The Evolution of the Mountain Hunter

To 1990. 1990-2000. 2000 to present. Pretty neat.

See the whole set at http://www.mapn.ro/fotodb/29012005

This post has been edited by Radu on January 30, 2005 01:32 pm

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it looks like an evolution from town militia to anti-terrorist squads

Sorry guys, but I just don't like the commercial orange-coloured skis...
But the difference in only 10 years is quite incredible! The soldier posing with equipment from 1990 looks like someone from W.W.II, with that long overcoat. The only piece of equipment that can betray his real era is the Romanian-made Kalashnikov.
And I agree with Indrid: the "present" figure reminds me more an anti-terrorist squad than a man from a mountain troops unit, with all those fancy add-ons.
Will search some photos of the Spanish Army mountain troops and I will post them here.

Ruy

Where are the white socks over the boots on the present day uniform?
The Alpini keep their crow feather on their helmet to out days. Btw, only a couple of mountain battalions have modern skis. The rest still have the old wooden ones. Modern climbing and skiing equipment is pretty expensive.

Ski equipment like the orange one in the picture can't cost more than 100-150$ (or 300-400$ when brand new), because from what it looks like, it's a set of used equipment bought at 2nd hand stores or brought from home (AFAIK it's quite usual that the conscripts or professional personnel in the Mountain Hunter units use their own personal ski gear) because I don't think the military tech specifications allow the aquisition of winter field gear in bright fluorescent colors!
Nevertheless, for the time being it's better to be fluorescent but modern, because the old-style ski gear with cable bindings and leather boots are a recipe for mass ankle fractures! Those were pretty good for skiing on snowy flat plains or roads but are awful for people that ski in the military for the first time and straight on mountain slopes! On the other hand the alpine gear like the orange one is suitable only for going downhill in the mountains; it's unusable when going up or on horizontal surfaces.
IMO the solution to this situation is using alpine touring gear which is a hybrid good for both ascent and descent. Unfortunately these are indeed quite expensive for Romania (at around $1000 for an average new set of skis + bindings + boots + the special climbing skins for the underside of the skis).

Later edit: on a closer look the skis in the photo might have skins on them, but I don't think the boots and the bindings are the alpine tour type but old-style alpine descent type. I'd say that if indeed they're fitting the units with such complete equipment it would be a major improvement over the past.

This post has been edited by valachus on January 31, 2005 11:22 pm

From: http://www.ejercito.mde.es/organizacion/brczm/index.htm


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Also:

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Also from Spanish Army mountain troops

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Also from Spanish Army mountain troops

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Also an interesting section from that spanish site:
http://www.ejercito.mde.es/organizacion/emmoe/index.htm

well we throw every tradition that we have ... why not the white socks
That was the distinctive mark for Mountain Hunters . Than and the Green beret with the hooded jacket ...

The green beret is still in use,and white socks was removed because in summer(or spring,autumn)season was too visible in camouflage gear,for an enemy sniper for example.The mountain hunters tradition was not throw,even if in 1961 russians try to eliminate this elite troops from our army,but Mountain Hunters corp was rebuild in 1964.About other mountain troops from all over the world,i dont think is better than us,mabe just have some better equipment categories.

valachus, I wasn't referring just to winter equipment, but also to climbing equiment: harnesses, splippers, rope, helmets, carbines, eights etc.

Well white socks could always be part of the ceremonial uniform of mountain hunters even if is not used anymore in the training uniform.

I am curious about one thing...How do we rank as specialised mountain troups?
How much specialised equipment we have?(I know we had mountain guns,and MLVM's, what about other things)

This should be an interesting read: http://www.presamil.ro/OM/2004/16/pag%207-9,14.htm