Mud Sweat & Tears - Bear Grylls [45]
Only when the few remained would the SAS begin to teach and train those recruits in the real Special Forces skills.
Such training is very time- and money-intensive for the regiment, and there was no point spending such valuable resources on people who didn’t, underneath it all, have the right attitude and required fitness.
So phase one was to whittle, phase two was to train.
We had lost almost a quarter of the recruits from our squadron already, since starting pre-Selection; we were now officially about to start ‘Selection’ proper.
In the squadron barracks, we were escorted into the main campus area where all the bulk of the squadron buildings were. We were no longer just confined to a side block and the gymnasium.
This was at least progress.
We were briefed on what would be expected of us from now onwards, and then kitted out with our first military fatigues and basic equipment.
We were then shown our recruit locker room, lined with metal mesh lockers and red-painted concrete floor. This was to be our ‘home’ for as long as we lasted on the course.
The message they kept drumming into us was clear: ‘If you want it bad enough, you’ll pass.’
This whole first hill phase of Selection would be carried out in the wild Welsh peaks of the Brecon Beacons.
For the next six months the bulk of my time was to be spent sweating and slogging round these mountains: sometimes in soaring heat and blazing sun, surrounded by plagues of mosquitoes and drenched in sweat; then, later on in the year, ploughing through thigh-deep thick snow, cold and wet; and at times being near blown over by the force of the wind on the high peaks.
At times, we would be carrying up to 75 lb in total – roughly the weight of an average eight-year-old kid.
Both hypothermia and exhaustion were going to become the ever-present enemy, along with the timed clock. It’s a constant battle as your boots fill with water and your clothing turns stiff in the gale-force wind that sweeps across the Welsh mountains. Can you keep moving – and fast?
The whole selection process is about so much more than just physical fitness. It requires navigational skills, mental agility, self-discipline and a fierce determination to push on when your legs and whole body are screaming to rest.
The SAS can afford to be tough when recruiting. There’ll always be more people willing to test themselves by trying for the regiment.
Our first exercise in the Brecon Beacons was what they call a ‘guided tour’ – it sounded worryingly mundane.
We were to be escorted in small groups round the mountains, to show, practically, that we had a good grasp on the fine art of day and night mountain navigation.
Only then could they let us loose on our own.
As we climbed higher into the mountains, the DS gave us their advice and tips, learnt the hard way. Advice on how to navigate effectively, and how to cover ground efficiently.
I absorbed it all.
We took it in turns to navigate each leg, and we burnt up the miles.
About ten hours later, we had covered roughly eighteen miles, up and down the remote valleys and peaks.
Everyone was feeling the weight on their backs, and our feet were aching – but we were working hard and together, and it felt good.
We also got our first taste of one particularly high Welsh mountain that we’d get to know intimately. A peak synonymous with SAS Selection, and known to all recruits so well.
Finally, we stopped in some woods and rested for two hours at the foot of this mountain. I was wet through from the all-day drizzle and sweat, but I was excited.
We awaited darkness.
The next stage would be the first of many night navigation exercises.
CHAPTER 41
As night fell, we headed off in small groups into the darkness, in search of the first checkpoint or RV (rendezvous).
Moving at night through high mountain terrain was hard, and we were all soon fumbling around, stumbling into ditches and unseen bogs.
Night navigation is an art that we were soon to become experts in, but as of yet our feet, eyes and instinct