Mount Hermon at sunset. The temperature is about -5C (23F) – cold, but not particularly challenging for the 22 combat troops in white overalls, carrying ski gear, Saar rifles, and tools for digging in the snow and ice, who are making their way to the highest point on the mountain – the Duvdevan outlook – for a nighttime drill. A red "snowcat" plow is out straightening the ski trails, the setting sun paints the snow with the last of the light, and the troops, in a long line, are making their way up to the highest point, which hours earlier was packed with visitors.
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The IDF's alpinist unit is one of Israel's better-known special units. In a hot country, where snow is rare, the unit specialized in survival and combat in extreme winter conditions. It was founded in 1974 as part of the lessons of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, after the IDF concluded that it needed to train combat troops who would be able to handle conditions like these.
The veterans say that winter was a particularly harsh one and brought several snowstorms. As early as April of that year, the troops were assigned their first mission – to occupy the peak of Mount Hermon. A contingent of 60 fighters from the unit and the Sayeret Matkal, commanded by then-Maj. Amiram Levin, fought Syrian commandos in a battle that ended with 12 dead on their side and about 30 Israeli wounded.
Since then, the unit is active on the mountain starting in December, when the first snow falls, until April – sometimes training through the Passover seder. They open routes, carry out ambushes deep behind enemy lines, and defend Israel's highest point, which is home to civilian communities as well as the IDF's most highly-classified intelligence facilities.
The unit is comprised of reservists, mostly Golani reconnaissance veterans. Their training generally lasts for years, but Israel Hayom is allowed a rare glimpse at the unit's new track. Golani soldiers who have just finished their compulsory army service – some of whom were on operations in the hills only a few weeks ago – have signed up for a shortened, especially intensive training course.
For the past nine weeks, they have been training in conditions they never believed existed in Israel, firing sniper rifles, spending hours building ice caves, breaking paths through the deep snow and raiding targets. The tough snow training included intensive training during the two major storms that hit Israel this past winter, dubbed Carmel and Alfis.
We are welcomed by company commander Capt. (res.) Amir Shukron, 38, who in civilian life is a high-tech employee in the investment and startup sector.
"I'm sorry I'm late. A UN delegation was just here for a visit, and I took a Nepalese colonel on a tour of the mountain. We're planning a joint drill this week," Shukron says.
We get into the "BV," the IDF slang for the Swedish Bandvagn 206 snow vehicle, which is designed to transport soldiers and supplies in severe weather conditions. It's already snowing, the temperature has plunged, and a strong wind threatens to blow over even the strongest of the troops. One wrong step will lead you to disaster. There is no room for error on the mountain.
Video: David Cohen/JINI, Defense Ministry
Staff Sgt (res.) Yonatan Menachem, 36, is driving. He has served in the unit for 15 years. When not on reserve duty, he is an information security researcher, also in high-tech, but every year he spends three weeks doing combat duty on the Hermon. "I'm here because this is my team," Menachem says. "We're all doing this together."
When we reach the highest level, a few hours before the drill begins, we meet the last of the tourists who are using the final hours of the day to snap selfies and throw snowballs. Shukron, entirely in white – including a white helmet, white snow goggles, and a white-painted gun, looking like something out of a thriller – is the subject of curious looks. But he's used to it and strides through the deep snow as if it were a sidewalk in Tel Aviv.
The white surface looks light and inviting, but stands more than a meter (39 inches) deep. "Stay away from rocks," Shukron recommends. "They collect heat during the day, and the snow around them melts. At night, it all turns to ice, and when it melts in the morning, it creates hidden holes."
He points as one of the mountain's most challenging ski trails, ignoring a snowboarder whizzing by. "I did my compulsory service in a Golani reconnaissance unit," he says as we walk. "In 2004 we were on an operation in the Shujjayya neighborhood in Gaza to find a tunnel that led from there toward the Karni crossing, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. We swept a suspicious chicken coops, and two explosives that were buried a meter and a half underground were detonated against us. Staff Sgt. Nadav Kudinski, a soldier in the Oketz [canine] unit and his dog Diablo took most of the hit and were killed on the spot," he tells us.
"I was moderately wounded. I had a torn retina, some of my teeth were broken, and [I had] shrapnel. It was a 600 kg. (1,300-pound) bomb that was designed to be used against armored vehicles, but we'd gone in on foot. As a result of my wounds, my [medical] profile was lowered, but I fought to get it raised and I started doing reserve duty as an alpinist. I've been here 17 years," Shukron says.
We follow Shukron in a line and reach the highest point of the mountain. We can see an outlook hiding in the snow, and suddenly, amid all this white, in a ravine surrounded by barbed wire, we see an advanced stage of one of the recent training stages – a hidden tent where the soldiers practice shooting, sniper fire, and spending the day in the snow, including building ice caves and preparing for nighttime operations. A few hundred feet from the tourists who flock to the mountain for a snow day, the shadow warriors work to keep Israel's northern border safe.
The alpinist unit includes a few hundred soldiers who spend a few weeks on the mountain every year. This is the only reservist force that carried out operations every year without exception. But despite regular infantry soldiers, the nature of their operations demands comprehensive training – from offensive mountain operations to staying in a snow or ice cave ambush for 72 hours. This is survival.
