Monday 30 July 2012
Day Three: Operation food by Lisa Hinton.
The day got off to a good start today as the corridor rang out with cries of lost baggage arrival. This meant clean unborrowed pants for many. After yet another breakfast of two stale white rolls and apple jam (we think) the money changers were visited. This is an interesting venture for which it seems like the sight of the British clutching dollars lowers the exchange rate in a blink of an eye.
Then began the major, and somewhat comical excursion of the day - the food team descent upon the supermarket. This was a complex logistical procedure, involving much planning, purchasing and charm. Feeding 32 hungry people for ten days with no fresh fruit and veg due to storage time and legalities of Bolivian borders is no mean feat. The local supermarket did not know what had hit it when six expedition members ransacked it's shelves. Then the money arrived. All 2 million Chilean pesos concealed in a coat pocket. With nine trolleys of dried, dehydrated, packaged, long life food to get through the tills, we were not the Chilean's favourite people, especially as it was peak lunch hour. We then had the epic challenge of how to get all this food back to the hotel, a good ten minute walk away. This was done the sensible way - simply wedge ones trolley into the escalator, proceed out of the store and wheel them down a bustling high street back to the hotel under the escort of three shop assistants.
Once back the arduous task of divvying up the goods into 32 Corona boxed rations in the hotel lobby began, Operation Christmas Child style. Highlights of this included Russ opening a 1kg bag of hot chocolate over his shirt, shorts, feet and floor and the discovery that we had enough smash to feed 320 people!!!
And so with our rations ready and bags packed we say goodbye to Arica tomorrow and head up to the dizzying heights of Putre at 3500m...
Sunday 29 July 2012
Day 2: 'Testing Times' by Richard Allan
The conclusion to our 12,000km journey was a successful one. Following earlier baggage related mishaps we arrived with the remainder of our kit, sweeping low from the ocean over our desert landing. After meeting with Victor, from the tour company,(who did actually exist - that's a tenner you owe me Simon) we drove the short distance to Chile's northernmost town, Arica.
Arica itself has the air of a frontier town. We were deposited at our Hotel and after a brief freshening up break it was time for a briefing to bring the whole group up to speed on the research and how it was to be carried out. This being successfully achieved we were free to head into town to sample the local cuisine. This included, among other things, "chicken to the olive" and large sections of a cow's lower intestinal tract, preserved with original contents.
The more intelligent of our colleagues then headed back to the Hotel for a well needed sleep. Sadly intelligence is not something that medical students have in abundance and the decision was taken by a smaller group of us to throw ourselves into the local culture, in particular the Latin night life.
A few pisco sours brings us to the next morning. With only a mere suggestion of sluggishness on part of a few the team mobilised well and set about turning the hotel into a sea level lab. Although not directly involved in the days testing myself I observed a great deal of hardwork on behalf of many members of the team, allowing a great deal of top quality data to be collected.
Tomorrow, work will continue apace, with those not running stations or subjected to tests going in search of some R & R in the city.
Saturday 28 July 2012
Day 1 The Journey So Far by Paul O'Connell
All 32 of the expedition members arrived on time at heathrow with just one flat tyre between us. So far, so good, and there's much excitement in the air. Most of us with the notable exception of the exped leader Naomi, are wearing our striking blue 'Expedition Altiplano' t-shirts with the Alpaca emblem (soon to be our lunch).
The long journey ahead was fairly uneventful until the baggage carousel at Santiago airport failed to produce approximately half the luggage and equipment. Oh and then there was the sniffer dog incident with Tereza and the contraband agricultural produce incident with Luke.
We've been assured that the missing baggage will be delivered to the hotel in Arica tomorrow (29th), if not then there will be some considerable hurdles to overcome, not least of which will be making it to 6500m in a pair of trainers.
Luke's apple however will not be joining us in Arica because it has been resolutely destroyed by 'chemical reaction' (although this could be code for human metabolism). Luke somehow avoided paying a $200 fine for the smuggling of the fruit. We're not sure how he avoided paying the fine. He was missing for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile Tereza had successfully distracted the drug sniffer dog by making friends with it, but the fruit sniffer dog was not so easily duped and made a b-line straight for her hand luggage, closely followed by the Chilean Fruit and Veg Police. Tereza also narrowly avoided a fine and possibly a good 'fruiting' in the stocks.
