Mountaineering Association Selects Blazepoint To Support High-Altitude Mountaineering Exercise

OXFORD, ENGLAND, March 25, 2011

For the past 53 years the AMA (Army Mountaineering Association) has been responsible for sending mountaineers all over the World, following a military mountaineering tradition that can be traced back to the 19th Century. Recently an 11 strong expedition called TIGER KARAKORAM continued this custom.

The AMA expedition commenced in October 2010 when the team travelled to India - their aim was to conduct exploratory mountaineering in the Himachal Pradesh region and sumit several unexplored peaks. Major Matt Hing, the expedition leader stated 'The Himachal Pradesh area of northern India offers a vast amount of mountaineering opportunities. There are tens if not hundreds of unclimbed peaks and unexplored glaciers that would all make excellent mountaineering expeditions. This is a fantastic area'. In preparation for the expedition and to minimize the teams impact on the surrounding environment and terrain, which is an ethic the team try to abide by at all times, the intention was that they would be equipped and prepared to climb 'alpine style' throughout. This style of climbing requires the mountaineer to move light and fast and being the Himalaya's, it also requires competency, confidence and mental commitment. Due to this expedition being the first trip for many of the team, both to the Himalaya's and at this level of altitude, the training and selection process was intense - ensuring that they developed the physical skills to deal with the mountaineering challenges and the mental skills required to deal with the other challenges likely to face them during the ascent.

Unfortunately as they say with the best laid plans, the expedition did hit some stumbling blocks and constant adjustments were needed to meet the ever changing circumstances, such as the unexpected and un-seasonal snow storms together with the expeditions ill equipped porters, both of which gave rise to additional challenges for the team. Notwithstanding this, 3 members of the expedition made a first-ascent of Peak 5900 and named the peak, 'Sher Khan' early in the campaign. However, not all ascents were quite so successful, as demonstrated by an attempt on an unclimbed 6030m peak. One of the climbing teams was forced to turn back at 5922m when they encountered increasingly technical terrain and an unexpected snow storm. The unseasonal storm deposited a foot of snow over the area making the climbing conditions too dangerous for the team to continue and another storm was also forecast, which raised concerns over the team being trapped at Base Camp, consequently they moved south to a different climbing area where the expedition successfully climbed a 5928m high peak and named it 'Hanuman Tibba'.

In summarising the expedition and his personal experience, Sergeant Mark Dowland said that, 'As a developing mountaineer this Expedition was an invaluable experience and insight into the world of high-altitude mountaineering. As soldiers we are taught to prepare for the unexpected, but exploratory mountaineering provided us all with extreme physical and mental challenges. It definitely pushed all of the Expedition members beyond their comfort zones'.

During the duration of the TIGER KARAKORAM expedition, the team experienced extremely harsh conditions, such as living at 4600m+, the unseasonal weather and temperatures dropping to minus 13 degrees C in the team's tent at night. All of these challenges combined to test the members both mentally and physically and to ensure success dynamic risk assessments were required along with strong leadership skills and teamwork.

Equipment was a fundamental part of the planning process and key to the Expeditions success was a robust communications plan. This enabled the team to remain in constant contact during the expedition and also provided them with a failsafe in the event of an emergency. In addition to this an Indian based company called RIMO Expeditions provided support and this proved successful due to both the added security it gave the team and allowing the expedition to support an Indian based company ensuring that any fees paid would benefit the local economy.

The expeditions' communications plan utilised many pieces of equipment designed specifically for use in rugged terrain and harsh environments. This equipment was supplied by Blazepoint and included BGAN Satellite Antenna's in conjunction with Blazepoint's ndura RUGGED laptop, which facilitated the team having access to the internet allowing them access to e-mail, blogs and weather updates. Thales UK gave free air time allowing the antenna's to provide outstanding performance to the team and it is hoped that given the experiences of this latest expedition, all future camp sites or base camps will undergo a communications recce to fully establish whether the antenna can 'hit' the satellites in a geo-stationary orbit over the equator.

The expedition leader Major Matt Hing said that "The rugged laptops provided by Blazepoint, sustained plenty of knocks and unavoidable ill-treatment during transit and on the mountain. The laptops handled the trauma with ease. They continued to perform to an optimal level in temperatures as low as -20°C for over 5 weeks, providing a quality service for internet access, word processing and information exchange. Exercise TIGER KARAKORAM chose this particular rugged laptop brand, based on robustness, endurance and the ability to perform in an arduous environment, they did not disappoint."

Blazepoint specialise in rugged technology, such as the rugged laptops used in these mountains. For more information visit Blazepoint at http://www.blazepoint.co.uk