A TERRITORIAL Army squadron battled the elements to climb a Welsh mountain this weekend.

Soldiers from 131 Independent Commando Squadron, which has its headquarters in Kingsbury, donned helmets and bergens to scramble 600m up one of the steeper sides of Tryfan, in Snowdonia.

While for some of the more experienced soldiers the physical battle was easily won, the exercise helped hone the leadership skills and teamwork the soldiers will need when deployed in active service.

Major Mick Coles, officer commanding for 131, said: “We are against the weather, temperatures drop as you ascend, there's the slippiness on the rock which can come in places and also the equipment that they carry, which is about 45 pounds on their backs.”

After climbing Tryfan on Saturday they went on to do abseiling and practice climbing a cliff face using a rope ladder, yesterday.

Soldiers in 131 supply reserve troops to their full time counterparts 59 Commando which is currently deployed in Afghanistan and the mountain training could be needed when fighting in the country's mountainous areas.

They are engineers and play a key role in the army's hearts and minds battle, building infrastructure as well as fighting the Taliban.

The squadron already has soldiers in Afghanistan and more are due to go out.

Lance Corporal Mike Faulkner, who was deployed to Iraq during the invasion, said the exercise created the opportunity to practice “admin”, the basic procedures soldiers go through to keep their bodies and kits in working order.

He said: “It hones your skills because it's all about admin, working together as a team and working in tough environments. It's all going to come in handy.”

In addition to Iraq veterans, 131 has a number of former full time soldiers from 59 Commando.

This weekend's excursion will go some way to preparing the troops for an expedition into the Norwegian mountains in the spring, where they will train in arctic warfare.

The squadron will have to fight colder weather and stronger winds and survival techniques practiced in Snowdonia will be even more important to ward off conditions like hypothermia, frostbite and trench foot.

Sapper Delon Edwards, a former full time commando, said they are now the only people in the British Army who do arctic warfare training.

He said: “A lot of people think its out of date with what we do but obviously we can use it in Afghanistan and we don't know where the next war will be.”