The End of Training Individual Test - Navigations

We have reached the final stretch. As I write this post I only have one more week of training left, which is actually hard to believe after being in training for the past year and 5 months, but after our last week I know that this upcoming week is going to be a doozy.

DISCLAIMER: This post is long, to quite long.

The last few weeks of training are meant to be a test of everything we have learned until this point. The tests are set up essentially in the same manner as the training itself. We start on the individual soldier level, then team, and finally work our way up to the entire company. This past week we had our individual test (I am sure there is a better translation, but it literally translates as "The Individual Summarization"). The week consisted of three navigations, krav maga, and a shooting test. I'll try my best to explain what transpired over the course of the week, but no matter what I say it won't really be able to do it justice - it was just that hard!

We were all given our routes and maps to study the weekend before the first navigation, which should probably have triggered some warning that this was not going to be just another navigation. After plotting out our route I soon learned why. Along the path to collecting our various points everyone was going to have to scale not one, but two extremely steep mountains (Mount Kamoon and Mount Chazon, for those who may be familiar). In addition to the challenge of navigating alone we were also going to be walking with all of the gear we would need for the week, plus a little extra. Normally, I would try to guesstimate for you how much I had to carry in my bag over the course of the week, but as it turns out I don't have to guess. After we had packed all of our food, water, clothes, radio, rain gear, shovel, more water, and various other gear we were all weighed. According to the scale my bag weighed 40 kilos (or 90 pounds for those of you, who like myself two years ago, have no idea how the metric system works.  You can see a good picture of the bag above).

Sunday night we waited for the sun to go down, and set out on our navigations around 8:30 PM. It was on this first navigation of the week that I learned two important lessons that I would use when planning routes for the rest of the week. First, whenever possible find paths. Second, if it means you have to walk an extra 4 or 5 miles - find paths! Our first navigation was between 25 and 30 kilometers (15 - 18 miles). Most of the time this would mean we would finish after about 7 hours, a pace of about 4 kilometers per hour. I think that even with the added weight it would have been possible to finish the navigation in a 3 or 4 kilometer per hour pace. The true problem, however, proved to be the extremely dense undergrowth (and over- and midgrowth for that matter). Making my way up and down mountains proved grueling. I actually had an internal debate (there is a lot of time for internal dialogue when navigating for hours alone) as to whether it was harder going up the mountain or down. At first glance it would seem obvious that going up a mountain would be more difficult, however, when there is no clear path between trees and boulders going down the mountain with an additional 90 pounds on your back can also prove to be rather challenging. The truth is, even the slightest miss-footing with a giant bag on your back usually means you are gonna take a tumble. Fortunately for me, most of the time I was able to lean back and fall on my bag. There were one or two occasions, however, in which my foot found a hole and I fell forward. All I can say is that in these particular occasions I was thankful there wasn't someone with a camera around. I would find myself in the awkward "turtle-like" position in which all of your weight is on your back and you simply can't move. I would spend a good 5 minutes rocking back and forth trying to right myself (although in retrospect I guess I could have just taken the bag off, but in my defense that was also a 5 to 10 minute ordeal).

Throughout the course of the navigation there are various points which everyone must cross, so that the commanders have an idea of where everyone was and at what time. One of these points just so happened to be at the top of a mountain. After climbing this mountain for about two hours, I finally reached the top. The disappointing part of getting to the top was that I had to say hello to my commander and then go right back down. After collecting all of my points, I started to make the hike to the ending point around 8 AM. Another 3 and half hours later, 15 hours after I started and in the sweltering heat I staggered to the end point. There I was greeted by my commander who handed me an envelope with the points for my next days navigation. When I arrived at 11:30 I assumed I was one of the last people to arrive (my radio actually didn't work, so I couldn't hear everyone who had been getting lost all night begging for help). As it turns out, there was someone on my team who didn't finish the first navigation until 5:30 PM, 21 hours after starting!!! After finishing I was told to divide my time between food, sleep, and study. I actually wasn't that hungry but I tried to eat a little so that I could cut down on the weight I was carrying, even if it was only a can of corn (I figured better not to carry it around all week).

At 10 PM we set out on our second navigation of the week. After the first night I had planned the majority of my second navigation on paths or next to roads. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I let one of my friends talk me into cutting through the woods down the mountain (I forgot to mention, but the end point of each navigation was the starting point for the next days navigation) for my first kilometer. I had originally planned on walking an extra 3 kilometers on a path (rule #2), but he gave me an "Aaah, its just a little foliage" and like an idiot I listened to him. Needless to say this was not a good idea. I spent the better part of an hour pushing my way through thorn bushes, until I came to what I can only describe as a 10-15 foot cliff. Of course I tried to go around, but as it turns there was no way around. I found one place where I could jump down, but I literally had to take my bag off and throw it over the cliff. I had to do this one or two more times, but I finally made it to the road. The rest of the first half of the navigation went pretty well, I just wish I could say the same about the second half.

Right when I was about to leave for my navigation the commander of our whole company came over and looked out my route. He was then kind enough to inform me that there was an army base that does not show up on the map but that I had planned to walk right through it, which of course would not be possible. As a result, I had to change my route at the last minute, which I am sure I don't have to tell you is never a good idea when you are navigating with only a compass and your memory. As I am sure you can imagine, the part of my navigation that I changed at the last minute just so happened to be the part where I got lost. I spent three hours at the top of a mountain stumbling over rocks and wishing I had a machete, while looking for one of my points. I eventually assumed I was not in the right place and started to make my way down the mountain. I eventually was able to figure out where I was (4 kilometers from my next point, 4 kilometers in the wrong direction. Meaning I would have to walk there and back, making it 8 kilometers). I was fully prepared to accept my fate and begin the march that would add an extra 2 hours to my navigation, but my commander informed me (I called him because my radio didn't work) he preferred I get to the end on time. It was about 6 kilometers away and I had a little more than an hour. It was definitely doable, but to steal a term from American army slang, I would have to "double-time" it. I finished this navigation at 8:30 AM and about 3 minutes before my time expired, once again in the heat of the day but the third person from the company to finish.

My third navigation was less eventful. I stuck to the roads and it paid off. It may have lengthened my navigation a bit, but in the end it definitely proved faster. There was one point that I didn't find (what I discovered later was that in my exhaustion I had misread the coordinates and placed the point on the wrong place on the map). I started this navigation at 7:30 PM and finished at 3:00 AM. What the navigation was lacking in adversities, it certainly made up for it at the end.

At 5 AM everyone who had reached the last point was woken up and we were told to put our gear back on. We were told that we would be climbing the mountain that we were sleeping next to. At first glance this may have come as a surprise because the mountain next to us looked more like a cliff face then a mountain that we could possibly climb. However, I new before we started the night that it would end like this. After the week we had just had there was no way our final point would be at the base of a mountain and not at the peak.

It just so happens that the mountain is somewhat famous in Israel. It is called Mount Arbel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Arbel). I found a particularly interesting quote on Wikipedia:

 "On the south side, there is a gradual prolonged climb through agricultural and pasture land while on the other, there is a very steep 400 meters drop. At the top of the steeper Northern side, there are metal handholds driven into the rock because the climb is so steep."

 I think it goes without saying that we went up the North side. I don't know if it was the lack of thorn bushes and other thickets, but it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the path was so steep that people had to take breaks every few minutes to sit down and catch their breath, but after about an hour and a half I had reached the top. I wish I could say that I had also finished the week, but it was just the end of the navigations - there was still krav maga.

(For those who made it this far, other than my mom, I'll spare you some reading and save the krav maga for the next post).