Exercise Northern Enduro was a mountain bike adventure training expedition, in Morizne, France. The exercise involved developing 18 OCdts from Northumbrian University’s Officer Training Corps, whose abilities ranged from competent to an intermediate level. The training consisted of lessons to develop personal skills and ability on the mountain. These were conducted with all the different levels of experience in mind, whilst being fun within a safe exposure to risk. The compact but acute style of the mentoring meant that a lot of new information and technique was acquired and put into practice each day, without completely exhausting the OCdts so allowing time to recover for the next day’s training. This report will outline the itinerary of the trip, the objectives, the challenges and benefits and some personal highlights of the exercise.

Itinerary The exercise consisted of a week in total, with 5 days mountain biking and one day white water rafting at the end of the week, with two days transit period. On the first full day of the exercise, the whole group were very much taken a-back by the skill level required. The terrain was challenging, with a technical requirement to match. We suffered a few dramatic falls and tumbles and everyone was a little shell shocked by the end of day one, and this only a blue route, a family route at that. We were all slightly apprehensive at this point as to what else the week had in store.

Day 2, and fair to say, everyone was feeling very nervous and a little sheepish on the first run of the day. We cycled across to the neighbouring resort of Les Gets where we attempted more blue routes. The group grew more confident throughout the day, but no day’s mountain biking was complete without a few minor cuts and bruises of course.

Day 3 and 4, the whole group were settling into the training and really hitting their stride. Some members of the group began to excel at a quicker pace but all levels of ability were easily catered for in the route with harder more challenging sections and ‘run offs’ for less confident OCdts.

Day 5 and the final day of biking, and I was personally devastated it was the last day. The group had developed dramatically and were now comfortably and successfully tackling red routes.

Day 6 we commenced a team building exercise of white water rafting. This was thoroughly enjoyable and still pushed our boundaries.

Objectives The objectives of adventure training are to push OCdts out of their comfort zone, learn to thrive in stressful situations and give something of an adrenaline rush. All of the above were successfully achieved on the exercise. The majority of the OCdts had never been mountain biking before and were definitely pushed out of their comfort zone on the very first day. As they became more comfortable the excellent instructors would push us on further again with a more challenging route. There was no such thing as an ‘easy’ run throughout the duration of the week which kept things enjoyable.

Challenges and Benefit It will be safe to say that the challenge of the week was indeed going back out the second day after the traumas of the first! The general consensus of the group was very nervous and very reluctant to go out on the second day, however we did all venture out and made vast improvements.

A benefit of the trip was how we all got to know one another within the group. Both OCdts and instructors were professional and serious when it mattered and able to relax and enjoy ourselves in the evening.

Personal Highlights My personal highlight of the trip was learning a completely new activity that I would never have done without NUOTC. At the start of the week I truly hated it, but by the end I was loving it! I was chasing the instructors down at the front of the group and picking up some serious speed and air time. I loved the trip and cannot wait to go mountain biking again. I enjoyed myself so much I am looking into obtaining a mountain biking qualification so I can go on the trip again. A truly fantastic trip made possible by the excellent staff and the enthusiasm of the OCdts. Truly enjoyed my experience and I cannot wait for next time.