Earlier this year, as the British winter was beginning to thaw, I ventured over to northern Norway, within the Arctic Circle, to spend the week learning about expedition medicine in an extreme environment. Expedition Medicine’s Polar medicine course aims to equip medics with the skills required to safely manage casualties in the wilderness. The course is led by experienced expedition medics alongside ex-Royal Marine instructors and is structured around learning winter survival skills in the field, followed by evening lectures once the polar daylight fades. Our group was made up of 23 doctors from a variety of countries, grades and specialities. Some had previous expedition experience, although this is not a prerequisite for the course. Anyone with a reasonable level of fitness and enthusiasm to participate would be encouraged to attend. For me, the opportunity to get out of the classroom and gain some expedition experience with some inspiring people makes it one of the best medical courses I have attended.
*InnovAiT is the RCGP journal that promotes excellence in primary care through quality education. It was developed to support Associates in Training (AiTs) of the Royal College of General Practitioners from entry into specialist training to qualification. It is also a valuable resource for; GP trainers, trained GPs who wish to update and maintain their knowledge base, newly qualified (First5) GPs wanting to extend their knowledge, practice and community nurses, and foundation level doctors and medical students contemplating a career in primary care.
The last few places for the new Polar Medicine course in New Zealand are available on a first-come first-serve basis. The course is based near Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island deep within the stunningly beautiful Southern Alps.
The course will feature a presentation by Marcus Walters, famous for sea kayaking around the coast of South Georgia, the Antarctic Peninsula and most recently for crossing Greenland on skis.
Marcus comes from a family of adventurers: his father was a former deputy director at New Zealand´s Outward Bound school and his brother Sean named NZ 2006 ‘Mountaineer of the Year’. Whilst Marcus has climbed, paddled and skied all over the world it is as much the emotional draw of wild places that leads him to adventure as the physical pursuit.
As a founding member of the Adventure Philosophy team he has shaped the team´s philosophy and values enabling their successful ‘world first’ adventures beyond their initial 2001 kayak traverse of the Antarctic Peninsula. His leadership, strategic view and planning ability ensure Adventure Philosophy expeditions turn up to the right starting line with the right kit. He spent many years management consulting and now works as a Human Resource Manager with the Christchurch City Council.
He has a special talent for turning lessons learnt in the wild into life changing presentations and principles for individuals and motivational practices for businesses. His charitable work includes the Adventure Philosophy Gore-tex Good for Life youth scholarship and is Chairman of the Canterbury, Westland Te Araroa Trust (establishing a walking trail the lenght of NZ).
He balances the carbon footprint he creates through his adventures with the thousands of trees he and his partner and two children have planted on their bit of land outside Christchurch.
Wilderness Medicine CME accredited training courses.
is life, which he dedicated to the scientific exploration of the Antarctic regions, and in his heroic death, he has inspired the lives of many. His work paved the way for the modern Antarctic as a continent for science and international co-operation.
Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition (1910 -1913) was not, however, in the business of creating heroes. The main objective, as expressed by Scott in his prospectus, was “To reach the South Pole and to secure for the British Empire the honour of this achievement”. The expedition had further objectives in scientific research and geographical exploration and intended to make “…bagging the Pole merely an item in the results”. To achieve this, Scott took with him the most extensive team of scientists to visit Antarctica during the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.
Their wide ranging achievements were overshadowed by what became the loss of the race to the South Pole to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and the subsequent death of Captain Scott and the Polar Party. Nevertheless their efforts paved the way for the foundation of modern polar studies with the foundation of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge as a national memorial to Captain Scott and the Polar Party. This has ensured the continuation of their legacy of scientific exploration to this day.
With 2012 marking the centenary of the deaths of Captain Scott and the Polar Party, there is no better time to remember the achievements of the expedition, to raise the public’s awareness of the role that the expedition members played towards advancing polar research and to commemorate those who gave their lives – Captain Scott RN, Dr Wilson, Lieutenant Bowers RIM, Captain Oates and Petty Officer Evans RN.
Feedback on our recent Polar Medicine training course in Norway has clearly affected some of the course delegates by creating a need for ‘biggles-speak’…
PapaFoxtrot calling Red Leaders AlphaHotel, AlphaCharlie, DeltaBravo, Bravo and Delta
Congrats on recent Operation Polar Bear
Wizard week
No prangs
Best ever
Location stunning
Bunks and chow excellent
Red Leaders all SPLENDID
Hope all returned to base safely
Please pass on to all members of Polar Bear as don’t have call signs
New course announcement. Expedition Medicine is heading into the Southern Hemisphere! Join us on our inaugural New Zealand Polar Medicine course next July – based on the South Island near the winter sports mecca of Queenstown – spaces are strictly so register your interest now!
Another superb Expedition and Wilderness Medicine training course in Keswick
The Great North Air Ambulance, dedicated to Expedition Medicine facualty member Dr Rupert Bennett sadly killed in a climbing accident on Ben Nevis, lands as part of a search and rescue training scenerio on the course which aims to prepared medics for working in remote locations and is accredited by the Wilderness Medical Society.
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A dispatch from our Polar Medicine instructor Per Thore Hansen after his epic sea kayak expedition in Svarlbard. ‘Back in Longyearbyen. All well 14 bears, had to scare away 4 of them that was walking into the camp. 550 kilometre paddling , 30 kilometre pulling 100 kilo kajak over the glacier. Surfing in 5 meter waves! Good fun…!’
The September Expedition Medicine course in Keswick located on the banks of Derwentwater in the stunning English Lakes and 23.75 CME points and WMS accredited, is filling up fast – if you want to be sure of a place then you need to let us know as soon as you can – contact Rosi at admin@expeditionmedicine.co.uk
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