Expedition Snow Eagle
No, Expedition-Snow Eagle is not just a snow-capped jolly away in the Bavarian mountains, it is nothing short of the most organised and thought out adventurous endeavour RAF News has attended.
The expedition, based in Oberstdorf, Germany and visiting Austria is aiming at improving personal skills such as skiing, a willingness to achieve for the group as well as the self, along with skills acquired from the terrain and environment, for example avalanche awareness and how to deal with and avoid situations of that ilk.
Improvements during the week-long exercise are expected and personnel are helped along by the various instructors.
In its second year at the current site and now no longer known as basic winter training, which ran in Oberammagau for more than 40 years, Ex-Snow Eagle concentrates on Alpine ski-touring and runs for 12 weeks, nine of which are training, two staff training and one for Air Cadets.
Flt Lt Nathan Abbott, Expedition Leader and OIC of my week, said: “The aim of Snow Eagle is to improve the effectiveness of our personnel both at home and on operations.
“We aim to help people develop their interpersonal and personal skills.
“This year went very well again, but the expedition is ever-evolving and next year we are looking at an overnight expedition in the mountains for two days. This will not only pose a greater challenge to our personnel – individually and as a team.”
The analysis and understanding of how team training, learning and a hugely effective singular learning process, which then results in team-leading qualities, is quite amazing and the knowledge that being taken completely out of your comfort zone, which then results in personnel relying, unconsciously on the knowledge they have been taught, no matter how soon, is hugely impressive and successful.
This aspect of things is reinforced with team reviews at the end of everyday, to talk through the day about what was learned and how each person sees themselves and the group developing.
The level of commitment from personnel attending the course is proved from the start, when the expedition leaves RAF Uxbridge by coach on the Friday and arrives in Oberstdorf on the Saturday morning, with only a brief break to refuel, before they are all expected out on the slopes for a full days work.
I arrive on the Saturday and bump into the group after a gruelling day, where friendships are already being made, but a tight schedule of meetings, dining and further training are strictly adhered to.
Former AMP Stephen Dalton, an avid skier who had spent the day with groups in the Kleinwalsertal mountains in Austria, spoke to RAF News before heading back to England in the early hours of the Sunday morning.
He said: “I have been hugely impressed by the work carried out and how our personnel rise to the challenges. I watched and discussed with one group, who were building snow caves today and the skills they are learning, completely out of their normal comfort zone, are excellent.
“Using this environment is the perfect way to enable personnel to work on something, such as snow holes, that they could never do in their normal day-to-day working life.
“I believe they are planning to stay in the snow holes next year, so I would like to see that.”
He added: “This, of course, proves invaluable when dealing with situations while serving oversees. We, as a Service, must continually look at ways of providing unique and of course, beneficial training exercises for personnel, such as Snow Eagle.
We must be adaptable to what situations come our way as a Service and then make provision to train our personnel accordingly. A lot of what this expedition teaches personnel is teamwork and working to training under intense pressure both personal, in achieving one’s best, but also situational and environmental.
“It never fails to impress me how our personnel take up the challenge when they are placed into an alien environment and it is a credit to them and the RAF that they are able to do so.”
Having spent the evening with the team at dinner and absorbing the amazing buzz surrounding the group, in this fabulous mountain-ringed town, my first day began in Room 11 of the expedition’s base, Hotel Traube, at the 8am team meeting.
Having packed my own lunch with the rest of the team, I listen in on the instructors (Sqn Ldr Ash Cudlipp, Sqn Ldr Steve Cottam, Sqn Ldr Dave Black and FS Clark Coghill, along with chief instructor FS Nev Smith and OIC Flt Lt Nathan Abbott) planning the day’s points to the finest detail. Each aspect of the day is explained and the reasons for it, along with weather warnings and timings for group meets.
Expedition students are given admin forms to fill out throughout the weekend to personally assess their own achievements.
Simple tasks such as kitting up and unpacking correctly at the end of each day serves a distinct purpose, this is not a game and the mountains are definitely not a playground. Kit is essential and properly working kit will save lives and these aspects are drilled into all present.
After a gruelling yet prosperous day the groups discuss the points of the day at the hotel, how each person has improved and learned. We see two members move up a grade due to their skiing skills, but they still sit and explain why they feel that benefits our group and everybody is more than happy to see somebody improving.
It was plain to see that a bonding between all present was beginning to take place, a rise in confidence and collective responsibility was spreading across the group.
During a question and answer session held by Sqn Ldr Cudlipp about avalanche awareness, voices who had previously kept quiet were now heard and in some cases a distinct swagger could be seen in peoples general demeanour.
The remainder of the course was deemed a huge success, as to whether RAF News reporter Dan Abrahams succeeded in his bid to conquer the peaks, you will have to wait and see, but as for the benefits of Ex-Snow Eagle on personnel building and personal achievement and development, that was plain to see. They are huge.
