Ripcord Adventure Journal #8

RAJ 2.4

Volume 2 | Number 4 | Second Edition

A Letter from the Editor Welcome to Ripcord Adventure Journal.

Our final issue of volume 2 is quite a mixture of adventure and exploration of the world's polar regions, deserts, oceans, mountains and jungles.

In our Guest Editorial, Leon McCarron ventures in to the hills of Jordan as part of his 1000-mile journey on foot, across the Middle East, when he encounters an unexpected musical interlude on a lonely hillside.

Planning is essential for major expeditions, even more important to have several back-up plans in case the first one or two, or three do not pan out as expected. Mark Wood brings us behind the scenes of planning for a polar expedition.

Technology in the classroom has been touted for more than 2 decades as the next big thing. Here, Joe Grabowski, whose nascent organization "Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants" has demonstrated that indeed technology can be the medium by which exposure to new and exciting educational contexts can be brought in to the classroom from the real-life connections with explorers, conservationists and scientists in the field.

Former Marine Commando, John Sullivan gives us an introduction to what it takes to survive in the desert using the skills and experience he has built up from his time in the forces, leading expeditions and working with film crews on location.

What does it take to circumnavigate the globe on one's own, what drives an adventurer to take on and complete such demanding challenges? Erden Eruc takes us with him on his life's journey across oceans and continents.

Finally for this isue, we catch up with emergency medical doctor Claire Grogan and Mark Hannaford of World Extreme Medicine to discuss the fast-paced world of extreme medicine.

We aim to be the home of authentic, adventurous travel, which serves as a starting point for personal reflection, study and new journeys. We hope you enjoy reading this free digital Journal and encourage you to share it it widely.

On behalf of the editorial, writing and design team, I wish to acknowledge our sponsors, the World Explorers Bureau and Redpoint Resolutions (Mark Cohon, Thomas Bochnowski, Ted Muhlner, Martha Marin, John Moretti and all the team).

Tim Lavery Editor in Chief, Ripcord Adventure Journal www.ripcordadventurejournal.com www.ripcordtravelprotection.com Ripcord Adventure Journal Copyright June 2017 by Redpoint Resolutions & World Explorers Bureau.

Assistant Editor: Méabh Lavery All articles and images © 2017 of the respective Authors.

Cover image © Mark Woods. Inside Cover image © Leon McCarron.

Second Edition © 2017 Ripcord Adventure Journal has been typeset in 11 point Garamond and uses US English spelling.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although the publisher has made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the authors and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

For permission requests, general enquiries or sponsorship opportunities, contact the publisher: info@ripcordadventurejournal.com

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

Jon Krakauer "Into the Wild"

RIPCORD ADVENTURE JOURNAL

2.4

Editor Tim Lavery Assistant Editor Meabh Lavery

Featuring Leon McCarron Mark Wood Joe Grabowski John Sullivan Erden Eruc Claire Grogan Mark Hannaford

Advisory Board Shane Dallas Paul Devaney Dr Terry Sharrer Charlotte BakerWeinert Bill Steele James Borrell Publishers World Explorers Bureau & Redpoint Resolutions

WWW.RIPCORDADVENTUREJOURNAL.COM

Contents Lone Piper of the Jordan Hills Leon McCarron

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Plan D Mark Woods

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Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants 19 Joe Grabowski How to Survive in the Desert John Sullivan

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Haven't You Started Yet? Erden Eruc

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Expedition Medicine Claire Grogan & Mark Hannaford

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Contributors and credits

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Image opposite Š Leon McCarron In the Jordan Hills 1

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Lone Piper of the Jordan Hills 2

Leon McCarron Text & Images © Leon McCarron

Lone Piper of the Jordan Hills Leon McCarron

I’m lost in my own head. It’s been nearly two days since I saw another human. I’ve taken to watching beetles when I stop walking. London feels a long way away.

Hours pass and I don’t notice. Things that impact upon me: hunger, heat, noise. Those three things are the only way into my world.

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Suddenly the valley walls around me begin to sing. I wonder if I have finally gone crazy. Birds scatter from the crevices in the sandstone; one rock looks like a human skull, and the flying beasts emerging out of it are disconcerting. The sound though is beautiful - a human voice projecting out from the natural theatre of stone. Then an instrumental break; a flute solo. A chirpy tune starts up, high notes trilling their way back down the valley. I’ve lost interest in beetles now.

On the hilltop, I see a figure; at first a silhouette, then features. It is a young man, sitting side-saddle on a donkey.

To the left side of his face he holds a metal tube and his eyes are closed as he concentrates. This is the source of my wilderness concert.

The pace of the shepherd is slow. He plays his own soundtrack as he rides towards me, a Biblical flock of goats leading the vanguard. With the timing of a true professional, he finishes his tune and jumps off to shake my hand. I tell him in bad Arabic that his playing was beautiful. He sidesteps the compliment. It all comes from the shababa, he says - his instrument. We drink tea and he plays some more. I try; I used to play the tin whistle pretty well. I try an Irish jig on the shababa and embarrass myself. More tea is poured to cover over the moment.

The pot empties and the piper leaves. I forgot to ask his 3

Lone Piper of the Jordan Hills Leon McCarron

name. He jumps back aside his donkey and begins to sing once more. A few minutes pass and he’s gone, over the far hillside. The echoes of his song slowly leave the valley in his wake.

I’m back where I was. Back to the beetles, and onwards down the valley.

This short story is taken from Leon McCarron's 1000 mile walk through the Middle East, from Jerusalem to Mount Sinai. A book – The Land Beyond: 1000 miles on foot through the heart of the Middle East – will be published in late September.

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"A traveler is really not someone who crosses ground so much as someone who is always hungry for the next challenge and adventure."

Pico Iyer

Interviewed in the Smithsonian.com

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Plan D

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Mark Wood

Text & Images © Mark Woods

Plan D Mark Woods

My initial thought for this assignment was that I could write about my next expedition which is happening in 2018 but to state the obvious, it hasn’t happened yet. It’s very easy to talk about a journey but a lot harder to make it happen.

If I had lived during the days of the great pioneers of ice exploration, then, if I was lucky, I would have been one of the men scrubbing the decks of the Endurance or Discovery.

In this modern era of exploration if you have the desire to explore, the opportunities are far greater.

In most countries, anyone can be an “adventurer” – there are enough professional guiding companies to help support your dreams. There are also a few individuals like myself, who like to take these journeys a step further, by exploring on our own terms - if you have the experience, the time and funding then these kinds of adventures are possible.

In the Golden Age of polar exploration, if anything went wrong on the expedition, the emphasis was very much on themselves and self-sufficiency – rescue could be months, even years away, if at all. However, nowadays it’s very different. We must acknowledge, that there exists a real responsibility to the rescue teams who could potentially risk their own lives to extract failed expedition teams from the ice and bring them home safely.

Global warming is having a profound effect on how and where we explore – my journeys are about heading into these fragile, cold areas of our planet, to film the reality of what we are moving through. I connect with schools around the world to communicate the issues we face with changing climate and as a non-scientist myself, I link-up with climate experts to verify and explain what we have seen. It’s a new way to explore but we are governed by the ice and by the

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Plan D Mark Woods

rescue teams who have the final say on whether we can operate or not.

