Woman, 22, dies in 500ft Nevis plunge
you f***ers are doing it.” During a trek of nearly two miles pulling an 18.9st sledge, Middleton screams at the last four recruits: “Lo and behold, the last four are f***ing chicks. Surprise f***ing surprise.”
One woman I spoke to says throughout her interrogation, during which she was forced to strip naked, she wasn’t given any allowances for being on her period.
And as much as Foxy and his fellow comrades Matthew “Ollie” Ollerton and Mark “Billy” Billingham insist gender isn’t important, there are aspects of the new selection process which clearly make them uneasy. While Ollie agrees
there are “some advantages” to women joining the special forces, he argues they could change the “emotional dynamic of male and female interaction”.
Foxy says: “I would say emotional relationships are not a good thing when you’re getting shot at.”
Billy says: “Ninety per cent of our work is beyond the enemy lines. There’s a 50% chance every time we go there of getting captured. Imagine a woman getting captured? How we would feel? How the world media would feel?”
This year’s show follows 25 men and women in the Andes in Chile on the longest and toughest course yet designed. Over 11 days in a winter warfare environment, with high altitude and snow storms, the recruits are tested to the extremes of their capabilities.
I got a tiny glimpse of the conditions the recruits faced on the training day.
Dressed in fatigues and weighed down by a pack, I was put through my paces by Foxy, Ollie and Billy as I jogged, lunged, squatted and burpeed through acres of forest. I have run marathons but I felt far from fit as I hauled a log up uneven terrain and thick mud. This was nothing CHALLENGES The mixed group during a training day to what real SAS candidates endure – I wasn’t carrying the full 60lb load. And no amount of running can prepare you for a dive in freezing waters in December.
And then came the interrogation after we were captured by the “enemy”.
We were bundled into a van as gunfire and explosions rang out, with bags put over our heads and headphones blaring white noise. This mental test is somehow worse than the physical ones.
But the female recruits are undeterred. Midwife Louise Gabbitas, 29, of Cornwall, says: “I am stronger than some men I know – physically and mentally.”
Vicki Anstey, 40, of London, adds: “At no point did I feel patronised, no one was trying to help me out.”
The idea of women in the SAS might be a controversial one but if these recruits are anything to go by, they seem to be able to hold their own.
■ SAS: Who Dares Wins starts on Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.
Tell us what you think: yourvoice@mirror.co.uk
TREACHEROUS Ben Nevis A WOMAN was killed in a 500ft plunge at Ben Nevis on New Year’s Day.
The 22-year-old was on the Ridge Route between the summit of neighbouring Carn Dearg and Ben Nevis when she fell.
The unnamed Bristol University student was on a planned trip with friends.
The pals, also said to be studying at the university, were rescued.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue team said: “We had to recover a young climber who unfortunately lost her life following an accident on Carn Dearg.
“We pass on our sincere condolences to her family.”
She was the second climber to die on our highest peak in two weeks.
Patrick Boothroyd, 21, from West Yorkshire, died after a December 16 fall.