The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) have successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest with Britain’s first mixed-gender military team. The eight-person team, with two supporting medical staff, placed two members of the regiment on the top of the world on the 19 May at 08:43, marking the culmination of the HAC’s four-year Everest project.
The two summiteers left Camp 4 (7,906m) on Everest’s South Col at 22:30 on 18 May, before then ascending the South-East Ridge to Everest’s South Summit. From there they traversed the exposed Summit Ridge, before finally making it to the summit at 8,849m.
Two further members of the team began their summit attempt when the forecast looked more favourable at 19:30 on the 22nd of May, however unforeseen high winds of 60 mph on the South East Ridge caused them to turn around just below “The Balcony” (8,350m), along with 100 other climbers.
The remaining four members of the team all reached the South Col, however instability in the Khumbu Icefall and increasing risk of avalanche and ice serac collapse made any further summit attempts too dangerous. The whole HAC team departed Base Camp on 25 May and made it safely to Kathmandu.
In tandem with the objective to conduct a successful mountaineering expedition at very high altitude, the team have also been successful in collecting glacial samples from around Everest as part of the Global Atmospherics Plastics Survey, a worldwide study into understanding microplastics and how they travel.
Caroline Crewe-Read, Director of the Army Central Fund, said:
“The Army Central was glad to support the HAC’s Everest expedition by funding the costs of oxygen masks and regulators which were essential for the summit attempt. From an initial group of over 100 interested Reservists, eight were selected to form the final team, but along the way nearly 70 HAC service personnel have been upskilled by attending at least one mountaineering course, and nearly 30 personnel have completed three or more courses. Adventurous Training is of huge importance to the Army’s ability to attract and retain the best talent across both Regular and Reserve forces, and the Trustees were pleased to play a small part in enabling the team to summit successfully.”
This expedition has been the culmination of a four-year journey that has seen the team conducting high altitude mountaineering training in Chamonix and being the first mixed British military team to reach the summit of Himlung Himal – a 7,126m peak in the Annapurna region of Nepal – in addition to the core mountaineering foundation courses run by Army Adventurous Training Group. It has been conducted with the ambition of further building an adventurous mountaineering spirit in the British Army, promoting recruitment in the Army Reserves, and further developing leaders in the HAC. Expeditions such as these are incredibly beneficial for core soldiering, resilience and leadership skills, with the overlap being substantial. One of the key next steps now is to establish a new mountaineering group in the HAC from which to conduct and support future expeditions, as well as further share the incredible benefits of ambitious Adventurous Training.
Finally, the team have been successful in raising funds for two fantastic military charities: Climb2Recovery and SAAFA. They will be continuing to fundraise throughout the remainder of the year in the run up to the HAC’s Everest fundraising dinner in October 2025.