In 2016, I came back from the North Geographic Pole – physically exhausted and mentally battered. Our team sat together and made a documentary called A Race Against Time, based on what had just happened. For the first time ever, the expedition was almost two thirds of the way in even before we had set foot on ice. The instability of the arctic ice prevented our team from even setting out on the journey.

One of our team members Paul “Vic” Vicary looked at the chaos we had just got back from and commented, that based on our initial mission statement we went from Plan A to Plan D.

Expedition name: A Race Against Time

Team members: Mark Wood, Paul “Vic” Vicary, Mark Langridge

Mission Statement: “To film the harsh honest reality of how global warming has affected the Arctic Ocean through the eyes of modern day polar explorers.”

Outline: Over the past two years we have liaised with logistics’ teams from the Canadian and Russian Arctic to find a suitable starting point along the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

This has proven to be extremely difficult.

The following report is based on the original mission statement of the expedition and is a detailed breakdown of events leading up to the expedition. The reason for this detailed analysis is to show how modern-day exploration is determined not only by sponsorship and the skill of the team

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Plan D Mark Woods

but also by the commitment of support teams that pledge their lives to this environmentally sensitive and dangerous region of our planet. It is a direct reflection on how global warming is now affecting polar travel.

Post expedition analysis by Mark Wood

Plan A Canada - first approach

After years of inserting and extracting teams on the ocean, in 2015, the Canadian logistic operators Ken Borak Air (KBA) stopped all flights for the 2015/16 seasons. This was mainly down to two reasons which parallel each other. The first was the unpredictability of the ice, making it difficult for their Twin Otter planes to judge a strong landing point; the second reason, was that some of their new pilots did not have enough experience landing on sea ice, especially above 87 degrees north. This is roughly 180 Nautical miles from the North Pole and over 300 NM from the Canadian coastline.

Once a team passes 87 degrees, heading North to the pole, KBA would require 2 planes to support each other just in case one fails.

Each member of team has had military and rescue experience so we understood KBA's concerns and respected their decision.

Plan B Russia - second approach

We then took the expedition to the Russian logistic team VICAAR - historically the main problem with starting from their coastline was that satellite images would show up to 40 NM of open water. This would mean a drop off on ice and if

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Plan D Mark Woods

possible we wanted to avoid this. It is generally recognized that within the polar world a coastal starting point to the North or South Poles or even areas such as Greenland would be recognized within the historical stats.

We are not glory hunters or flag wavers but if we were to commit to a tough, long-range journey across the Arctic Ocean, this would be our preferred option. The good news was that eight months prior to the expedition we had sanctioned a drop-off of aviation fuel along the coastline to support our own insertion when it would happen.

During the flight the pilots reported the ice was solid and safe to land on - which meant a coastal start was possible, but we would need to set off at the end of winter to ensure solid ice, operating in temperatures below -40 C. The ice status was verified by VICAAR just weeks before our due departure date.

During our pre-expedition planning with VICAAR we had many hours of emails and phone calls arranging contracts and trying to deal with a lot of red tape. One problem was obtaining the required Russian visas, so we recruited a private company in London to support our team members in processing them quickly. This was achieved and up to 4 weeks before departure the expedition had a green light.

I then received an email from VICAAR informing me that the group visa had been refused and as it was a government decision we didn't receive a reason and we were not able to contest it - even though we tried, twice!

We can only speculate about British and Russian political issues at the time but in reality, we were left in the dark. As this report will outline there was a mass military exercise

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Plan D Mark Woods

with over 100 armed Russian paratroopers at the North Pole when we eventually headed out. The timing of this was too coincidental to not rule it out as one of the reasons they didn't want a British team skiing through the middle of a military operation. However, this is just speculation.

Plan C North Pole reversed

Our motto for the expedition was “Always a Little Further” and our mission statement as stated above outlined our belief in the journey. We spoke to the VICAAR to see if they would support a drop off via helicopter at the Geographic North Pole to attempt a reversed expedition to the coast line of Canada. They agreed to do this and also stated that their rescue support would only extend to 87 degrees north from the North Pole.

Our next obstacle was to go back to the Canadian logistics team at Ken Borek Air, to request support for a possible rescue from 87 degrees North to the coast line. To do this, I felt we needed someone in the exploration world to vouch for our experience and professionalism.

At the time that we were evaluating how best to persuade the Canadians that we needed their support, we received some devastating news. Our expedition Patron, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley had died on the 24th January 2016 while attempting to complete the first solo and unaided crossing of the Antarctic.

Henry was a British Army officer and a friend of the team. In fact, Vic, Mark and I had been on Henry’s previous expedition to the South Pole in 2010, a century after the race to the South Pole that gripped the world, we had attempted

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Plan D Mark Woods

to retrace the steps of Scott and Amundsen.

The day his death was announced I was invited to appear on BBC Newsnight to talk about Henry and the dangers of exploration. The following day I was contacted by Steve Jones who was the Antarctic Logistics Base camp manager and had been supporting Henry.

I shared our challenge with Steve and he also knew of our expeditions over the years in both the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Steve knew the team at KBA and immediately agreed to help and put forward our request.

KBA agreed, which was remarkable in a year in which they had closed their doors on a lot of expeditions. As their commitment was below 87 degrees this would mean they would only have to use one plane to organize a pick-up. So, the expedition was back on.

Svalbard - Longyearbyen.

We left London Heathrow with 6 sledges and 29 pieces of luggage on the 23rd March 2016. The team trained from a small town called Longyearbyen on the island of Svalbard – an archipelago in northern Norway. Constituting the westernmost bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea, and the Greenland Sea.

We had arrived early in the season to be inserted into the North Pole which would give us the valuable time we needed to cross the Arctic Ocean. After a week of preparation which consisted of testing equipment and going over routines on the nearby glacier - we awaited confirmation of our departure to a temporary Russian ice station called Camp Barneo. Our agreement was that we would be dropped off

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Plan D Mark Woods

on the first technical flight - the first flight sets up the 800 meter runway on the ocean and the second flight (potentially our flight) brings in the rest of the ground crew.

The drop off date we were given by the Russians was the 1st April and the Canadians made it abundantly clear that their last pick up on sea ice would be the 5th of May with some leeway if we were progressing well to the coast. So, we had 35 to 40 days to cover the distance, tough but achievable with the training, experience and mindset of the team.

A Waiting Game

Unfortunately, our wait for the flight was delayed 3 or 4 times due to the report that the runway at Camp Barneo was cracking under the unusual movement of the ice. Extensive cracks appeared in the area which is situated 30 miles from the North Pole. In previous years there had been signs of cracks and open water but not to this extent. This was unprecedented and we had no choice but to sit and wait.

It came to the 8th April and we then needed to speak with the Canadian team at KBA to discuss our time-limited expedition which now had been reduced to 20-25 days. KBA had been monitoring our progress and were becoming increasingly worried by our delay, especially as they had seen that for 180 NM off their coast line there was extensive ice rubble fields - this is extremely difficult to cross. Even experienced polar teams would have to move slowly through this area probably covering 6 NM per day. At this point of the expedition we would hope to be covering over 10 to 15 NM per day.

The more serious issue was that if we encountered any difficulty in this extensive area it would be almost impossible

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Plan D Mark Woods

for a plane to land - so their concerns were real. As a team, we made the tough decision to abort the attempt from the North Pole to Canada - the reality of climate change was truly affecting the expedition long before we even had the chance to set foot on ice.

