While the first day was kind of warm-up round consisted of uphill climbing and downhill skiing and a biathlon race with snowshoes on, the second day of the extreme competition was in the spirit of demanding march across the ridges of the Hruby Jesenik Mountains. The weather was worse due to the passing cold wave but much more troubles were caused by the lack of snow that made the athletes walk instead of ski. On their way they met checkpoints with tasks to accomplish, such as special mountaineering disciplines, pistol shooting, water stream crossing, night orienteering and overnight sleeping in the open air. The number of teams dropped by one for the B-team of 43rd airborne mechanised battalion had withdrawn due to injury.

Touch of Nowhere

A silhouette in camouflage uniform raised on the rock top near “Na Vyhlidce” hill. The soldier hesitated a moment like weighing whether to go or not to go for the jump down but eventually he dived from the twenty-metre-high rock. During the fall he tried to grab the casing that contained information for the team where to progress in the competition.

An athlete competing in the international outdoor championship of Czech military forces called Winter Survival just finished another event named suitably Touch of Nowhere. “The jump was long and truly adrenaline. I concentrated fully on picking the indicia and succeeded,” said WO Jan Tvrdik, a member of a University of Defence team. Before his jump all three members of the team had to climb the ice-covered rock to the top.

“We failed getting the indicia which delayed us pretty good,” complained Sgt. Radek Rejsek from the Pardubice supply battalion team. Eight teams were unsuccessful in accomplishing the task. To get the information they then had to climb up a rope fifteen metres high where it was hanging.

Emergency outdoor overnight under the Medvedi Vrch Hill was another selecting test in the Winter Survival 2008 extreme competition in the Hruby Jesenik Mountains. None of the eighteen teams suffered major harm. Temperature slightly below zero at early morning hours was the only bit of trouble for athletes’ tired bodies in the sleeping bags covered with tent canvas sections.

Burmese Bridge

On the third day the winter survival participants were to face special tasks designed so that they had to prove how much they had trained the skills. The fatigue of the previous march started to let on at some athletes and many feet were framed with callosities. The athletes had to cross both natural and artificial obstacles in Bily Potok Creek valley. At the checkpoint called “Shaman”, they took off all of the carried equipment that might weight even twenty kilograms of load that is “noticeable” when climbing the Hruby Jesenik slopes. They were to pass three sections consisting of vertical fixed rope, tree trunk climbing, rope ladder and eventually a Burmese bridge.

“We did well in this discipline. We ran up after the Belgians,” shared WO Michal Zavrel for Physical Education and Sports Faculty of Charles University his joy of success during a short pause while waiting at the next checkpoint.

Several kilometres further on, the athletes were to accomplish new tasks on rocks. First, they were to get to the middle of a double horizontal rope length taut between two rock blocks forty metres apart and then return back to the starting point. The following task required them to safely drop a member of the team on a diagonally fixed rope to the other rock and lift him up back by the two remaining team mates to simulate rescuing an injured team member. Finally, the team rappelled down of the thirty-metre rock with the backpacks and skis on their shoulders.

Some disciplines were really sophisticated. “Championship has gained high reputation over the years. Merits for that should be given primarily to our department guys who keep thinking up new disciplines and implementing lessons learnt in military training and special physical training,” said the competition sport director and a representative of the hosting University of Defence colonel Miroslav Stipek. The new event of last year was an interesting discipline – knife and axe throw. Each athlete was to stick the knife and drive the axe into the target three metres away in five attempts for each instrument.

The military Winter Survival is specific with the difficult conditions and challenging tasks and, also, very strict rules to observe. The latter was the reason of disqualification of the Military Academy team for the unsubstantiated usage of sealed cell phone.

Truth Unveiled

It was Thursday afternoon and all was over. Four days of tough struggle to beat nature’s traps, the challenges of events and last but not least to push their own limits had turned into a piece of memory for all the participants. The sum of points won in the first three days and the final relay race decided on podium positions.

The 14th Army of the Czech Republic International Outdoor Polyathlon Winter Survival 2008 Championship winners are 1LT Martin Hanacek, WO Jan Pokorny and SGT David Stanek for the team of the 22nd Air Force Base (in Namest nad Oslavou). “After several years and multiple attempts we finally managed to win. It all went well and we were luckier in accomplishing the special survival events than we were last year,” assessed 1LT Hanacek the competition.

The silver medals were won by 1LT Michal Pech, WO Milan Menzel and WO2 Tomas Dolezal for the Tyniste nad Orlici ammunition base team. The University of Defence Faculty of Military Technology students Jan Tvrdik, Jan Tancibudek and Petr Zaparka gained the well-deserved bronze medal.

Missing Austrians

The Czech teams were completed in the challenging competition held in the Jesenik Mountains at the turn of January and February with international teams. The Slovak team represented the elite 5th special operations regiment deployed in Zilina. Belgium sent again a team for the Para-Commando training centre from Marche-les-Dames and the personnel of 233 mountain ranger battalion in Mittenwald came for Germany. The teams for Poland and Slovenia that were expected did not come eventually to Winter Survival 2008. Unfortunately, the championship lost the four-times champions as the Austrian team for Saalfelden mountain guides and rescuers school who had managed to win the previous four years of the unique winter survival competition in a row did not come to start.