The University of Minnesota’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (AROTC) program continues to expand along with a growing presence on campus. One aspect of the UMN AROTC program is their participation in national competitions, where cadets take part in physically demanding events and races against other schools all across the nation.
This past weekend, from February 23rd to February 24th, the University of Minnesota’s Army ROTC program sent two teams to compete in the Northern Warfare Challenge. The Northern Warfare Challenge is an arduous winter race that tests the physical and mental limits of its contestants. The UMN AROTC’s Northern Warfare Challenge specialty teams are led by Cadet Alex Wimmer, a senior who also attends the University of Minnesota and currently studies Political Science and German.
“Northern Warfare Challenge is a competition that is held in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where typically you’ll race 16 miles up and down the bluffs of La Crosse, ending at Grand Dad Bluff. It also includes components of winter survival, such as fire building, knot tying, cold weather casualty evacuation (so taking care of somebody who has hypothermia and then learning how to get them out of that [situation]), and then finally, it also includes a written test on your basic knowledge about winter weather survival.” – CDT Alex Wimmer
On Friday, both teams engaged in these winter survival related tasks. These included successfully tying a variety of knots commonly used in extreme cold weather situations, fire starting with limited and specific items, and a knowledge based quiz on cold weather survival. While these skill related tasks may seem easy in comparison to the main event of the Northern Warfare Challenge, many teams were disqualified from failing to complete these tasks in a set time or had lost significant points towards their overall placement in the competition.
The highlight of the Northern Warfare Challenge is the 16.8 mile ruck march. Teams, with rucks weighing at least 35lbs., military replica firearms, and a variety of other cold weather equipment, raced in the cold weather and rough terrain of La Crosse. The course itself rose in elevation close to 2,000 feet. During the race, teams executed additional tasks as well, such as the handling and transporting a mock hypothermic casualty. Despite a rather warm winter in the upper Midwest, race day was well below freezing. Lack of snow in some areas would merely demand racers to move faster against their competition.
However, the physical risks and challenges of the competition were highlighted when one of the UMN team members sustained an injury that he would be unable to shake off and recover from. This team member would ultimately be alright, but had sustained injuries too grievous for the team to continue racing. Fortunately, Team B would come out unscathed and took 11th place overall in the competition.
“So yeah, we trained for about five months, starting last semester and then training over the course of last semester, over winter break, and then January and February, as the event was February 23rd and 24th. The season went well, we trained hard, we raced. We sent two teams, the first team unfortunately had an injury and was unable to complete the event. The second team did well. I’m proud of them and I’m sure they’ll come back and do even better next year.” – CDT Alex Wimmer
Ultimately, the University of Minnesota’s AROTC program will likely send teams to compete again next year, gaining more publicity for the program and attracting those who are interested in military careers and physical challenges.
