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  Everest 2006: British West Ridge Expedition: BRITISH MOUNTAINEERING SUCCESS IN HIMALAYAS


Jude Humphries

The Army’s Everest West Ridge Expedition has enjoyed its first success with the Development Team summiting the 7045m Lhakpa Ri peak at 13.22 local time today. The team summitted after a gruelling 7 hour climb.  The successful completion of the climb is a triumph for the team, the Army and British mountaineering.

The Development Team is the first of the three expedition teams to successfully reach their summit. The team now pave the way for the remaining two successful summits; Island Peak by the Junior Team and the Main Team planned ascent on Everest via the West Ridge. If successful they will make British history placing the first ever British climber on Everest via the West Ridge.

The Development Team is made up of 15 men and women, all intermediate mountaineers who were given the opportunity to develop their skills through a unique challenge which hoped to develop some of the UK’s finest young climbers.  Their journey started three years ago when expedition leader Warrant Officer Class Two Dave Bunting first conceived the idea.  After three year’s training they left the UK on 22 March. The Development Team’s success is all the more impressive given recent heavy snow falls and bad conditions which could easily have stopped them summiting. The final summit is a triumph of Army training and organisation, human endurance and the power of team work and determination.

Major Kevin Edwards, leader of the Development Team was ecstatic. “This is just the best feeling in the world.  To summit such a high altitude peak, to see the way the team has worked together and to have achieved a personal goal are all experiences out of this world.”

The success was particularly poignant as it was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the first Army Mountaineering Association’s summit of Everest.  It follows in a long line of Army mountaineering successes and gives concrete proof of the benefits of Army training and organisation, team building, endurance and performance under pressure.  The Development Team will return home on the 2 May 2006.

Everest 2006: The British Army West Ridge Expedition Dispatches

 

 

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