17th-27th October 2009 - Summary of training on dartmoor

Throughout our training we’ve covered a range of topics from safety and communications to navigation and rescue emergency care, so I’ll give a brief overview of how the last 10 days have gone.
Throughout the week we had fitness sessions every morning (there goes my idea of a lie-in!) – training in silence to really focus ourselves and also holding hands with a partner to work together. Most sessions involved starting with a bit of gentle jogging and working through to uphill sprints. We also did quite a bit of wrestling – alternatively pushing and pulling each other to simulate the muscles needed when your pulk gets stuck on a ridge of ice and refuses to budge! (I can assure you from the photos I’ve seen that sea ice is not flat!!)
Lots of circuit stuff like sit-ups and press-ups (thank goodness I’ve been going to British Military Fitness!) and also a bit of log carrying which was fun (if not tiring!) The fitness sessions finished off every morning with a fully-clothed immersion in the river to get used to the cold – making sure we held our head in the water whilst counting to ten! These cold dips got easier during the course of the week but did mean with the exception of day 1 that you wore soggy clothes and shoes for the next day’s session. They also provided some good photo opportunities when the local press came over on Thursday! (See the Western morning news article for a piccie of us all in the river!)
Navigation was an ongoing topic throughout the week. We started off with basic navigation with maps and compasses, and working on pacing and timing – walking across the moors on a bearing rather than using features to navigate as it is crucial to understand the basics of navigation before you rely on your GPS. These skills really came into their own during a night navigation exercise where we couldn’t see anything at all to help us out, and we were amazed when our pacing techniques worked, allowing us to find small Cairns and hut circles in the dark of night!
Once we’d convinced Howard and Jim we could navigate across the moors at night with a compass we moved on to GPS – and took part in a second night exercise but this time around using our GPS only, with no maps or compasses to help. GPS navigation seems easier in some ways, as the GPS can just point in the direction you need to travel, but what it doesn’t account for are any features such as hills or rivers that might be in the way, so there is a certain amount of decision making involved when the easiest route to take isn’t necessarily the most direct. Looking at maps of the arctic really puts into perspective how different navigation will be when we get there. Tthe ice reforms in a different way every year so we won’t know what the terrain will be like until we get there and start crossing it! It also instilled into you at night to trust your equipment – so often you feel that you are heading in the wrong direction as it’s easy to get disorientated and this will be extremely important in bad condition such as storms and whiteout.
We also had a lot of discussion on expedition planning and safety protocol. Risk mitigation and evacuation procedures are really critical to get right, and we need to ensure all the possible emergency scenarios and actions are considered. Our discussions involved everything from tent fires to polar bear attacks and the use of Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacons (or Personal Locator Beacons) for casualty evacuation. We also looked at the technology we will be using – from radio communications on the ice, to satellite phones and personal handheld computers for reporting to base camp – and how we will charge the batteries for all this equipment using our portable solar panels.
Giles from Colour Works came in at the weekend to talk about team dynamics and working together, which is going to be so important for us to achieve our goal. Trusting each other was also really important during our rope work sessions, where we started off on the flat terrain with some basic knots and coils and worked up to climbing and abseiling around the rocks and boulders of the Dartmoor Tors. We had a fantastic time sitting on top of the Tor and lowering each other off the side, and also learnt loads about hauling techniques and how to work with a crevasse kits to set up a pulley system for hauling equipment uphill or people out of the water.
Kit and equipment is obviously a big part of ensuring the expedition runs smoothly so we spent quite a bit of time going over kit requirements – trying on and taking measurements for all the clothing we will need – of which there is a huge amount ranging from down jackets and trousers to keep us warm in camp to windproof walking jackets and trousers for trekking and lots of underlayers like thin and thick gloves and socks. (If you’d like to have a look at my kit list and help me buy our kit please see the kit page)
We also had a separate session on the use and maintenance of stoves which are a really vital bit of equipment: used for warmth in the tents and also to melt ice for drinking and for rehydrating food (no cooking is actually done on expedition except heating water) So we need to be able to look after our stoves and learn how to fix them if there are any problems. Howard also took us through the design and use of the Qajaq – the prototype sled-cross-canoe we will be using. The Qajaq is a great bit of equipment that will not only be hugely useful for crossing leads in the ice, but also for shelter in adverse conditions and use as a stretcher for any casualty evacuations. Very exciting!
To finish off the course we spent a great deal of time on Rescue Emergency Care, which really highlighted the difference between first aid in a normal work or home environment and first aid in a remote wilderness environment where any rescue attempt could take anything between 9 hours to several days (in bad weather) to arrive! Although we will have Mary along as our expedition doctor, the lack of sophisticated medical equipment available means that it’s really important for any of the team to be able to deal with life threatening emergencies ourselves.
We covered lots of material from CPR and full body damage checks to severe bleeding, burns, and head and neck trauma. We practiced immobilisation, splinting and traction for breaks and dislocations, and played with various “toys” such as resuscitation aids, monitoring aids, shelters and stretchers. Cold temperature related problems such as hypothermia and frostbite were covered in detail, and we also took part in lots of rescue and first aid scenarios during the week, including search and rescue attempts and evacuation exercises.