Over the moon! Bursary award from the Lord Mayor's 800th Anniversary Trust

I'm so so excited to have been awarded a very generous bursary from the Chairman and Trustees of the Lord Mayor's 800th Anniversary Awards Trust!

I've been asked to write a report on the expedition once I've returned to the UK (I'll post that on this blog). I'll also be invited to attend a reception at the Mansion House in the City of London in the autumn. A panel of judges select the best two reports each year from the people who've been awarded grants, and the winners receive a prize at this reception. It'll be great to see what exciting and adventurous things everyone else has done with their bursaries. 

The object of the Trust is to enable young people to broaden their experiences, gain self confidence and develop their abilities for the future. Generally, the Trust supports UK-based people between 17-24 going on character developing projects, usually abroad. Recent successful applications have included biking in Mongolia, helping build a school in Kenya and teaching in China. The application process also requires some research into what the City of London actually is, and the role of the Lord Mayor (and how they're different from Boris Johnson!), so that was another unexpected benefit for me.

Basically, I'm over the moon with the help I've been receiving with my fundraising! Only 112 days to go until we fly :)

Fundraising update

Here's a quick update on how my fundraising is going:

• I've been given a generous donation from the Guildford Lions Club - thank you!

• I've now almost paid for the expedition - just got to book the flights

• I'm gradually sourcing kit (by begging, borrowing and buying) to take with me from the very extensive kit list I've been given by BES

So overall, things are going well - I want to go the Himalayas now!

More training, more new people, more excitement

I spent last weekend up in the Lake District with the other Trainee Leaders (TLs) and the Leaders, so the people in charge of the science projects, basecamp and the adventure side of things. It was awesome meeting more people and finding out about their experience with expeditions and mountainous environments - lots of inspirational role models.

We stayed at the YMCA National Centre on the western shore of Lake Windermere - a beautiful place for a morning run with everyone, next to the mirror flat lake and surrounded by the rugged Lake District hills.

One of my favourite parts of the weekend was learning about Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), High Altitude Cerebral Oedema (HACE) and High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE) (don’t ask me why the acronym ends with an E not an O..). It was slightly depressing learning how I might have a headache for the six weeks I’ll be in India, and terrifying learning how quickly HACE and HAPE can develop, but the medical team who will be part of the team seem really knowledgeable on the subject and will take great care of us all.

It’s important for all of us to know the symptoms and treatments of altitude related illnesses, as it could happen to anyone in the expedition team and we all need to know how to react. We learnt about the Lake Louise scale, which allows a score to be assigned to a person depending on their symptoms, and helps with the monitoring of people’s state. We can all expect some tiredness, headaches and poor sleep, but it’s important to know when people are deteriorating.

We’ll be acclimatising slowly on the way up into the mountains, taking time for rest days and factoring in going slower if anyone is struggling. We’ll be flying from Heathrow to Delhi to Leh, where we (the advanced party; the TLs and some of the Leaders) will then spend time sorting supplies of food, fuel etc. for basecamp and acclimatising - Leh is already pretty high, at 3,524m! ‘High altitude’ is classed as anything above 2,500m, and your breathing get shorter and deeper from only 1,500m, so we’ll definitely be able to feel it.

Our outdoor classroom - where we learnt about ice axes, crampons,
security on steep ground and roping up for glaciers

We also spoke a lot about hygiene and how we’re going to stop illness from happening and spreading. Some of the techniques we’ll be using at basecamp and during our short expeditions are very clever, such as the system we’ll be using for getting clean drinking water. Although the water we’ll be drinking is from glacial meltwater and will look crystal clear and clean, it’ll actually be full of tiny particles of rocks and even tinier bacteria. We’ll be using bags to filter the water through, before then using chlorine tablets, then adding a tiny sliver of vitamin C tablet to make it taste better.

Me, roped up, pretending I'm on a glacier and surrounded by ice
(lots of imagination required..)

We spent some time out on the hill, talking through crampons, ice axes, security on steep ground and how to rope up together when on a glacier. It was very useful revision of the material I covered on my Mountain Leader Training week last summer, and it was great to see how to teach each topic well. As a TL, I might need to teach or remind some of the Young Explorers on the expedition how to use the equipment and stay safe.

Loving life outdoors with Imi, one of the other TLs

One of the highlights of the weekend was drinking wine and playing an old board game - it involved climbing K2 via different routes and answering ridiculous mountaineering and climbing questions as a team. We found out a lot about each other, such as who would cut the rope when their friend was dangling off it, who would happily let their climbing partner pee out the tent door, and who cheats at board games..

I’ve now been set the task of planning a short session on the ‘leave no trace’ principle - it’s something I’m interested in and a big advocate for, so it should be a fun session with lots of discussion. That’ll be at the next training session - the TLs have an expedition first aid week soon, followed straight after by a weekend with the YEs. I can’t wait to meet everyone!