Cuts and crampons: the IML journey continues

Sophie Nicholson    trekkingholidays     Alps, climbing, France, IML, International Mountain Leader, mountaineering, trekking

It’s been quite a month in the Alps! After a July dominated by rainfall only previously seen on the West Coast of Scotland, August finally stepped up to the mark in terms of weather and the sun and rock lizards came out to play once more. Normal service has been resumed and it’s been a full-on month in terms of outdoor activity in the mountains .

Climbing skills, essential for an IML

Peppered with some serious road biking involving numerous ascents of the notorious Col de Joux Plane, most of the fun has been had on the rock and ice here in the Haute Savoie. August has revaled a whole host of firsts for me in terms of mountaineering experience – my first ‘girls only’ climbing day on the Chamonix crag of Les Gaillands in France, my first total meltdown on the multipitch Vipere au Pied at Barberine, and now I am the proud owner of my first set of stitches as a result of a crampon/leg combo whilst descending the Petite Aiguille Verte last week.

All have been fantastic learning experiences and I have loved every bit of  them all. Ok, ok…. perhaps losing my composure at altitude wasn’t exactly my proudest hour but what it did teach me is that I’m really going to have to work on my steep rock climbing technique if I’m ever going to be a complete climber! Some guy called Einstein did once say ‘in the midst of difficulty lies opportunity’ and as he’s considered to be quite clever, I think I’ll take his advice.

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Scuba diving or skydiving: can you take the pressure?

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts     diving, freefall, mountain climbing, mountaineering, parachuting, Scuba, Scuba Diving, trekking

Other than both featuring the word diving, these two sports seem largely unrelated. After all, throwing yourself out of an aircraft and swimming underwater couldn’t be more different.  However, scuba diving and skydiving share one significant challenge: pressure.

Yes, height above or below sea level affects the body – something any mountaineer or climber will tell you. When climbing to elevation the air thins, making it harder to breathe.

Trekking in Nepal, or sat in a plane climbing into the clouds, you may begin to notice altitude sickness when you pass 8,000 ft – as your elevation increases, the air pressure decreases, reducing the amount of available oxygen. Deep sea diving or scuba diving also stresses the human body: the deeper you go, the greater the pressure on your lungs.

Oxygen breathed from a scuba tank is at a higher pressure, and when you return from a very deep dive you need to spend a little time at set depths adjusting to the changes. That’s why returning from the deep, divers need to ‘decompress’ as their bodies move up into the ‘lighter’ water above them.

Briefly, the human body can be pushed to extremes, but when it comes to elevation above ground and depth below sea level, it really has its limits.

If you know about how the human body reacts to these challenges, drop us a comment – we’re always keen to hear from experts who can add their knowledge.

We’ve also got a new skydiving blog starting: 1,000… 2,000…3,000 Check Canopy!

Adventure sports ‘positive and enriching’ for women

Mark Pawlak    Adventure Sports & Travel Thoughts, overlandholidays, trekkingholidays     Adventure Sports, mountaineering, olympics, Overlanding, pentathlon, sport, triathlon, women in sports

Adventure sports have never been about who’s the strongest or the most aggressive: it’s all about the experience. Now while there are plenty of competitions to be enjoyed along the way,  for most people it’s about getting out there and having a good time.

In our exclusive interview with Danielle Sellwood, the founder of Sportsister, we find out how women see adventure sports and take a look forward to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Adventure sports at times have a very macho image, can this put women off trying them?

‘Yes I think so – not all women obviously, but on the whole yes.  I think anything that has an element of adrenaline or potential danger automatically brings to mind macho adrenaline junkies. On the whole women are not so confident and often assume that they would not be fit or strong enough and that they would immediately be way out of their comfort zone.

Danielle Sellwood

The reality is often very different, when women try more extreme sports in the right environment they often surprise themselves, and it can be a really positive and enriching experience. Equally though we hear constantly of women who try a sport with a boyfriend or husband and it all ends up with arguments and a bad experience, mainly because they are too ambitious, the woman loses confidence and they end up hating it!’

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