Extreme low power in an extreme location
Comment
DWenn
karen.field
What do you expect the weather conditions to be throughout the course of the ...
Darren heads for the mighty mountain
Darren Wenn
9/24/2010 1:18 PM EDT
Well, the time has come… As I write this, we have less than 24 hours to go before we fly to Tanzania. All the training is done; or, to be more exact, it’s too late to train anymore!
About two months ago, we took a trip to the English Lake District for a training weekend; basically hiking up high mountains, along with other people doing similar trips with the same company (Adventure Peaks). On one day, our guide set off at a fast pace up the third highest mountain in England, in the pouring rain. We dutifully followed, and spent the next six hours getting soaked to the skin. Sarah commented that we stood no chance on Kilimanjaro if the pace was this fast. I later found out that he felt this was an easy hike… but then again he had climbed Mount Everest only two months before… for the third time! So, we hope all the preparation has been enough.
Last-Minute Device Improvements
Having returned from Arizona, I’ve been able to test the data logger for a few days and, in conjunction with Tim, make a few improvements to it. Tim added a conformal coating to the PCB, to protect it from moisture ingress. We were also able to trade off some battery life in exchange for a more frequent logging rate. Many of the commercial GPS logging devices will record position every few seconds, but they are then limited to only a few hours of operation. We want to record the whole trip. So we will be recording temperature and barometric pressure every five minutes and GPS position every 30 minutes. Someone did suggest that we also record heart rate during the climb, but I objected on the grounds of ‘what will you do if it flat-lines?’ I also declined the core body-temperature probe!
The Improved Data Logger
The last few days have degenerated into a never-ending round of checking the bags, verifying that all of the medications have been packed, scrutinizing the amount of equipment and generally fretting that we have the correct gear. It is like the final days before a product launch, but with no PowerPoint slides. The guys at work wished us well, so it’s time to go and do the hard part. See you on the other side!
|
|
|
|
|
JStav
9/24/2010 4:59 PM EDT
Good Luck, and You can do it!
Sign in to Reply
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/poconoarmchairreview
9/27/2010 4:26 AM EDT
You need to take medications? Are you sure this trip is a good idea?
Sign in to Reply
DWenn
9/28/2010 7:50 AM EDT
Well on the mediciation front, there is the usual combination of Malaria tablets, water purification (on top of yellow fever, H1N1, tetanus, polio, Hepatitus A and a few other injections).
But then for alititude quite a few people take a drug called Diamox. It basically aids acclimatization by re-acidifying the blood, helping to increase oxygen uptake and giving you better sleep at altitude. The problem is it has certain side effects.... it acts as a strong diuretic and also can cause tingling in the body... that's okay but that might mask the onset of a stroke.
After a lot of careful consideration we decided not to take it, it's personal choice, and I know people who would never have made the summit without it, but we wanted to see if we could do it without drugs.
Sign in to Reply
karen.field
9/30/2010 8:19 AM EDT
What do you expect the weather conditions to be throughout the course of the climb? How much gear did you pack?
Sign in to Reply
DWenn
10/6/2010 4:45 AM EDT
Hi Karen,
Well, the weather conditions can be wuite variable. We have to travel through a rainforest which at the very least will be damp and possibly very rainy. Then up on to the moorland and final the high mountains. The moorland could be very sunny with high levels of solar radiation (35-40C daytime highs).
I've seen video clips on youTube where people had rain and snow for most of their journey. We had to pack with these extremes in mind.
The porters have a 15kg limit on the kit bags along with whatever you want to carry. So our packing included base layers, thin mid-layer fleeces, thick fleeces, waterproof outers (coat and trousers) and then for the evenings and summit night a thick down jacket.
Sign in to Reply