The journey now continues from Santiago to Arica by air and we will see how much of our luggage follows.
The long journey ahead was fairly uneventful until the baggage carousel at Santiago airport failed to produce approximately half the luggage and equipment. Oh and then there was the sniffer dog incident with Tereza and the contraband agricultural produce incident with Luke.
We've been assured that the missing baggage will be delivered to the hotel in Arica tomorrow (29th), if not then there will be some considerable hurdles to overcome, not least of which will be making it to 6500m in a pair of trainers.
Luke's apple however will not be joining us in Arica because it has been resolutely destroyed by 'chemical reaction' (although this could be code for human metabolism). Luke somehow avoided paying a $200 fine for the smuggling of the fruit. We're not sure how he avoided paying the fine. He was missing for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile Tereza had successfully distracted the drug sniffer dog by making friends with it, but the fruit sniffer dog was not so easily duped and made a b-line straight for her hand luggage, closely followed by the Chilean Fruit and Veg Police. Tereza also narrowly avoided a fine and possibly a good 'fruiting' in the stocks.
The journey now continues from Santiago to Arica by air and we will see how much of our luggage follows.
Thursday 26 July 2012
Thank you!
A huge thank you to Lauren & Diane at Sevco Ltd for supplying our team tshirts - check out their details on our supporters page.
Only one sleep to go...
With all of the testing in the high altitude chamber at the University of Glamorgan completed, we are almost ready to depart. Check out our meet the team page (using the tabs above) to see an updated list of team members & roles.
Thursday 19 July 2012
Chamber photos...
Thank you to Lisa for sharing her photos for us all to see...(more are available on Facebook)
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Check this out...
Luke & Cath gain top tips from Sir Ranulph Fiennes on their graduation day!
Congratulations to you both on your graduation :)
Monday 16 July 2012
Monday 9 July 2012
A Chamber Experience...
Right up until the saturday night before, I had been looking forward to my chamber experience. Then, in the pub on the final team training weekend up in North Wales I heard all the tales of horror... sticky tape, sickness and stretched out hours. Comments like ‘you’ll look forward to that bit Jess...ha’ and ‘oh yes, that was horrendous’ don’t inspire much confidence!
And so dawned Test Day. After 12 hours of fasting and 24 of no caffeine, alcohol, exercise or oranges I arrived bright and early at the Glamorgan campus. Those yet to know me well, will soon discover that I definitely don’t function at my full potential with a lack of food! The day was an opportunity to test expedition members in the environmental chamber at the university. I was going to undergo a whole barrage of tests, first in our normal, fine South Welsh atmosphere (21% oxygen), and then after spending 6 hours in the chamber set to 12% oxygen, in order to simulate the oxygen levels found at 4500m. The data being collected both in Wales and when we are in South America is forming part of a number of research projects looking into the human response to hypoxia.
And so the tests began, and kept coming... and coming. First I was subjected to mental testing: put the pegs in the holes, dot-to-dot, 15 word memory lists and number recall. Then I underwent a 12 lead ECG for 5 minutes to establish my heart rate and pattern at rest. Then I became something of a sci-fi lookalike with wires everywhere: a 3 lead ECG, a blood pressure probe on my finger, oxygen sensors on my forehead looking at the oxygen levels going to and from my brain, a doppler (ultrasound) probe on my temple looking at the blood flow to my brain and a mouth piece wired up to measure my breathing pattern and gas levels. I was then subjected to 40 minutes of challenges: sitting still, standing up, doing squats, breathing high levels of carbon dioxide, hyperventilating and having both my legs tornequéd. All of these looked at how my brain and it’s oxygen levels were responding to each onslaught. Following this I then got to lie down for a while whilst, surprisingly, more tests were done. The response of the blood vessels in my arm were looked at using flow mediated dilatation: a blood pressure cuff was inflated for 5 minutes just below my elbow and then released whilst an ultrasound probe measured what happened to an artery above my elbow. They then used the doppler probes to look at the velocity of my circulation between my heart, radial, carotid and femoral arteries. A canula was then inserted and tube after tube of blood was taken, but by no means was that the worst bit. No, without a doubt that was the finger pricks! I’m not proud to admit it but the anticipation of what is about to happen coupled with the actual pricking of the end of my finger with a sharp implement made me yelp. But it had to happen so that they could gather info on blood glucose and lactate. The final test required skills in breathing out to look at nitric oxide levels.