Standard training for members of the unit takes seven years, mostly because they are reservists who are not at the base all year round.
"It's a challenge," says Maj. (res.) Alon Stanhill, 27. "You plan a training session, inform the unit members of the date three months ahead of time, and in the end there's no snow that week, or there's a lockdown because of COVID."
""This is a very long, Sisyphean training track," adds Maj. (res.) Ofek Azulay, 28, from Kibbutz Hagoshrim, who as a civilian studies business management at Tel-Hai College.
"I was discharged from Golani reconnaissance four years ago, and since then I've done countless snow training sessions, each of which dealt with a different aspect of this hilly, snowy terrain. During the training, we acquire a lot of tools, including survival ones, because it's really cold here, and the battle has to fit in with the weather. I have to say that until I went out in a severe storm system last year and found that I knew how to find my bearings and get from one point to the next, I didn't really know if I could do this stuff. There are days when the temperature drops as low as -10C [14F], and you need to know how to function," Azulay says.
Because there is a shortage of new reservists for the unit, and some of the veterans need to finish their service, a couple of months ago the unit launched an unusual training scheme, taking an entire Golani reconnaissance team near the end of their mandatory service and putting them through a series of snow condition training sessions, one after another – from survival to snow combat to ski lessons.
We enter the small tent put up by the team in training and are met with a welcome and cup of hot tea that turns cold in an instant. Staff Sgt. Eitan Smolash, 21, from Kiryat Bialik, is putting snow into a small coffeepot and lighting a fire under it. "We've been on our own for over 24 hours already, and are due to be on the mountain for another three days," he says. "And when you only drink melted snow for three days, it lacks minerals and salt. So we add a third of a teaspoon of salt to every liter [of melted snow]."
Since the training started in January, half of the team has dropped out. Of the 40 soldiers who started, only 22 are due to complete it. "The soldiers who come have all the training and capabilities of elite Golani troops, and we take them one step forward – make them tougher, snow fighters, mountain fighter," Shukron says. "These people acquire a profession. I can't take soldiers, even from the Sayeret Matkal, and tell them, 'OK, you're alpinists.' The training includes knowledge, familiarity, and snow maneuvers. At first, they move on foot, and then with snow sandals and crampons – spiked sandals for walking on ice. Because this is a hot country, snow is a challenge. In the day, it melts, and at night, when the temperature drops, everything turns to ice. In Europe, things like these don't happen."
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"There are days here when you stick out your arm and can't see the end of it. Take ski injuries and add a backpack, weight, equipment. We've had cases of hypothermia, of serious injuries. It's enough to lose your bearings and the slope gets slippery very fast. Eleven years ago, there was a soldier who was going down an icy slope, a slope that had frozen because the day before the sun had melted the snow. He slipped and slid 200 meters [600 feet] really fast, and then his head hit a boulder. He lost consciousness, and we were forced to evacuate him by helicopter. Luckily, he survived, and even came back as a member of the unit, but the event gave him PTSD," Shukron says.
Staff Sgt. Yoav Attias, 21, from Jaffa, currently undergoing training, says that only a few of his classmates from the Alliance High School in Ramat Aviv enlisted in combat roles. He, as the son of deputy commander of the Golani Brigade Maj. Gen. (res.) Ilan Attias, saw no other option.
"In a class of 250, maybe 20 went to combat units," he says. "When I told my friends I was joining a Golani reconnaissance unit, they said I'd lost my mind. But for us, it's a family story. It's a matter of your upbringing. I don't regret it for a second. I think my friends in the 8200 [intelligence] Unit are jealous of me. Golani is the soul, because with all the difficulty and the constantly being pushed to the limit, it's an amazing place that brings you to a high level of strength, prepares you for the next challenges life has to offer."
"It's hard to spend two months out here, but you need to take the long view and understand that it's one step of an amazing experience, and on the other hand also a big responsibility, to yourself and to the citizens. It's not child's play," Attias says.
It's 5:30 p.m. The soldiers are preparing to set off. The tent is broken down quickly, the low snow walls built to protect them from the cold and the wind are destroyed to eliminate any sign of their presence, and they shoulder their big bags, strap on their skis, and head out. The goal – to take the peak.
If you imagined them charging through the snow, think again. They half-ski, half walk up the mountain, and stop for a moment to rest underneath the cable car station. "We are going at a monotonous pace so we don't sweat, because sweat causes hypothermia, and take short breaks so we don't get cold," Stanhill says.
Stanhill lives in Ariel and is studying for his BA in civil engineering. He just married his girlfriend, Miriam.
"We they heard I was called up for reserves, people gave me a look. My parents said, 'Reserve duty now? You just got married.' But I explained it was just part of life. Even at the wedding, at the company commanders' table, we sat around and talked about the training session. My wife understands," he says.