As mentioned before, this is the point when we learnt that the Russian government had launched a military exercise with their Parachute regiment and over 100 soldiers were based at Camp Barneo. Aside from the Visa issues we had encountered we speculated that it was this activity that had delayed our insertion date of the 1st April and the cracked runway was only part of the story.

Plan D The Mission statement revisited

Throughout this whole procedure, we were determined not to be distracted from the original Mission statement, “To film the harsh honest reality of how global warming has affected the Arctic Ocean through the eyes of modern day polar explorers�

We approached VICAAR with a request to be inserted on to the ocean via helicopter at 88 degrees north to cover the last two degrees to the North Pole. We received a negative response from VICAAR who wanted to drop us closer to the pole as the ice was extremely unstable at 88 degrees. Their helicopter crew had reported seeing mass open water and fast-moving ice. We held tough on our request because we had all of the flotation equipment and training necessary to deal with this and our main objective was to capture this unusual activity anyway.

A Green Light was given and at last we finally received the

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Plan D Mark Woods

go ahead from VICAAR that our expedition could commence. The condition however, was that if we couldn't reach the North Pole due to problems crossing the ice then they would pick us up on the 26th April from whatever point we had reached by then. Even to the last hour we were being drained of our expedition. We agreed but we didn't go into the expedition with the same attitude - we were determined to reach the Pole and document the experience, after all, this was our entire reason for being there.

Within 24 hours we touched down on the hard-cold ocean ice having viewed the devastation of the ice from the helicopter window for over an hour. They dropped our team onto the arctic ocean and as the helicopter disappeared from view, we became the most remote team in the world during the warmest season ever recorded, heading towards the North Geographic Pole. The expedition on ice had begun and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

The one memory I have at that point, was the silence, which was incredibly deafening. I then became aware of the creaking of the ocean below, followed by the shifting surreal movement of the ice around us.

There are many individuals or teams around the world who lay out their plans to run an expedition. Whether it’s mountains, sea, ice, jungles or deserts, planning and preparation is the key to the success of the journey.

The amount of blood sweat and tears you need, to even get the expedition off the ground is almost heart-breaking, for every positive in the build-up there are 100 negatives. The desire and belief that you are doing the right thing combined with the passion to see it through is generally the fuel that will allow you to finally attempt your journey. But don’t

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Plan D Mark Woods

expect glory or recognition, if you are in this for fame then you will be disappointed. If you are in it for experiencing how incredible this planet is and how truly remarkable your own life can be then its worth every bit of sweat and tears.

Remember if you take up the title of explorer, adventurer or even professional camper then act accordingly.

With over 30 major expeditions to date, Mark Wood has reached the Magnetic North Pole, the Geomagnetic North Pole twice, has completed solo expeditions to both the Geographic North and South Poles. He has been involved in major BBC and Channel 5 documentaries and over the years has trained and led people to the extremes of the planet.

Mark aims to communicate globally with schools around the planet, to have open discussions with students about climate change, cultural differences, and thinking differently about life.

His own award-winning documentaries have shown the life of dog teams in Alaska, a solo survival film in the extremes and more recently a complex cutting edge expedition film showing the harsh reality of global warming and its effect on the Arctic Ocean as his team crossed to the North Pole.

Mark is ranked in the top 5 communicators in the world on the Skype in the Classroom platform and has traveled over 3 million Skype miles by connecting with children in 34 different countries.

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Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants

Joe Grabowski Text & Images courtesy of Joe Grabowski

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Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants Joe Grabowski

A decade ago I spent a year bar-tending and traveling in Australia while my future wife went to teachers’ college in Wollongong. It was during my adventures Down Under that I realized I wanted to share my passion for science, nature and exploration with future generations, and upon returning to Canada completed teachers’ college. After a couple years, I realized that I wasn't accomplishing my goal, at least not on the scale I wanted to.

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I began using technology to start opening my classroom to the world, connecting my students to some scientists during a biodiversity unit. They had a blast and we quickly set a goal to connect with 50 scientists, explorers and conservationists.

Joining an expedition on an active volcano in Italy, hanging out in a penguin colony in Antarctica and chatting with Fabien Cousteau from the bottom of the ocean barely scratches the surface of our 52 connections that year. After a more reasonable 25 connections the following year, it started to really bother me that only 25 or so students were benefiting from these experiences.

In the summer of 2015 I launched the non-profit Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants, with a goal of bringing science, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms through virtual guest speakers and field trips. Since launching, we have run well over 300 Google Hangouts with tens of thousands of students taking part. Each month we run 10-20 Google Hangouts, but we also run full day events celebrating themes like women in STEM, oceans, biodiversity and space exploration.

This is all 100% free for classrooms, but we do seek out grants and sponsorships so we can give back to innovative research, expedition and conservation projects around the 19

Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants Joe Grabowski

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world.

A classroom favorite is following expeditions around the world. We'll often connect with adventurers and explorers before, during and after their return from an expedition. One of our first was the Amazon River Run, Tarran Kent-Hume and Olie Hunter Smart were getting ready to kayak the length of the Amazon. We connected with them in Peru before departing, in Brazil part way through and back in the UK upon their successful return. At the moment, we're following several expeditions including Paul Salopek's walking of our ancestral migration from Ethiopia to Tierra

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Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants Joe Grabowski

del Fuego, Kate Leeming's preparations to attempt fat biking across Antarctica and Adam Shoalt's 4,000-mile journey across the Canadian Arctic.

With the help of a grant, I've been able to fulfill a goal of bringing classrooms to the most remote regions of the planet.

With several textbook sized BGAN units and satellite time, we now have the ability to video broadcast from pretty much anywhere on the planet. The units are sent out with various explorers and scientists, returned and sent out again. The first hangouts were from Abaco in the Bahamas with the National Geographic Blue Holes Expedition, exploring Abaco's blue

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Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants Joe Grabowski

holes and mapping them in 3D. We recently broadcast from Clipperton Atoll, the most remote coral atoll on the planet and currently one of the units is in Belize, doing weekly broadcasts for classrooms with archaeologists at an ancient Mayan city. Next school year we'll start more live streaming, including in 360 Degrees and on Google Hangouts with classrooms to catch exciting happenings in the field.

It’s been a wild ride and has led to a journey to the Galapagos as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and being named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic this year.

Personal accomplishments aside, the goal of Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is to help create global citizens by introducing students to important issues, new places, strong role models and exciting career paths.

The scientists and explorers who take part in the hangouts with students often share that they remember a time they saw a documentary, read an article or met someone that inspired them and totally changed their path. My hope is that through these connections, little 'A-ha' moments are happening in our classrooms.

Joe Grabowski is a Science and Math Teacher and Founder of Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants.

In 2017 he was acknowledged by National Geographic as an Emerging Explorer and is a member of the prestigious college of fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. @GrabowskiScuba | @ebtsoyp

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“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.�

Samuel Beckett "Westward Ho"

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How to Survive in the Desert

John Sullivan 24

Text & Images Š John Sullivan

How to Survive in the Desert John Sullivan

Former Royal Marine Commando, John Sullivan is a hardened survivor, operating in some of the world’s most hostile and wildest locals. Owner of Elite Survival Training, a UK based survival training company, acting as a motivational speaker, adviser to TV production crews and survival expert.

If you could have three items when stranded in the desert what would they be (besides a lot of water)?