This all took three and a bit hours, and so as the oxygen levels in the chamber were being reduced down to 12% I was informed I was allowed to eat! This was very exciting as the previous day I’d bought loads of sugary and delicious danish pastry reduced from my local Co-op (other supermarkets are available). Filled with sugary goodness and anticipation I entered the chamber and the door was shut.
Being in the chamber was a bit like being in a giant, noisy, silver lift. It was larger than I’d imagined, big enough to hold a bed, examination couch, exercise bike, and some testing equipment. I settled down to watch some downloaded nature documentaries having been tipped off by my fellow adventurers that the hours would drag. Almost immediately I felt the effects of the lower oxygen, I could feel my heart racing a little, considering I was sitting down. 10 minutes in and I was feeling exhausted, quite happy just sitting there doing nothing. After an hour in there my observations were taken: heart rate 80 bpm, oxygen levels 72%. And then, all of a sudden, I didn’t feel so good. With little warning I was sick, then I quickly felt entirely normal, had a chat with one of the Phd students in the lab who had come to sit with me for a bit, and then I settled down to a second episode. 30 minutes late...bleergh...sick again out of the blue! I felt a bit disheartened, imagining how terrible it would be on the expedition if I was going to be sick all the time. Apart from sickness I wasn’t suffering any other symptoms, no headache, no funny vision. I now had about 2 hours left before the next lot of tests would begin again. It was a long two hours, filled mostly with feeling nauseas, calming myself down, feeling nauseous again, worrying about how I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before, and worrying about how embarrassing it would be if I was sick mid-testing with the mouth piece in.
Then my time was up and testing began again in the chamber at the 12% oxygen to measure my results in hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions. Mentally I didn’t feel too sluggish and I only really struggled when having to do the squats, which made me feel very faint and sick. After all the tests were complete and another puddle of my blood had been taken (more finger pricks), I had the final hurdle to get over: the ‘exercise test to exhaustion’. Exhaustion comes quickly at altitude, and after 3 minutes on a reclining exercise bike my legs could take no more. More blood was taken (and finger pricks) and the nitric oxide breathing test was repeated. Then came the second most unpleasant part of the day, the removal of all the extremely sticky sticking tape and ECG pads, with an audience. I was then free to go, and just under 8 hours after entering the chamber I breathed ‘normal’ air, which felt very thick, and feeling slightly groggy I returned home.
So did the altitude chamber live up to all those horror stories? Well it was definitely an experience, and it certainly had its unpleasant moments (finger pricks), but it was also very interesting (as were the nature documentaries) and I must admit, it’s a pretty cool thing to have done.
By Jess Christley (Expedition Team Member)
And so dawned Test Day. After 12 hours of fasting and 24 of no caffeine, alcohol, exercise or oranges I arrived bright and early at the Glamorgan campus. Those yet to know me well, will soon discover that I definitely don’t function at my full potential with a lack of food! The day was an opportunity to test expedition members in the environmental chamber at the university. I was going to undergo a whole barrage of tests, first in our normal, fine South Welsh atmosphere (21% oxygen), and then after spending 6 hours in the chamber set to 12% oxygen, in order to simulate the oxygen levels found at 4500m. The data being collected both in Wales and when we are in South America is forming part of a number of research projects looking into the human response to hypoxia.
