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Sailor takes on 350-mile Alpine challenge to help colleagues struggling with mental health
16 August 2024
Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Harrison Holland is crossing the Alps to help military and emergency service personnel wrestling with mental health issues.
While many sailors are using the traditional summer leave period to recharge batteries with a bit of well-deserved family time, the 28-year-old submariner is roughly half way to his goal – walking from Munich to Venice.
The submariner from East Anglia is hiking between the two great cities unaided – no back-up van or ‘sherpas’ to carry clothes/ supplies, it’s all in his backpack.
On paper, the journey looks a ‘mere’ 305 kilometres (190 miles) following a direct route running north-south.
In reality, it’s a tortuous, zig-zag route on foot nearly twice as long (570km/354 miles) over peaks and ridges and through mountain passes. There’s no luxury hotel at the end of each day’s trek, normally a spartan Alpine hut with a mattress on the floor or perhaps a bunk in a dormitory, plus food and fresh water.
As well as distance there’s altitude to contend with: a total ascent of 27,000 metres… or more than three times the height of Everest.
Thankfully, there’s nothing quite as formidable as the world’s highest mountain standing in the submariner’s way.
But there are a string of ranges in the Alps to conquer before reaching the Piave valley, Venetian plain and finally the famous city of canals.
Already conquered are:
the Karwendel Alps (on the German-Austrian border) with its high point, the Birkkarspitze, topping out at 2,749m;
the Tux Alps southeast of Innsbruck and a ridge walk across six summits;
the Zillertaler Alps, straddling the Austro-Italian frontier, including the Freisenberg Pass rising 2,904 metres above sea level.
Unlike climbing mountains, struggling with mental health is something that nobody chooses to do.
Now on Italian soil, Harrison has one major range, the Dolomites, standing in his way… and the small matter of nearly 300 kilometres until he reaches his goal.
He was inspired by his former HMS Ambush shipmate James Mazzoni-Dalton, who established the first yompathon in 2022 - a 3,863 mile trek to more than 200 military/emergency service establishments around the UK by seven former and serving military/blue light personnel to raise money for and awareness of mental health issues.
Despite high summer in the Alps, given the heights the range reaches there’s still snow to contend with; Harrison has conquered at least one ice field.
And while it warms up at lower altitudes, the stagnant water in the Alpine lakes are plagued by mosquitoes and flies.
Harrison says he didn’t want his summer holiday to be “a leisurely jaunt” – and it hasn’t been. It has offered some wonderful vistas and experiences: wildflower meadows grazed by chamois and marmots, the primeval desolation of shattered stone slopes, fantastic views of the Tux Alps at dawn.
“Unlike climbing mountains, struggling with mental health is something that nobody chooses to do,” he said.
“On the most perilous section of the Birkkarspitze, the climb is assisted by an iron rope. I like to think that just like this iron rope, donations to yompathon help provide support to firefighters, police, ambulance crew, soldiers, and sailors – when they most require it.”
You can support his yompathon at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/harrisonyompsalps