What will I be doing in India?

As part of the BES expedition, we'll be gathering scientific data whilst documenting our incredible experiences through photography and adventure film-making. We still don't know for sure what exactly we'll be doing for our expedition project, but some previous projects have included:

Botany - studying alpine flora and the effects of altitude and aspect on the numbers and distributions of plants

Physiology - measuring the effects of acute mountain sickness (AMS) at ascending altitudes in adolescents and the rate and efficiency of acclimatisation

Geology/Geomorphology - measuring and recording geomorphological features and producing maps of the area

Anthropology - studying the impact of tourism and development on the local population of Ladakh

Glaciology - studying the impact of aspect and meteorology on ablation rates, using data from the British Exploring weather station (the third highest in the world). Surveying glacial landforms and reconstructing the glacial history of the area. re-taking old photos and calculating glacier retreat rates

I'm looking forward to taking part in some really useful research whilst we're in the Himalayas, and hopefully I'll be able to put some of my geological and glacial knowledge from my degree to good use!

Pinterest!

Check out my Pinterest here for more photos and information on where I'll be going!

Training update - parkrun

Our parkrun selfie snapchat!

This morning I ran 5km in Durham with parkrun - if you haven't heard of parkrun take a look at their website here:  http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

Essentially they're free, 5km timed runs, run by volunteers, at loads of locations around the world. They're great fun and I always try to go along at 9am on a Saturday morning when I don't have an OTC training weekend.

My time wasn't great today as I ended up doing two exercise classes (Extreme Core and Insanity) back to back last night, and now everything hurts! But it was a fab way to start the day and I'm feeling good now.

I always try to keep fit, both for my health, my happiness, and for OTC, but my upcoming expedition to the Himalayas is giving me even more motivation - a lack of fitness would massively impact my ability to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Ladakh, and I might as well make myself as fit as I can.

I've been doing lots of running (both intervals and long scenic runs), spinning, and exercise classes, like Extreme Core, Box Fitt and Insanity, as well as a few trips to CrossFit (find out more here: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-is-crossfit.html) on the outskirts of Durham. I always try to drag other people along, but this morning it was my housemate Sophie who woke me up and got me on my bike!

More training updates to come..