Attempting the special forces, ‘Fan Dance’, with adaptive athlete, Justin Oliver Davis
In January 2022, I was lucky to hang out with adaptive mountaineer, Justin Oliver Davis, on his ten-year ‘bang-iversary’ (the day he was blown up whilst on overseas operations), to be part of his hugely impressive attempt to finish the ‘Fan Dance’, one of the hallmark fitness tests for entry into the British Special Forces.
If you don’t know what the Fan Dance is, it’s a military fitness test that is part of the selection process for the SAS (Special Air Service), SBS (Special Boat Service), and a number of others. The test is a 24-kilometre (15-mile) endurance march through the Brecon Beacons, a mountainous region in South Wales, UK. The route starts and finishes at the base of the Pen-y-Fan Mountain, and includes steep ascents and descents of it, as well as river crossings, on unstable terrain. The test must be completed within a set time limit, which varies depending on who the candidate is aspiring to join.
The Fan DAnce
After an early start driving up from Bristol with Stefan, a good mate from my volunteering with a disaster response charity, we meet on a dark and rainy Saturday morning in a road-side carpark, and there are a few other cars with their headlights on. Justin is a popular guy, his zest for life is infectious, so it’s no surprise that several his friends and former colleagues have come to join us, most notably, nurses and paramedics that treated him after the blast.
We start the route off around 8am to make sure we make best use of the available daylight. It’s January so the light is limited. Justin is a double lower-limb amputee so the is extra hard given the rough paths. We set off climbing up the lower hills of the ‘Fan and the chill starts to immediately disappear with Justin’s strong pace. I’ve bought my cameras to help document this day for him and so have to run off ahead of the group to film them as they stride past. It’s my favourite type of workout, heavy kit, going up hills, and a valuable output from it (other than the associated health benefits, of course!).
As we make our way over the rollercoaster of the foothills, the wind picks up, making the traverse even more challenging. We’ve got a big group of us and so we can take turns to make sure he’s upright, but not stepping in until it’s absolutely necessary – this is Justin’s day to prove what’s possible when everything seems bleak and uncertain.
We reach the summit of the Pen-y-Fan and bid farewell to the medic that saved Justin’s life on that fateful day he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED), and then carefully continue to descend ‘Jacob’s ladder’, a rocky and unstable staircase with incredible views of the beacons. By now, the wind is relentless, so I’m glad we’re dropping down into a more sheltered area! Whilst the going is unstable, Justin’s grit is relentless and inspires us all that are with him.
We get to the halfway point, and take 10 minutes to eat, drink, and make any adjustments we need to before going back through the terrain we’ve just experienced. But the return leg isn’t quite as simple as following our route back, the sky opens up and it starts snowing and sleeting to add another level to this challenge!
We climb back up Jacob’s ladder with a thin layer of snow and ice on the rocky slabs, making it impossible for Justin to get any grip on the slippery surfaces. But still, he cracks on, using his hands when his walking poles prove insufficient to keep him upright.
After 10 hours of hiking and scrambling, he reaches the finish line, jubilant at having properly marked his bangiversary.
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