The soldiers are under the command of team leader Lt. Yuval Ben Avi, 24, a resident of Sde Avraham in the western Negev. "The first time I experienced snow was here, on this route, with a vest and a gun," he says. Ben Avi trained with the late Staff Sgt. Amit Ben-Yigal, a Golani soldier who was killed by a terrorist during an operation in Samaria in May 2020. "It's painful, and we'll feel the pain for decades more. There were a lot of operations at that time to find the terrorist who did it. He was relatively old, but there's no age for terrorism."
Q: What's it like to take the soldiers through a second 'basic training'?
"Really intense, and also unprecedented, but it's amazing. It's an exceptional physical effort, almost unmatched in the IDF, and the guys who do it for years deserve admiration. Our soldiers get the job done," Ben Avi says, adding that other soldiers who come up through different tracks might not be able to make the transition as well as the elite "Golanchiks."
For the IDF alpinists, there was life before a sketch about them aired on the satire show "The Jews are Coming," and there is life after it. The sketch, which was broadcast in 2016, suggested funny reasons why the unit should be shut down.
"The sketch is the first thing people bring up when you say you're in the alpinist unit," Shukron says. "It's offensive, and not only is it offensive, it's the opposite of the truth. We work in the harshest weather, with heavy weight, carry out a lot of operations and do a lot of reserve days. We all have babies and children, and in the winter, which is when kids get sick, we show up without asking questions. Our oldest member is 67, and he does everything, with all the weight, no one goes easy on him.
"Still, not long ago, I finished a seven-hour action on the mountain and when I got to the upper level, a civilian stopped me and said, 'Wow, some reserve duty you have. Better than wrapping ice creams.' Do you get it? I walk for seven hours, can't feel my back, and people think we get a ski holiday at the taxpayers' expense. Since winter started, I've done 37 days of reserve duty and I never skied once. I walk with a gun, a vest, an axe. It's dangerous – try skiing like that.
"For us, the best weather is a storm because then we practice all our capabilities. In the last storm, Alfis, I called the battalion commander to ask for a somewhat complicated training. He said, 'You're crazy, the whole army has halted training because of the storm and you want permission to go ahead.' But that's what we do."
According to Shukron, if the alpinist unit were to be shut down, "the mountain would collapse within a week."
"We're the only ones who are able to get around on the mountain in a storm. Whether it's a terrorist attack or a mother and son caught in a snowstorm, we're the only ones who can do anything."
A few weeks ago, Hezbollah published pictures and video of a special unit of its own undergoing snow training in Iran.
The IDF alpinists aren't perturbed by the footage, but point to it as more proof of the threat from the North.
"We aren't dismissive of the enemy, and give them credit for the experience they gained fighting in Syria," Shukron says. "We've gotten familiar with them for a while, but we don't actually see them, because they know they shouldn't get near us."
"The enemy demonstrates certain combat capabilities, and we don't doubt it for a second, but no one should have any doubt – we're the ones who will win that battle," he adds.
Q: What are the chances someone will show up here? There haven't been terrorists on Mount Hermon in decades.
"The chance is slim, but if we think and act that way, it could be to our detriment. Ultimately, it's a matter of them making decisions, and it could very well be that it's because of our activities. We are very proactive in the zone, in the severest storms and in the most difficult areas. There is no physical border here, and it's not difficult to get to the border of either Syria or Lebanon, so it's not impossible that terrorists could come here in an attempt to seize a lookout post or some other target.
"Our main role is to keep things quiet, to thwart any Hezbollah cell that gets up the courage to execute some showy action against one of our outposts or at the tourism site. We carry out a lot of operations, public and classified, on the roughest parts of the mountain, to prevent an incident like that."
The soldiers also say that the claims that their unit eats up budget funds are baseless. Because of the unit's special nature, they sometimes find themselves on the mountain without basic equipment and are forced to bring winter gear from home.
"Because we're a special unit, and our equipment is unique to us, we need to make specific requisitions, and it's a little more complicated for the army. We're fighting for it, and it will be OK," Shukron says.
The temperature continues to drop, darkness falls, and it's almost impossible to see what's happening. The soldiers continue to walk-ski for hours, and reach the Duvdevan post at 1 a.m. The structure is dark, and inside veteran alpinists are hiding in the role of the enemy. The soldiers take cover in the snow, camouflaged by their white clothing, and then burst in suddenly.
One orders them to launch a volley of fire. They shout and "take" the highest point in the country. The final drill has been a success.
Their training ends two days after Israel Hayom visits, and the soldiers are awarded the unit pin.
"This mountain teaches us every day to be modest," Shukron says. "As far as we're concerned, there's no problem if we stay behind the scenes and everyone just comes here to enjoy themselves, without knowing that operations are going on, some of which are secret. The enemy on the other side knows that we're here, because we take care that they know.
"The day the order comes, we are assigned not only to defend the Hermon, but also prepared to move north toward the Hermon in Syria or the villages near the border," he adds. "We're ready for any scenario – both in the summer and in winter, in the snow. There's a song that says 'Wars don't happen in the snow anymore,' but look at what's happening in Ukraine. We always have to be ready, so we work hard to create an active array. I think that the enemy will opt not to take any action, even a symbolic one. Because if he shows up, he'll pay dearly for it."