Personally, I’d need a personal locator beacon to be maximize my chances of being found by an emergency search team.

They’ll need to know where I am and they’ll know my exact location. I’d also like a GPS so I can know where I am and track my own location in an otherwise featureless environment. Finally, a satellite phone to call in search teams and arrange a pick up. Failing that, I’d need a positive mindset, you can’t predict what’s going to be thrown at you when exploring so having belief in your own abilities and knowing how to react to changing circumstances is essential.

How can you orient without a compass when lost in the desert?

Your best bet is a watch, that’s why I’m always seen wearing mine. If it’s not noon and you want to find directions during the day, an analogue watch with minute and hour hands can be used as a makeshift compass. If possible, make sure the watch displays the correct time and point the hour hand at the sun. Whilst holding the watch still imagine an angle formed by the hour hand and a line from the 12-noon position to the center of the watch. From there, draw a line through the middle of the angle. That line will indicate South in the Northern hemisphere. During daylight savings time,

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How to Survive in the Desert John Sullivan

use the one o’clock position over the 12 noon position.

If you’re caught in the Southern hemisphere, point 12 noon at the sun, instead of the hour hand. Then use your imagination to create an angle between the hour hand and a line from the 12 to the center of the watch. The line bisecting that angle is North.

At night, provided it’s clear, you can use the stars to navigate, looking for the North Star will allow you to keep your direction.

How do you deal with the heat when exposed to the sun?

Your priority should always be to minimize sweat. Keep your skin covered, even though you probably think wearing less will keep you cooler. If you must travel anywhere, do it early in the morning or late in the evening, once the sun has cooled. From 11am-2pm you should try to rest in the shade, to avoid the harshest of the sun’s rays.

If I don’t know where I am, should I try to go north, south, east or west? Should I always stay in the same direction?

The first thing you’ll want to do is mark in the ground where you found yourself lost and use that as your starting position. It’s far better to head back the way you came rather than pushing forward into the unknown. Believe it or not, people tend to hope they will find their way back by doing this. If possible, find some high ground so you can see as much as possible. Also try looking for signs of life, whether that be vehicle or animal tracks. Animal tracks will all inevitably lead you to water, then all you need to do is sit and wait for a search team as this will assume that’s where you’ll

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How to Survive in the Desert John Sullivan

head and stand the greatest chance of surviving.

What kind of food should I take on a trip to the desert?

First, you’ll want to factor in how much water you’ll need to cook your meal. For example, rice and pasta are most likely no goes, as they’ll need a lot of water to rehydrate and they’ll make you thirstier. Tinned food such as corned beef and spam, along with tuna and vegetables is always a safe bet. In an emergency, you should carry several energy bars – army ration meals that can be eaten cold and don’t need to be prepared would be the ideal – such as beef jerky and boiled sweets.

Is there any way to find some food, and how do I know if it is edible?

Food will be almost as limited as water. The desert is such a harsh environment so wildlife and plants will be minimal, and those you find are more than often hostile. If you are lucky you might be able to kill a snake, however for obvious reasons, you may not want to tackle one head on. Looking for footprints in the morning may lead you back to animals that are active at night and if you’re lucky – may have the opportunity to set a trap for the following night.

Where can I find water (and purify it if found)?

Finding water is going to be your greatest challenge in surviving. Looking for green vegetation is a sure bet that there’s water nearby, however, it may be deep underground.

Dig down and collect as much as possible. To purify it you can filter out the dirt using a cloth, such as your shirt or any cloth you have available. If you can, boil it up and if the water is really bad, collect the steam in a cloth and wring it

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How to Survive in the Desert John Sullivan

out into a separate container. Another way to obtain water is by building a solar still with plastic sheeting (an opened-up carrier bag will do) and some form of container.

If I only have five litres of water left, how much water should I drink per day?

Naturally being in a survival situation can be incredibly stressful, which will only heighten your thirst. Rationing is crucial. However, don’t deprive yourself unless completely necessary, as becoming dehydrated may lead to you becoming delirious and reduce the positive effects on him.

Personally, I’d try to ration 1.5 liters a day, however I’d also make sure I was resting in the daytime whilst it’s too hot.

Anything strenuous should be done in the cooler parts of the day to reduce sweat. Find shade and rest up.

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John Sullivan at a desert camp in Jordan

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Haven't You Started Yet? Erden Eruc Text & Images © Erden Eruc

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Haven't You Started Yet? Erden Eruç

In February 2009 during my human powered circumnavigation, I landed on the shores of Papua New Guinea. Upon my return there later, Philip would tell me: “now even the villagers on the hills know about you, the man who came from the sea in a yellow boat.” On that February day, Philip along with other villagers came out from shore in four dugout canoes, traditional vessels with an outrigger on one side. A lone truck driver had spotted me at sea earlier from a dirt road on a hill and had driven ahead to alert them in the Kamlawa village located a few miles north of Finsch Harbor.

While bailing water from his own canoe with a tin can, Philip with a happy attitude said, “we came to rescue you.” I was in a purpose-built ocean rowing boat in which I had just spent 21 days on the Bismarck Sea and was not in any danger. With gratitude, I thanked them then they confirmed that a wharf was available in Finsch Harbor where I could tie my boat. I rowed my boat to that wharf in the company of their four canoes. I could hear children from the Kamlawa village screaming in joy as they ran along the waterfront weaving among shrubs and coconut trees. A crowd gathered at the dockside then watched me patiently for three days; taking their turns to intently observe my every move on the boat.

During the first two days, it was the men who formed a wall of flesh on the edge of the wharf with their long bush knives, their universal farming tool, held firmly in their hands. If I didn't know any better, I could have felt threatened. Later, the women began to approach and with them came children of various ages. The earlier stares with intent without saying a word, were replaced with playtime and the wharf became their playground; I was amused to watch their daring diving stunts.

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It is a curious experience to have become part of a local legend in a faraway land. I wonder how the story will differ after a few generations and what the children will hear from their elders about my journey which touched their community. I also visited a primary school while in Kamlawa; I don't know if any of my own stories were ever incorporated into the local version.

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When asked to explain what I was doing, I told them that I was on a walkabout and that I was a storyteller, that I visited different places on my journey and gathered stories. My job was to become the best storyteller. I explained that I was going to tell about the kindness that I received in Kamlawa for example, and the world was going to know.

In March 2003 while the Alaska Highway was still snow packed, I rode my bicycle through Fort Nelson in British Columbia in Canada toward Alaska. Earlier while at Fort St. John also in British Columbia further south, a First Nations man had brought his two children to meet me for breakfast, asking me to “tell them about my vision.” They perceived my journey as a vision quest, a journey toward wisdom. They then had alerted the Fort Nelson First Nation of my arrival unbeknownst to me. I was greeted on the highway at Fort Nelson before being invited to visit the Chalo Elementary School in their village.

Though a common occurrence during the tourist season, I was the only bicyclist on the icy roads at that time. I was on a bicycle with studded tires, carrying front and rear panniers and towing a trailer loaded with my climbing gear for a climb of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Wearing heavy clothing to stay warm, keeping a water bladder next to my back to keep it from freezing, I was a spectacle on the move. I have learned that everyone sees what I do through their own mind's eye,

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and that their respective life experiences determine what they see in what I do. Children were no different.

“Aren't you afraid?” They asked me, and when I enquired what I should fear, they would tell me about their own fears.

