Mountain course resumes

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 397, 30 July 1991, Page 2

Mountain course resumes

BY

JO

HOWIE

The Army's alpine courses are to resume in August Six soldiers tragically died last August during a training exercise, and the next month's course is the first to be run since the accident. "There have been a few changes as a direct result of the enquiry," said Major Ian Nicholson, Chief Instructor of the Army's Adventure

Training Centre. He said all the instructors have to be qualified members of the New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association. "Our instructors will be reassessed and their certificate will be kept current while instructing at the centre. There are eight instructors in total, three of which are civillian." The other change will be the use of radios to

provide an essentiai communication link for weather reports, requesting assistance, reporting injury, and so on. The Basic Winter Course is designed to teach soldiers practical skills in a cold environment. There is a basic, intermediate, and advanced course. It is a voluntary course and no army tactics are taught. There seems to be a strong desire for the

course to resume, so to meet this demand, four courses are due to run in August and September. The instructor pupil ratio will remain the same but will be formalised. The structure and basic format of the course will remain unchanged, and so will the duration. The army is keen to put the accident behind it,and restore confidence in the ability to conduct alpine courses.