And so the tests began, and kept coming... and coming. First I was subjected to mental testing: put the pegs in the holes, dot-to-dot, 15 word memory lists and number recall. Then I underwent a 12 lead ECG for 5 minutes to establish my heart rate and pattern at rest. Then I became something of a sci-fi lookalike with wires everywhere: a 3 lead ECG, a blood pressure probe on my finger, oxygen sensors on my forehead looking at the oxygen levels going to and from my brain, a doppler (ultrasound) probe on my temple looking at the blood flow to my brain and a mouth piece wired up to measure my breathing pattern and gas levels. I was then subjected to 40 minutes of challenges: sitting still, standing up, doing squats, breathing high levels of carbon dioxide, hyperventilating and having both my legs tornequéd. All of these looked at how my brain and it’s oxygen levels were responding to each onslaught. Following this I then got to lie down for a while whilst, surprisingly, more tests were done. The response of the blood vessels in my arm were looked at using flow mediated dilatation: a blood pressure cuff was inflated for 5 minutes just below my elbow and then released whilst an ultrasound probe measured what happened to an artery above my elbow. They then used the doppler probes to look at the velocity of my circulation between my heart, radial, carotid and femoral arteries. A canula was then inserted and tube after tube of blood was taken, but by no means was that the worst bit. No, without a doubt that was the finger pricks! I’m not proud to admit it but the anticipation of what is about to happen coupled with the actual pricking of the end of my finger with a sharp implement made me yelp. But it had to happen so that they could gather info on blood glucose and lactate. The final test required skills in breathing out to look at nitric oxide levels.
This all took three and a bit hours, and so as the oxygen levels in the chamber were being reduced down to 12% I was informed I was allowed to eat! This was very exciting as the previous day I’d bought loads of sugary and delicious danish pastry reduced from my local Co-op (other supermarkets are available). Filled with sugary goodness and anticipation I entered the chamber and the door was shut.
Being in the chamber was a bit like being in a giant, noisy, silver lift. It was larger than I’d imagined, big enough to hold a bed, examination couch, exercise bike, and some testing equipment. I settled down to watch some downloaded nature documentaries having been tipped off by my fellow adventurers that the hours would drag. Almost immediately I felt the effects of the lower oxygen, I could feel my heart racing a little, considering I was sitting down. 10 minutes in and I was feeling exhausted, quite happy just sitting there doing nothing. After an hour in there my observations were taken: heart rate 80 bpm, oxygen levels 72%. And then, all of a sudden, I didn’t feel so good. With little warning I was sick, then I quickly felt entirely normal, had a chat with one of the Phd students in the lab who had come to sit with me for a bit, and then I settled down to a second episode. 30 minutes late...bleergh...sick again out of the blue! I felt a bit disheartened, imagining how terrible it would be on the expedition if I was going to be sick all the time. Apart from sickness I wasn’t suffering any other symptoms, no headache, no funny vision. I now had about 2 hours left before the next lot of tests would begin again. It was a long two hours, filled mostly with feeling nauseas, calming myself down, feeling nauseous again, worrying about how I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before, and worrying about how embarrassing it would be if I was sick mid-testing with the mouth piece in.
Then my time was up and testing began again in the chamber at the 12% oxygen to measure my results in hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions. Mentally I didn’t feel too sluggish and I only really struggled when having to do the squats, which made me feel very faint and sick. After all the tests were complete and another puddle of my blood had been taken (more finger pricks), I had the final hurdle to get over: the ‘exercise test to exhaustion’. Exhaustion comes quickly at altitude, and after 3 minutes on a reclining exercise bike my legs could take no more. More blood was taken (and finger pricks) and the nitric oxide breathing test was repeated. Then came the second most unpleasant part of the day, the removal of all the extremely sticky sticking tape and ECG pads, with an audience. I was then free to go, and just under 8 hours after entering the chamber I breathed ‘normal’ air, which felt very thick, and feeling slightly groggy I returned home.
So did the altitude chamber live up to all those horror stories? Well it was definitely an experience, and it certainly had its unpleasant moments (finger pricks), but it was also very interesting (as were the nature documentaries) and I must admit, it’s a pretty cool thing to have done.
By Jess Christley (Expedition Team Member)
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