“Aren't you afraid of the bears?”

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“It is winter, they are asleep.”

“Aren't you afraid of the trucks?”

“They change lanes.”

“Aren't you afraid of loneliness?”

“I’ve got you” and so on.

I urged them to think that fear should not stop us from what we envision to do. We usually fear what we don't know, but by seeking knowledge we can learn how to handle fear.

Without realizing, the children were telling me about their own fears and all the reasons for why they would not attempt what I was doing. I demonstrated and told them that with proper preparation and hard work, it is possible to accomplish our dreams. I would later realize that if I slightly detached myself from the encounter, I could have taken on the role of a virtual mirror. Questions asked about my journey would provide hints about the individuals asking them.

I always found the fourth through eighth grade students to be the best age group to address. I could hold their attention through a structured presentation. For them anything was possible, children of this age group were open minded and 33

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Rowing across the Pacific Ocean in December 2007, day 168.

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they appreciated that the world was a big place, exciting adventure stories captivated them. With younger children, I learned that the best contribution I could make was to spend quality time together, talking about bugs and bears and sharing pictures of the creatures of this world. I would play along, allow them to set the pace and dwell on any image that entertained and intrigued them. The important thing was that each student had an example or an idea about how a lifetime of involvement with sports could help someone.

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In all my primary school level gatherings, I have been serving to create a series of learning moments to grab their full attention, which could be used to deliver important messages to remember. My messages are woven into my stories like the fables of La Fontaine; I touch on my own mistakes which they should avoid, I regularly engage them in topics including wellness and caring for the environment.

I am fifty years old now, and I like having children guess my age. I ask children about what one needs to do to maintain a level of fitness for what I do. They usually offer ideas from good food to sufficient sleep to regular exercise. My goal is to leave them with a non-smoking message. If they don't smoke they can play catch with their grandchildren, I tell them, knowing full well that most grandparents are no longer physically active. These children crave such attention and my message resonates with them so they will not forget.

Power of Dreams Dreams are the fertile ground where the future is shaped.

Beware what you think for you may decide to act on it, I had read somewhere. From a young age, I have been involved in various sports and physical activities. At the age of 5, my father took me up Mt. Erciyes, an almost 4000-meter extinct 36

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volcano in south central Turkey. When I was in middle school, our teachers brought a black and white television to the classroom then told us to pay attention. We watched astronauts walk on the moon that day. I had read Jules Verne books, been watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries, and I was ready for the obvious leap of imagination. I can be an astronaut, I thought to myself. Given time though, I reasoned in my child's mind that all astronauts were American but I was not, therefore I could not be, unaware of cosmonauts at the time, and never pursued the thought from then on. No teacher was aware of my internal processing; they had not done any follow up exercises after the events.

My parents could not have known; I was a boarding student.

When I was at the age of 15, I was in Belgium where I came across an issue of the National Geographic magazine dedicated to the 1963 first American ascent of Everest. I had to look up the word bivouac in the dictionary to understand the articles; I can climb Everest, I told myself. Perhaps because I was older by then, that idea has never left me since.

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In 1997 at age 36, I found myself standing often in front of a world map hanging on the wall of our software development lab in Washington, DC in United States. I was pursuing a successful consultancy career, yet when I shifted my gaze out the window, I pictured myself on the final steps of a difficult snowbound summit, or on a steep big wall climb. My dreams never had any corner offices or worldly possessions.

Visualization had been happening, wiring my brain in different ways than required for a life in the office.

That world map had the Americas on the right, the Pacific Ocean in the middle and the Old World on the left. I traced my finger over that map one day right to left from Washington, DC to Turkey, and even gave it a name: 37

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Top: March 16, 2013 - With officers and the other awardees James Cameron and Chris Nicola during the Explorers Club Annual Dinner where I was awarded a Citation of Merit.

Above: July 2011, making progress in Zambia.

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Top: May 2012 - On my approach to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico, birds migrating north from the Yucatan Peninsula to continental USA found respite on my boat. This is an Eastern Wood Pewee that I practically had to hug to capture this image.

Above: May 2010 - A road sign unique to Australia on the Nullarbor Plain: watch out for feral camels, wombats and kangaroos.

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“Journey Home.” What if, I asked, what if I could do it by human power? That became a quiet obsession followed by numerous how-questions. How would I find the time, how would I obtain the funding? Each how-question was a problem to be solved. It was easy tracing paths on a map; maybe I would not stop in Turkey and I would keep going until I returned to DC. I would have to contend with crossing the Atlantic Ocean on my way, which is when I discovered the Ocean Rowing Society in London. As an engineer, I was already wired as a problem solver, now I was on familiar turf.

Peer pressure There is only one thing that is certain in life which holds true for all ages: if we believe that we cannot be, then our subsequent actions ensure that outcome. However, if we begin with the belief that we can, our whole intention changes, we recompose to apply our time and resources toward that positive goal, focusing our energies to make it happen. Our place in the world is the result of consecutive decisions that we have made at critical junctions in our lives; those decisions were necessarily aligned with our goals and the probability of success that we assigned the same.

Children don't know that yet, and I want them to catch each other whenever they utter the words “I can't” - an expression which comes so naturally to them.

Call me devious, I trick the students after I share my astronaut story, by asking them who wants to be an astronaut. Many times, it is something none of them had even considered. One or two hands go up often with hesitation but invariably few others laugh at these future cadets. That scenario never fails, always providing me with the opportunity to talk about negative peer pressure.

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In adults, this takes on a different form where cynicism is billed as critical thinking. When I shared my thoughts with others about Journey Home early on, I quickly found that not everyone needed to know. Have you done anything like that before, was a typical response. Books never turned me down; one of the books that I read was titled “Ultimate High” about the Swede Göran Kropp, who had bicycled from Sweden to Nepal towing his climbing gear on a trailer, and had climbed Everest solo in 1996.

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When I finally met Göran in person in Seattle during the summer of 2001, his first two questions to me were: when are you starting, and, do you have sponsors. I then hesitated about whether to begin my journey because the 9/11 events which provided yet another excuse to wait. When I later met Göran in Ouray Ice Park in Colorado in the winter of 2002, he would ask me “haven't you started yet?” – I remember feeling uncomfortable giving my excuses. That is an example to positive peer pressure.

When I declared in 2003 that I was going to bicycle from Seattle to Alaska in winter conditions to climb Mt. McKinley, I knew to ignore the cynicism. If I bicycled 50 miles a day, I knew I could reach Alaska by mid-April before my team arrived for our scheduled climb in May. Those who had asked whether I had bicycled that far before, did not bother showing up at the starting line on February 1st. I would reach Anchorage on April 11th.

Children need to hear such stories often to learn to identify around them the few nurturing individuals who will affirm their aspirations and to avoid those who will damage their self-esteem. Our legal counsel Christopher Beer had told me when we were filing to establish Around-n-Over as a nonprofit: “surround yourself with good people and the dream 41

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will take care of itself” -- likewise we often tell children to choose their friends well, for good reason.

Willingness to commit Dreams do not become reality without deliberate action. I remember myself uttering “a dream without action is only a pipe dream,” during a presentation to students at the Hutch School in Seattle for children of families with cancer.

