army climbing everest

I'm very interested - in why they're spending MY money on this!! The TV
ad tried to justify it on the basis of "the experience" they'd obtain.
Oh yeah? Looked more like a recruitment campaign. "Look at me Ma - I'm
on top of the world!!"

druidh

Quoted message said:

I'm very interested - in why they're spending MY money on this!! The TV
ad tried to justify it on the basis of "the experience" they'd obtain.
Oh yeah? Looked more like a recruitment campaign. "Look at me Ma - I'm
on top of the world!!"

Would you rather they spent the money on more bullets and missiles to kill
people with?

It's like that sale of Hawks. It was genius - jets are expensive, and
pointlessly, *stupidly* expensive for the task they were bought for. This
meant lots of money spent on maintenance, and less spent on bombs.

Mark Thompson wrote:

"Would you rather they spent the money on more bullets and missiles to
kill
people with?"

I always thought that is what the armed services are about! Fighting or
defending their country. So maybe they would require armaments:-0

BTW I'll take odds they don't succeed!

JS

If we're gonna send them into conflict, I'd rather they had the best
equipment we can afford.

However, I'm sure this current trip will prove useful in the event that
there's an oil source discovered in the area and we offer to help out
George and his cronies again.

druidh

druidh said:

If we're gonna send them into conflict, I'd rather they had the best
equipment we can afford.

However, I'm sure this current trip will prove useful in the event that
there's an oil source discovered in the area and we offer to help out
George and his cronies again.

The politics, costs and actual reasons (recruitment/training etc) for
the expedition aside, surely we can look at the expedition and take an
interest purely from a mountaineering point of view? 🙂

After all that's what we're interested in within this group ... AND
the west ridge of everest is / has been notoriously very difficult in
the past for other expeditions.

Dundonald said:

druidh said:

If we're gonna send them into conflict, I'd rather they had the best
equipment we can afford.

However, I'm sure this current trip will prove useful in the event that
there's an oil source discovered in the area and we offer to help out
George and his cronies again.

The politics, costs and actual reasons (recruitment/training etc) for
the expedition aside, surely we can look at the expedition and take an
interest purely from a mountaineering point of view? 🙂

After all that's what we're interested in within this group ... AND
the west ridge of everest is / has been notoriously very difficult in
the past for other expeditions.

Nope,got to go with druidh on this.

If they army want to climb mountains fine,let them do it in their own time.

Sam Salt

"druidh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm very interested - in why they're spending MY money on this!! The TV
ad tried to justify it on the basis of "the experience" they'd obtain.
Oh yeah? Looked more like a recruitment campaign. "Look at me Ma - I'm
on top of the world!!"

Of course it's a recruitment campaign! The advert posters I've seen are for
Territorial Army soldiers, the ones who have to justify to their civilian
employers why they need the time off to go soldiering. The MoD in return
tries to train them up in ways that can be transferred to the civilian
sector. In this case it'll be to show self-reliance, determination, strength
of character and leadership skills.

There are 3 teams in this endeavour, each from different levels within the
Army. The Junior team in particular are going to gain a hell of a lot even
if 'only' going up to Island Peak. At their young age to be given the
opportunity to work as a team on such an event will boost their confidence
and improve their skills at both mountain climbing and in dealing with
adversity and difficulties. If they choose not to stay in and become the
promising sergeants and officers their superiors obviously think they could
be then they have a good chance in civvy street with such an event on their
CV. It will be down to them to make the best use of this.
In their future lives they may well be faced with a situation where they
have to think back and say 'when I was up Everest we faced something like
this so we did this....' and apply those skills to the problem facing them.
It could be one of us being helped.

If you haven't noticed many of our Olympic/sporting competitors and
explorers have served in the Armed Forces, often at the same time as their
successes and adventures.

Nick

"druidh" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm very interested - in why they're spending MY money on this!! The TV
ad tried to justify it on the basis of "the experience" they'd obtain.
Oh yeah? Looked more like a recruitment campaign. "Look at me Ma - I'm
on top of the world!!"

Are they spending your/our money on this?
From http://www.armyoneverest.mod.uk/Media/2ndMarch2006.htm

"The expedition has been funded by sponsors and personal finance. The
sponsors are Electronic Data Systems, Leeds Metropolitan University, Expo
Logistics International, Bombardier, Kroll Security International, Weston
Group, Massey Lowe Solutions, Pixelscene, Saab, Harlands Printers, NSSL,
Sat-Comm, Cotswold Outdoor, Mountain Equipment, Nilorn Calmon, Beacon
Products, Panasonic, Performance Associates, Simple Solutions, Nord Anglia,
Pringles Builders, 3663 Food Supplies, Cadbury Schweppes, Drytech , Qatar
Airways, Summit Oxygen, Jagged Globe, Adventureworks, Summit Trekking,
Himalyan Ecstasy and Secure Hosting.

The expedition is also being supported through the Army with an extensive
marketing campaign."

The teams are also raising money for charity in doing this.

Nick

Nick Pedley said:

"The expedition has been funded by sponsors and personal finance. The
sponsors are Electronic Data Systems, Leeds Metropolitan University, Expo
Logistics International, Bombardier, Kroll Security International, Weston
Group, Massey Lowe Solutions, Pixelscene, Saab, Harlands Printers, NSSL,
Sat-Comm, Cotswold Outdoor, Mountain Equipment, Nilorn Calmon, Beacon
Products, Panasonic, Performance Associates, Simple Solutions, Nord Anglia,
Pringles Builders, 3663 Food Supplies, Cadbury Schweppes, Drytech , Qatar
Airways, Summit Oxygen, Jagged Globe, Adventureworks, Summit Trekking,
Himalyan Ecstasy and Secure Hosting.

The expedition is also being supported through the Army with an extensive
marketing campaign."

The teams are also raising money for charity in doing this.

Thanks Nick for a sensible couple of posts.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for armed forces teams to be doing
this type of expedition - as you say the experience learned is very
valuable. Which is why quite a lot of schools go in for outdoor pursuits
activities in a big way - some in a very big way, perhaps not Everest
but certainly on a Himalayan scale.

I wish all the teams the best of luck - it sounds as though with current
weather conditions they going to need it.

Roy.

On 19 Apr 2006 14:41:24 -0700, "Dundonald" <[email hidden]>
wrote:

... >Just saw a TV advert explaining the army have a team climbing the west
... >ridge of everest. Their progress can be followed here -->
... >http://www.armyoneverest.mod.uk/ . Thought you guys like me may be
... >interested ...

Well ... will they never learn.

I recall the embarassing shambles of their Low's Gully expedition

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060420/D8H3EIF83.html

Hope they can deliver on this one.

Mike P

Quoted message said:

I recall the embarassing shambles of their Low's Gully expedition

Quoted message said:

Hope they can deliver on this one.

To be fair they still delivered on the other one, just they were all a bit
thinner at the end.