenging expedition

Over the period 9th – 16th April 10 cadets from Lordswood Boys’ School took part in a week’s off-shore sailing expedition aboard one of the Tall Ships Youth Trust ‘Challenger’ yachts. They were part of a large party from Birmingham that chartered the whole flotilla of four Challengers under the sponsorship of the Enterprise Sailing

In early April, 12 officers and soldiers from across the Regt converged on Bexleyheath ready for an adventure. Bags packed, things inevitably forgotten, but keen to get started on the long journey to Kathmandu, via Doha. Once there, the team staggered out of the airport into a completely different world. There was a veritable mob

From 9th- 16th April 2011, 9 students accompanied by 3 staff members from Selly Oak Trust School, Birmingham, a secondary school for students with moderate learning difficulties, took part in a sailing expedition along the south coast of the UK. The Cadets, all members of the Combined Cadet Force (Royal Navy) at Selly Oak Trust

Canford has been running cross-country skiing expeditions for some fourteen years now with a number of cadets each year benefiting from the experience of a week’s cross-country skiing, snow holing, camping and ice-climbing, whilst experiencing the delights of the famous Norwegian ski touring huts. This year, once again, helped with some generous support from the

During the Easter holidays, a team of 8 staff and cadets, travelled to the Hardangervidda mountain range in Southern Norway, where we were to carry out an arduous cross-country skiing expedition. The aim of the venture was to introduce a novice group of cadets to cross-country skiing and carry out a ski tour expedition in

Sunday 10th April 2011, Sgt Philip Houseman and Officer Cadets Matthew Waterston, William Bowkett, Lewis Hart, David Keay and Charles Woods-Stride set out from Oxford on Exercise Blue Innsbruck. The following afternoon we arrived in the small Austrian village of Greiss. There we joined Captain Tania Noakes who would be leading the expedition. Kit was

This year, the Regimental skiing trip was a little unusual. Normally we head south, and ski downhill, in Austria. However we decided to head north and ski up-hill in Scotland. After an early start and a long drive, with rising excitement as we started spotting patches of snow on the mountains either side, we arrived

Legend has it that the ashes of St James the apostle lie in the magnificent cathedral in the heart of Santiago de Compostela in North West Spain. After Jesus’ crucifixion the eleven (Judas hanged himself) left Jerusalem to spread the gospel. James sailed to modern day Spain and preached to pagan Galicians in the North

Phoenix Cockney Slide was a Distributed Training (DT) Level 3 overseas exercise for beginners to advanced skiers, taking place over the period 1st – 9th April 2011. It was based in Tignes, South France. The intent was to take seven inexperienced skiers (Officers and soldiers), and provide them with the instruction in order to gain

High winds, high plateaus, high water and high adventure are the nature of Northern Jacobite Venturer (Ex NJV). Our now annual Scottish exploit is in it’s 4th year and hopes to reach maturity on our next visit. This is a multi activity week designed to give cadets from Giggleswick School the opportunity to produce a

25 hours on a coach, students suffering from travel sickness and a broken air conditioning unit resulting in the coach reaching a roasting 33 degrees during the journey. This is how 40 Officer Cadets (OCdts) from Liverpool University Officers’ Training Corps (LUOTC) were welcomed into the French Alps ski resort of Tignes. The expedition, Northern

Operation Grouse and Operation Gunnerside were conducted by British trained, hand picked members of the Norwegian SOE. These 11 ‘Heroes of Telemark’ survived in the wilderness of the Hardanga Vidda plateau in Norway for months on end, before successfully mounting two sabotage operations, which severely handicapped the Nazi’s in the race to build the Atomic

"39 cadets … 5 adult instructors … destination Salzburger Sportwelt …" After 30 hours by road and sea, we reached our destination of Küchl, a typically pretty Austrian village surrounded by the stunning Tennengebirge Mountains. Some anxious glances were exchanged at the absence of snow, but our hosts at the Hotel Mühlthaler, soon put our

The eagerly anticipated day of departure, 6 Mar 11, started bright and early at London’s Gatwick airport. All of the ship’s crew, except the skipper who, as Exped project officer, had flown ahead to oversee a week of yacht maintenance, boarded for the 8 hr 45 min Virgin Atlantic flight to St. Lucia. The crew