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Everything has a price, there is no free lunch. It is easy to remain in our comfort zone to avoid the tough choices in fear of failure. I used to think that when I found sponsors I could begin my journey. I had a career to advance and a job which paid the bills. Mortgage on a condo with a lake view near downtown Seattle required a steady income. I was a creature of habits, wanting certainty before action.

In September 2002, I received an email from Göran telling me that he was back at his home in Issaquah east of Seattle after another successful ascent of Everest. We quickly decided to go rock climbing for the first time together in eastern Washington State. Tragically, Göran fell that day on a relatively short pitch and died while on my belay. That event shook me deep within, forced a reconsideration of my priorities. I was not one to hide in a corner feeling sorry for myself. What came out of that accident was a firm belief that I was the chosen one, that there was a reason for why I was there, and that life was short.

During the flight on the way back from Göran's funeral in November that year, I drew the world map on a piece of paper and marked the highest summit on each continent except Mt. Vinson in Antarctica. I would carry out my circumnavigation, and I would also reach each of these six 42

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summits by human power in honor of Göran's memory.

First to reach was the highest summit in North America, namely Mt. McKinley in Alaska.

When I contacted Göran's sponsors, I received a loud silence.

Before the accident, that would have been a valid excuse to postpone the journey. The time for excuses was over; no longer were they going to dictate my destiny. With the blessing of Nancy, my then fiancée, I cashed out my retirement funds and began pedaling north. Before my departure, the legal paperwork for Around-n-Over was filed, my living will and powers of attorney left in Nancy's care.

Our team summited McKinley on 29 May, and Nancy married me in Alaska following my descent.

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This was only the beginning. After my return, we sold our second car and the condo in favor of lesser expenses. We rented first, then bought a townhouse at half the mortgage obligation. We acted to roll equity from another property that I had owned in Washington, DC into a profitable rental unit. We took advantage of lower mortgage rates to reduce our monthly expenses.

By the time I launched on the Pacific Ocean in 2007 to begin my westbound circumnavigation, I had bought a rowboat and had used it once already for a solo practice row on the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands near north-western Africa to the Caribbean Sea. Nancy and I had rearranged our lives to survive on one salary, totally committing ourselves to the journey. I had even gained Aktaş Holding from Turkey as a major sponsor. The departure became possible after the tough choices we had made together with Nancy.

That day at the Hutch School, I was in front of children a 43

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family member of whom was under treatment for cancer. I told them that death will happen around us in our lifetime.

Rather than death itself, we could focus on what to do with that experience. After Gรถran's death, I had changed my own path drastically, yet they were still so young. Could they start by telling how they loved the ailing one, or promise the same one that they will be strong, caring, honorable, honest, and hardworking individuals with integrity?

The question perhaps all of us should ask ourselves is whether we should wait for a disruptive event like death, or layoff, or divorce, or childbirth to shake our foundation before we take the proverbial first step on a journey of a thousand miles.

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November 2009 - a magnificent beetle that I found during the north to south traverse of Papua New Guinea using the Kokoda Track.

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Creating value for the society When preparing for my journey in the aftermath of Göran's accident, I felt the need to incorporate the venture. I was introduced to our legal counsel Christopher Beer with whom to consider our options. A non-profit corporation with a mission to educate and inspire children was the outcome. I did not want my journey to turn into a chest beating exercise and I was passionate about creating opportunities toward children's education.

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Once we had a stable board of directors, our charitable work became better defined. We seized opportunities to partner with another non-profit called İLKYAR to help boarding school students at primary school age in rural Turkey, and with African Environments in Arusha on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro to build additional classrooms at a local secondary school.

As athletes, we often receive generous support from the society; recognition is just one of the rewards that come with success. We have a choice to handle that success responsibly and to pay back the society for the privilege. When that any worthy endeavor can be leveraged to benefit the society becomes our intention, we will find the ways. I was never invited to schools when I was working as an engineer. Now that I am, influencing the next generation through my stories is just one of the ways.

Motivation through goal setting What if I cannot finish my circumnavigation, was one of my questions early on. It was such a huge undertaking, daunting in scope and overwhelming in duration. In front of me was a 45

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typical fishbone diagram which fed input from four distinct boxes into one which represented results and success. The four boxes to populate had men, money, materials and methods as their respective titles. But to what end? The final box contained the key... If I engaged as many children as possible to broaden their horizons, ran an accountable nonprofit true to its mission, created as much value as possible for my sponsors, and made as many friends as possible around the world during my journey, then I would be in keeping with my intentions.

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When I focused on our performance along the way rather than on the outcome at the end, the fog lifted, I gained clarity of purpose. I could take this seemingly impossible goal, which was literally as big as the world then divide it into tangible relevant bite-size intermediate goals. Perhaps our team members could take on some of these tasks, and with their individual skills could deliver better results. I certainly did not have the time to juggle all the responsibilities. My job was to improve the significance of our non-profit programs, to better myself through the wisdom gained during my journey, and to enhance the quality of my observations for better storytelling. If world events got in the way, or an ailing family member became a priority in my life, I could look back and say: “we've done well!”

The US Marines have coined the expression, “difficult we can do now; impossible will take longer.” What they left out of “difficult” was whether it was realistic. Every step along the way toward that long-term goal has to consist of achievable short-term goals. If dreams give us ideas, it is the goals which provide us with the roadmap. If these goals are very specific and performance can be measured upon their completion, we can then press ourselves for meeting timelines. If we are falling short on resources such as time, money or talent, we 46

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can consider prioritizing the tasks. Unless there are dependencies among the tasks where one cannot begin the next step until completion of the previous, then prioritizing will relieve the pressure for performance. At any given moment, the top three focus areas can be retired once addressed and a new selection can replace them. It is the pursuit of excellence, not perfection which makes the difference. And none of this is possible unless we can take a moment to think ahead and make a plan.

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I was able to overcome the inertia created by an unwieldy dream by breaking it down into stages. Then by seeing progress because of my efforts, I was able to remain motivated and to maintain my momentum.

Dream big If we know how to handle big dreams by defining a longterm goal and breaking it down to its intermediate milestones, then we should not fear big dreams. In other terms, an insignificant dream will mean under achievement of our potential.

Taking part in the Olympics is every athlete's dream, and why not? As long as the athlete and the coaches and the administrators surrounding the athlete are all aware of the seriousness of the undertaking, it can be a valid dream.

Measuring our performance against others who are best in their field will magically force us to set higher standards for ourselves. Other than nature versus nurture debates which could be had at this point, limited time also must be considered.

If we accept that we have a limited time to achieve our dreams, then big dreams will mean many small steps or fewer 47

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Top: Oct 2010 - Rowing on the Indian Ocean northwest of Madagascar.

Above: Sept 2009 - Beach walking along the Solomon Sea shores in Papua New Guinea.

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Top: Students feeling my biceps to see how strong I am.

Above: Oct 2009 - sea kayaking along the Solomon Sea shores of Papua New Guinea.

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more significant steps to achieve. My human powered circumnavigation can be a good example.

This circumnavigation will be finished when I return to California hopefully in the summer of 2012, after a five-year struggle. Yet just in the process of bringing my journey this far, I have become the first person to have rowed three oceans and the first person to have rowed the Indian Ocean mainland to mainland between Australia and Africa. I hold the Guinness World Record for the longest time at sea by a solo rower by 312 days, and I remain the most experienced ocean rower alive in total career days at sea by 655 days as of October 10, 2011.

