HAC Everest
Expedition
Since 2022, the Honourable Artillery Company has been working
towards a monumental challenge:
to put the first mixed male and female team of Army Reservists
on the summit of Everest. With 8 members of the HAC Active Unit selected, the training
has been rigorous, balanced against their ongoing Squadron and
Regimental duties and day jobs. This preparation has included
several months of high-altitude training at a specialist centre in
London, as well as a 2-week expedition in Chamonix to summit the
Gran Paradiso (4,061m) in 2023, and an expedition to Nepal to
summit Himlung Himal (7,126m) in 2024 – for which they were the
first British Forces team (Regular or Reservist) to successfully
summit.
Science
Alongside climbing Everest, the HAC Everest Team will be collecting glacial microplastics samples to support global efforts to understand how microplastics travel and impact our ecosystems, as part of the Global Atmospheric Plastic Survey (GAPS 2024-25). GAPS is the first and largest project of its kind to collect microplastics samples from across the planet, and is supported by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research at the University of Leipzig.The HAC Everest Team will aim to be first research expedition to take a microplastics sample from the top of Everest.
Support
The HAC Everest team will be raising money for SSAFA and Climb2Recovery – two very worthy military charities. Donations can be made through our GoFundMe page.If you want to find out more about HAC, please visit https://hac.org.uk/