BURST
Dream jobs come in all shapes and sizes. Some might consider my job at Climbing dreamy. Others might hope to hangboard their way into professional climbing one day. My former colleague Duane Raleigh once made a very serious list of climber “dream jobs” that included roofers, fast food cooks, and snow shovelers.
I am here to tell you that none of these jobs are the best climber jobs. The actual best job for a climber, without any shadow of a doubt, is to be a member of the French military’s 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade. Why?
Allow me to describe the group’s latest work trip.
Last Wednesday, October 14, Sergeant Konrad Piontek and Corporals Amaury Fouillade and Clovis Paulin stood on the 6,654-meter summit of Peak 41 in Nepal. On the 1,400-meter North Face, they had just opened a stunning new route linking long sections of vertical ice with burly rock roofs and pitches of deep snow. They called the line Bon Matin (ED+ WI5+ M6 A1 90° snow), which translates to “Good Morning.” (Not sure what “ED+” means? Check out this article about international alpine grades.)
The three first ascensionists were part of a team of six from the 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade, better known as the Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne, or GMHM. They had arrived in Nepal in mid-September along with a military doctor. After a period of acclimatization, the group split into two rope teams according to their skill level and how well each had adjusted to the altitude.
The Piontek-Fouillade-Paulin team eyed an attractive, unclimbed smear running plumb down Peak 41’s north side, to the left of a Korean team’s route from 2016. They began climbing on October 11 and summited after “four days of particularly committed climbing,” according to a statement shared with Climbing.
Over the 1,400 meters of the face, the team had to deal with numerous steep and poorly protected pitches, including sections of vertical snow. “We weren’t expecting pitches as steep as that, especially in snow,” said Corporal Paulin in the statement. But they also climbed what can only be described as truly classic mixed terrain: solid rock and squeaky ice, hanging above tons of exposure.
After summiting, the team descended the peak’s southeastern aspect via 15 rappels and significant downclimbing, turning their outing into one massive loop back to basecamp. “Reaching the summit was a real physical relief,” said Corporal Fouillade. “The mental release came later.”
What does the GMHM do?
Officially, France’s 10-person GMHM is tasked with “mastering extreme terrestrial environments, particularly vertical terrain and high altitude,” said a spokesperson to Climbing. This fluency in alpine terrain aims to contribute to the development of the entire French army’s mountain capabilities.
“The whole point of the GMHM is to practice high level alpinism,” said the group’s spokesperson. “What is learned regarding mountaineering or cold weather environments is passed on to the French mountain units, but the GMHM has otherwise no militaristic purposes.”
Similar mountain-military units exist across the globe, but—tragically—nothing so geared toward climbing excellence exists in North America. (If you happen to have a French passport and the pre-requisites, I’d be refreshing this recruitment page regularly.)
As far as we know, there is no fixed contract length for GMHM members; some alpinists have been part of the dream team for years and years.
In addition to one high-altitude expedition each year, the group travels to Greenland to teach the Groupement de Commandos de Montagne (literally: “mountain commandos”) about how to thrive in cold weather. They also take minor trips to develop rock and ice climbing skills, whether that’s locally in the French Alps or abroad to Yosemite. In plain terms, that means that 10 climbers get to occasionally don camo and earn a decent government salary to climb full time, around the world.
Did I mention the GMHM is the ultimate dream job?
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