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I am writing this article on a small PDA while rowing across the South Atlantic from Lüderitz in Namibia to Central America. By the time I am done, my total career days will probably exceed 800. I did not set out to gather all these specific records, yet I was reaching for such a big goal in my circumnavigation that they had to happen along the way.

Manage the dream The beauty of intermediate goals is that they provide milestones toward success. Each milestone achieved is a taste of success. Repeated often, success becomes a habit, it becomes an acquired skill, it is not accidental. We build on past successes as well as failures to learn from our mistakes.

Wearing a typical project manager's hat, I divide my journey into stages, and those into phases. Each stage requires planning, then preparation, then execution then an evaluation phase. US Rangers have their 6P's: “prior planning prevents piss poor performance.” Based on my plans, I then have to prepare myself. Preparations may include physical fitness, 50

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gaining the additional skills as necessary, gathering the equipment and supplies, prepositioning them for logistical ease, getting visas or permits and finding funding. When I execute the plan, I use the fruits of these preparations to move my journey forward. Evaluation is a time when I reflect on the phase I just completed, learn from my mistakes, and identify weaknesses or areas to improve, then acknowledge and reinforce the good parts. The cycle is complete when I am ready to incorporate these in the planning phase of the next stage.

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To move my journey across PNG (Papua New Guinea) for example, I had to plan and prepare for beach walking, sea kayaking, hiking through tropical mountain paths then rowing. Before departure for PNG, I had to arrange for the delivery of my rowboat to Port Moresby which is PNG's capital city on the Coral Sea, and my cycling rig to Australia, each ahead of my arrival. I had to locate a pair of sea kayaks to borrow in PNG, no easy task in itself. I had to practice my Eskimo rolls for kayaking, gather all the specific items required for these mutually exclusive disciplines, and really think ahead. Challenging times indeed...

I often chuckle that I have created a monster and I must feed it now. By thinking like the ultimate project manager, I can take apart that ominous unwieldy challenge and address each of its parts in the order that they deserve respectively. I am able to learn from a previous stage and to carry those learnings into the next stage. This becomes an uplifting process which strengthens my hand over time.

Conclusion A lifetime of involvement with sports has given me the confidence to consider geographical feats as a challenge.

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Climbing has been a constant pursuit in my life, though lately I have been focusing on advancing a human powered circumnavigation of the world, and managing a non-profit organization to provide educational benefits for the youth based on the same journey.

I was blessed with well-meaning parents who encouraged me to try sports at an early age. In middle school, I had elder students from high school who taught me how to throw the discus. With his cross country, wrestling and track & field programs, my high school coach Al Rosner oversaw my transformation from an adolescent into a young man, chiseling me into a confident individual with a positive selfimage. Skills that I gained from my high school years kept me actively engaged in sports throughout my university years.

Time management was one of these skills, which to this day remains an important asset in my life.

Generations of youth will benefit from a well-rounded sports program in learning life skills to reach their full potential.

Each one among our youth deserves to gain a positive selfimage and the necessary self-confidence to express a realistic dream and to pursue it.

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Coaches in sports programs not only need to provide skills in specific sports disciplines, but also life skills which will have transformational effects on the athletes.

Our place in the world is the result of consecutive decisions that we have made at critical junctions in our lives. Joining a good sports program is one of these decisions which may provide the tools for a young person to flourish beyond our expectations.

Throughout my endeavors, I have looked for ways to create 52

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value for the society and to find ways to serve the common good. These were the values I had learned from my parents and my coach. As athletes, we receive recognition and visibility which can be leveraged to benefit society. One way to achieve this could be by sharing how we manage our respective journeys to success in our own individual disciplines, which could prove instructive to children and adults alike.

A version of this article was originally published in: The International Journal of Developmental Sports Management, Volume 1 Issue 1, Spring 2012.

Erden Eruç is the founder and President of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Around-n-Over based in Seattle, also a member of the prestigious Explorer Club and the American Alpine Club. He holds a Master’s degree in business administration, mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics, respectively. He has climbed big walls and mountains, run marathons, wrestled and played judo.

Since the publication of this article, Erden Eruç has completed his circumnavigation by human power using a bicycle, a rowboat, a sea kayak or walking. By the time that he returned to his starting point on 21 July 2012, he had amassed 15 Guinness World Records. His overall career total in ocean rowing time now stands at 934 days, 844 of which is solo. His most recent ocean row broke the course record in twoperson "classic pairs" class of boats from 75 days to 54 during the 2016 Great Pacific Race from Monterey Bay to Waikiki.

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May 2003 - During the descent from Denali (Mt McKinley) in Alaska, the first summit achieved in memory of Gรถran Kropp. Since then, Kosciuszko and Kilimanjaro have also been summited. Aconcagua, Elbrus and Everest remain of the Six Summits Project, to reach the highest summit on each continent by human power, except Antarctica.

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Extreme Medicine:

Save lives..and go places

Claire Grogan & Mark Hannaford 56

Extreme Medicine Claire Grogan & Mark Hannaford

It’s 5am, just before sunrise in the Himalayas. We wake to heavy snowfall, which has slowed our progress to the summit of Kala Patar. It soon becomes clear we will have to wait for the weather to improve. I am the medic with a group of students and staff from special educational needs schools from across the UK. We hunker down for the day and occupy ourselves playing games while we await a weather window.

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The role of a medic on expedition has many faces, from doctor to chef, photographer, teacher, pot-washer, latrinedigger and counselor. You must earn your salt as a fullyfledged team member, which means being able to fulfill these roles and comfortably complete the expedition itself.

For me, expedition medicine offers an exciting combination of the two things I love: medical practice and the outdoors. I have worked all over the world in some incredible places, from Iceland to Belize, the Philippines to Tanzania, Nepal and the Arctic. But it can be challenging combining this with working in the NHS. So how do you go about working abroad as an expedition medic?

What opportunities are available in expedition medicine?

How do you find out about them?

There are a multitude of options for medics to accompany expeditions or projects overseas. Companies running charity trips often seek medics, and there are also expeditions organised by universities, aid or relief work, commercial expeditions and TV work, although this is harder to come by.

Opportunities are advertised in a variety of ways. I was working in a small emergency department in the north of Scotland when I was contacted about a job in Nepal at short 57

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notice, but it is also worth following World Extreme Medicine’s Facebook page for the latest opportunities.

What qualifications do you need? Are there any personal qualities that help?

Doctors usually need to be at least two years qualified; other medical professionals should follow guidance from their governing body. You need to attend an expedition medicine course, to learn how to apply your medical skills in remote environments. World Extreme Medicine run courses several times a year all around the UK and abroad.

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Experience in emergency medicine and general practice stand you in good stead to deal with the wide range of medical problems on expedition, and the former is usually a prerequisite. You should have a good working knowledge of managing fractures, wound management and dressings, so spending time learning from nursing staff in your department cannot be underestimated.

Crucially, you need to make sure you possess all the technical skills required of the expedition itself, from winter mountain skills to simple camp-craft, to ensure you are comfortable operating in extreme environments. It helps to be naturally sociable and able to fit easily into a team, and it goes without saying that you need to be physically fit.

When is a good time to take time out of a career? How do you ensure you will get a job on your return?

There are natural career breaks in the traditional training paths in medicine and it is now common for doctors to undertake an “FY3” year to pursue a particular interest.

