Max Adventure to scale the Alps

4th Apr 2010

Following their acclaimed work for organising the logsitics for the largest ever medical research expedition at high altitdue on Everest in 2007, Max Adventure have been contracted to provide logistical support for the Xtreme Alps medical research expedition this coming August.

Perched nearly 15,000’ up in the Italian Alps precariously sits the Margherita Hut from which 40 medical scientists will study the effects of hypoxia – low oxygen levels.

The Xtreme Everest expedition of 2007, which was documented by the BBC Horizon team set out to explore what happens to the human body at high altitude. Why is it that some people don’t seem to be affected by the lack of oxygen high on the mountain, why others suffer terribly, even leading to heart attacks and strokes? It’s not down to age, lifestyle or fitness, it’s all genetics and isolating the gene that is responsible was the primary aim of the expedition.

Since 2007, many other scientists have joined the Xtreme Everest team in their search and the one month study in the Alps will be the next stage of their research. Could a simple food supplement be the answer to survivability in Intensive Care where patients also suffer from hypoxia? The team of doctors will suffer the extremes of altitude to carry out studies on themselves.

Led by Doctor Dan Martin, who summitted Everest along with 7 other doctors, many of the original Xtreme Everest team will be joined by new doctors and medical students. If all goes well, the plan is to return to Everest in 2013 where an even bigger expedition is due to be mounted.