The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) have successfully reached the summit of Everest with the British Army’s first male and female team. The eight-person team, with two supporting medical staff, placed two members of the regiment (Sgt Tim Beckett & LCpl Charlotte Alder) on the summit on 20 May at 0843hrs, marking the culmination of the HAC’s four-year Everest project.

All members of the climbing team reached 8,000m at Camp 4 (the South Col), thereby successfully completing the expedition’s overall aim: for all team members to experience extremely high altitude. This is a tremendous accomplishment for the HAC, one of the British Army’s oldest regiments, known for its long-standing reputation for excellence.

Key to the success and smooth running of the Everest Expedition has been the excellent medical support provided by Maj Nishma Shah and Jason Wing (paramedic, Iqarus) which ensured there were no injuries and only a few minor cases of altitude sickness.

This expedition is the final hurdle of a four-year journey that has seen over 200 soldiers and officers from across the HAC completing a variety of core mountaineering courses run by the Army Adventurous Training Group, with a final team of eight selected for the Everest expedition. 

This has included a training expedition to Chamonix in September 2023, in which 22 members of the HAC completed the Alpine Mountaineering Foundation course and summitted Gran Paradiso, a 4610m peak located in north-western Italy. Further build-up training for Everest took place in October 2024, where 16 members of the HAC conducted a three-week expedition to summit Himlung Himal (a 7,126m peak in Nepal’s Annapurna region) – becoming the first British military team to reach the summit. 

These expeditions have been conducted with the ambition of further building an adventurous mountaineering spirit in the British Army, promoting recruitment to the Army Reserves, and developing leaders within the HAC. Expeditions such as these are incredibly beneficial for core soldiering, resilience and leadership skills, with the overlap being substantial. 

The team also successfully collected glacial samples from around Everest and Himlung Himal as part of the Global Atmospherics Plastics Survey (GAPS). GAPS is a worldwide study into understanding microplastics, how they are transported and their environmental impact, an effort that is critical to gaining a better understanding the overall health of our ecosystem. 

Summit Team 1, comprised of Sgt Tim Beckett (1SQN), LCpl Charlotte Alder (3SQN) and LCpl Anvar Badakshanov (2SQN), left Everest Base Camp in the early hours of 16 May, before then climbing through the Khumbu Icefall and ascending to Camp 2 through the Western Cwm. 

Shifts in the weather window meant that Summit Team 1’s ascent to Camp 4 was more rapid than planned, with the team reaching Camp 4 two days later on 18 May. The two summiteers left Camp 4 at 2230hrs that same evening and then climbed up to The Balcony (8,400m), before then changing oxygen bottles and then ascending the South-East Ridge to Everest’s South Summit. From there they traversed the exposed Summit Ridge, climbing the famous Hilary Step and finally making it to the summit at 8,849m.

They spent around 30 minutes on the summit before safely descending to Camp 4 and then Camp 3 (7,000m) in one day. They were supported by an experienced team of Sherpas and international mountain guides.

Summit Team 2, comprised of Maj Simon Du Boulay (LONDIST, ex-3SQN), CSgt Brian Sharpe (A Battery), CSgt Rupert Field (1SQN), LSgt Robert Hamilton (3SQN) and LCpl Calum Matthews (1SQN), planned to summit on May 23rd, when the forecast looked more favourable. They left EBC on 19 May and arrived at Camp 4 on 22 May. CSgt Rupert Field and LCpl Calum Matthews were in a position to continue and began their summit push at 2130hrs. They reached just below The Balcony (8,350m), however unfortunately there were high winds of up to 60 mph on the South East Ridge. These were not predicted in the forecast and 100 climbers ahead had already turned round. 

Having reached just below The Balcony, Summit Team 2 consulted the highly experienced IFMGA guides and Sherpas, and eventually made the difficult decision to turn around. The entirety of Summit Team 2 departed Camp 4 later that day, with all members returning to EBC on 24 May. High temperatures and instability in the Khumbu Icefall had made any re-attempt of the summit too dangerous, with increasing risk of ice fall, ice cerac collapse and avalanche.

Following multiple successful expeditions, one of the key next steps is to establish a mountaineering group in the HAC to conduct future expeditions for the Active Unit. This will be in addition to spreading the incredible benefits of ambitious Adventurous Training across the Army Reserves, as well as providing support where needed for future expeditions.

Visit our gallery to see further photos of the expedition, here.

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