Some people warned me that taking time out could pose 58

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problems for job applications on my return, but my experience was that these were unfounded. At interviews, I was often asked more about what I had learned from my experiences as an expedition medic than other details on my CV. Now I work full-time in the NHS, and it is possible to get away on trips within annual leave restrictions with some creative rota management and a few swaps here and there.

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What kind of situations might you face?

Most problems on expedition are minor but occasionally full casualty evacuations need to be carried out, so it is worthwhile ensuring you have a robust system in place for this eventuality. My biggest tip would be to try to anticipate the unexpected.

In spring 2015, I was volunteering at a high-altitude rescue post in the Gokyo Valley in the Himalayas, running awareness talks on altitude sickness and providing medical assistance to trekkers and porters. A colleague and I had just finished the Saturday morning clinic when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck. We knew immediately what was happening and ran outside to safety. Bad visibility masked our view but we heard avalanches roaring in the valley around us.

Over the coming days we established communication with home and our colleagues further up the valley, and helped our local community get back on to its feet. Our rescue post became a place for people to gather and support each other.

Earthquakes had been one of the risks we discussed before leaving the UK, and we had agreed to always have a grab bag 59

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with water, passports and food ready to go in an emergency.

It seemed like overkill at the time, but that small amount of forethought really helped. Now I have a grab bag on every expedition, and always keep a head torch by my bed in case of emergency.

How can I gain additional qualifications or experience for this kind of work?

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Mark Hannaford, founder of World Extreme Medicine highlights how one can get involved in Extreme Medicine:

“In 2002, we introduced World Extreme Medicine as a training provider of expedition, wilderness and remote medicine courses for medical professionals. It was around a Campfire in Namibia we coined the phrase ‘World Extreme Medicine’ as an umbrella term for all practices of medicine outside of a clinical environment.”

“We run courses in the UK and in a few carefully-selected locations around the world, including the Everest base camp.

World Extreme Medicine provides quality training for medics who want to work in remote environments. Our courses are suitable for expedition doctors, paramedics, nurses and individuals providing medical cover in inhospitable locations.

The courses enable participants to become valuable medical practitioners in a range of environments.”

“Through this we have created the World Extreme Medicine Conference and Expo. Since 2012 we have brought together healthcare professionals across four disciplines: disaster and humanitarian medicine, extreme, expedition and space medicine, human endurance and sports medicine plus prehospital medicine. At the Conference and Expo these professionals showcase and share the latest developments in 60

Extreme Medicine Claire Grogan & Mark Hannaford

extreme environment healthcare and educate others in what they can do differently.”

“In conjunction with University of Exeter Medical School, WEM also run a Masters in Extreme Medicine which may be of interest to those looking to pursue a formal qualification or research in this area.”

“The World Extreme Medicine Conference, in Edinburgh from 25-27 November 2017, is set to be a brilliant gathering.

I love going because it is a chance to meet, share experiences and learn from world-renowned experts in the medical fields of pre-hospital care, expedition, endurance, disaster and humanitarian medicine, and sport, space and extreme medicine.”

World Extreme Medicine runs courses in expedition and wilderness medicine in the UK, as well as environmentspecific courses all over the world, such as polar medicine in Arctic Norway, jungle medicine in Costa Rica, and mountain medicine in Nepal.

Courses - http://www.expeditionmedicine.co.uk Conference - www.extreme-medicine.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ExtremeMedicine Twitter - @extremeexpo & @expedmedicine

MSc in Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter Medical School - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/ taught/medicine/extrememedicinemsc/ 61

Contributors

Credits: All articles and images are the copyright of the their respective authors. Ripcord Adventure Journal is grateful to all our writers and photographers for permission to publish their work.

Image on page 2 and 4 courtesy of Leon McCarron; pages 6 and 12 courtesy of Mark Woods; pages 18, 20 and 21 courtesy of Joe Grabowski; pages 24 and 28 courtesy of John Sullivan; page 29 courtesy of freeimages.com/Brad Mering; pages 30, 34, 35, 38, 39, 44, 48, 49, 53, 54 and 55 courtesy of Erden Eruc; pages 62-79 courtesy of Matt Maynard.

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Editor in Chief: Tim Lavery Publisher, educator and scientist, Tim has worked throughout Europe in various fields for corporates, NGOs and Educational Institutions over the past 25 years. In January 2012, he launched the awardwinning World Explorers Bureau, a speakers agency representing over 160 of the world's most accomplished explorers and adventurers.

Since 1985, Tim has earned numerous National Awards for his contribution to environmental awareness in Ireland including receiving three Resource Ireland Awards, several Environment Awareness Awards, Local Hero Award and an Inspired IT Award. He has authored more than 20 scientific papers ranging from ecology to new species descriptions and has edited numerous other publications on a variety of scientific and education technology subjects.

Passionate about exploration and the dissemination of the results of authentic adventures and expeditions, in 2014, Tim was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (of London) followed in 2015 by becoming the first Irish person to be elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and in November 2016, he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He manages the Worldwide Expedition Professionals and Irish Adventure Association groups on LinkedIn and is a Director of the Irish Explorers Trust and Director of Global Strategies of the World Adventure Society.

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Featured Explorer

Leon McCarron Leon McCarron is a Northern Irish adventurer and filmmaker. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and specializes in long distance, human-powered expeditions.

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In May 2012 he concluded a 6-month, 3000 mile expedition walking the length of China, from the Gobi desert in Mongolia to South China Sea in Hong Kong. In the same year, Leon crossed 1000 miles of the Empty Quarter desert on foot. Other journeys include a human-powered descent of the longest river in Iran, the Karun, and a crossing of Argentine Patagonia on horseback. You can read more about his journeys at his website: www.leonmccarron.com

Featured Explorer

John Sullivan John Sullivan is a former Royal Marines Commando of nine years-experience. He has operated in some of the world’s most challenging jungle, desert and arctic environments.

He has been an adviser to numerous expeditions and was hired by the BBC to make all in-country arrangements for their programs filming "Last Man Standing" and "Extreme Dreams." In 2010 John set up from scratch the documentary "Eating with Cannibals" filmed in Papua New Guinea for the National Geographic Channel.

John operates Elite Survival Training which aims to inspire people of all ages and from all backgrounds to learn the art of survival in unfamiliar surroundings.

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Featured Medic

Claire Grogan Claire Grogan is an emergency medical doctor, honorary clinical lecturer in Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter Medical School and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. @grogan_claire

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Publishers & Sponsors

The World Explorers Bureau (WEB) is a speaking and events agency that represents 30 explorers and extreme adventurers.

WEB Speakers inspire audiences around the world with captivating tales of their adventures encapsulating themes which include pushing boundaries, leadership, teamwork and motivation.

Ripcord is the adventure travel arm of Redpoint Resolutions, a travel risk and crisis response company specializing in comprehensive global travel solutions. They serve government agencies, corporations and organizations that require employees to travel or live abroad. The company is owned and operated by special operations veterans and physicians who practice wilderness medicine and understand the challenges of medical and security emergencies in remote environments.

Ripcord’s global intelligence, evacuation services, essential benefits and 24/7 operations center has your back no matter where your adventures takes you.

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Supporting

One world, one life, one great adventure...

JOIN US! WWW.WORLDADVENTURESOCIETY.ORG

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Published by World Explorers Bureau & Redpoint Resolutions www.ripcordadventurejournal.com