by Tilly | Apr 19, 2016 | Expeditions, Patagonia 2017, Patagonia 2017
Embarking on an expedition can be a scary or daunting prospect, but yet there is so much to gain from steeping a little outside your comfort zone, and gulping in the wild air.
Here’s 5 reasons to take the plunge;
To take you off the beaten track; expeditions quite frenquently take you places that you had never even imagined.They offer you the chance to sleep under the stars on rocky, icy or even mountainous terrain. There is a big world out there, why limit your experience and education to the ‘tiny corner’ you happened to be born in?
To stretch your comfort zone; You don’t need expedition experience to go on an expedition (in fact you probably only need a sense of humour),but, you might as well start somewhere, and afterwards, who knows what wild things might seem achievable.
For extraordinary expedition experiences; Challenging, inspiring and transforming, the expedition experience is a powerful force in shaping young people and empowering them to identify and realise their ambitions. Fears are conquered, friendships are strengthened, new relationships are built, unforgettable stories are written, character is revealed, potential is fulfilled and confidence soars!
True cultural immersion; Cultures that retain close ties to their ancestral roots often inhabit regions far from developed civilization; the remoteness helps preserve their traditions and activities.
A new point of view; Expeditions often bring a different point of view even in well-traveled areas. Imagine seeing a group of tourists hopping out of a van at a scenic mountain view point, while you’re actually hiking the trails that run beside and up it. Not only do you get that mountain-level perspective, but you also get to spend more time enjoying it.
To meet the other leaders, and to hear more about our Pre Expedition Training, Expedition Breakdown, Fundraising Opportunities and take part in some activities, then please come along and meet the team on Sunday 24th April, starting at 10am, in a scout hut in Winchester, (Email us for location details)
Contact us and get involved!
Email: (Patagonia@hsx.org.uk) or stay tuned to the blog for more details.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HSXPatagonia
Twitter: @HSXofficial #Pat2017
by Tilly | Apr 16, 2016 | Expeditions, Patagonia 2017, Patagonia 2017
We’ve had lots of interest from our Facebook page about our taster day.
If you or your parents and guardians would like to know more about;
The Leader Team/ Pre Expedition Training/ Expedition Breakdown/Fundraising Opportunities and take part in some activities, then please come along and meet the team on Sunday 24th April, starting at 10am, in a scout hut in Winchester, (Email us for location details)
An expedition can be a life changing experience and this could be the beginning of your journey.
Contact us and get involved!
Email: (Patagonia@hsx.org.uk) or stay tuned to the blog for more details.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HSXPatagonia
Twitter: @HSXofficial #Pat2017
by Ian | Dec 15, 2015 | Cambodia 2016
With Christmas quickly approaching, we were all ready to attend our first HSX Christmas weekend, which was made even more exciting by highlighting the fact that in a year’s’ time we will be on our expedition!
Saturday Morning started straight away with our first ever attempt at the annual Christmas Adventure race. We managed to enter 3 teams into the Amateur Category, and we were sure that our team, “Pumped on Coffee,” would do great, we took advantage of our head start after plotting our route on the map, however after a few teams overtook us at the first checkpoint and having to slow down due to injuries we resorted to strategy, managing to catch up with a few teams quite quickly by taking small paths across the bogs.
Soon we were neck and neck with a group of teams, so we knew we needed to gain some extra points, luckily a herd of horses were close, giving us the perfect idea for our selfie, hopefully putting us in front of the rest. Even though trying to get all three of us next to the horse in one picture was a challenge in itself we did it!
There wasn’t any debate on whether we should try to get the big 80 point checkpoint unless we took the train, which probably was against the rules, so we gained some extra time to gather some of the slightly smaller points. On the way we chatted about fundraising ideas as well as jumping over several water logged lands and streams, surprisingly not falling in. Soon we found ourselves on the outskirts of ferny crofts, where we were staying the night, so we immediately picked up the pace to jump the fence and get back to the croft 20 minutes early with all of our points (some of them being guessed numbers for extra points), and lead an unsuccessful gamble for more points in return for our pen.
Half an hour later the whole Cambodia Team was back and in high spirits, excited to know who had won. However there was no time for celebration as we had to start our new mission; cook-christmas-dinner-for-40-odd-people-and-let’s-not-burn-the-turkey! After an hour or so of Christmas powered chopping, slicing, peeling, and chatting we had finished preparing, and started working on our presentation for the forum the next day.
Soon we were summoned back to the kitchen to start the important part of the meal; the cooking. Its safe to say our kitchen was organised; no spillages, if you forget the oil, and no problems that couldn’t be solved, *cough cough* deep fried parsnips, so overall it was great, especially as we sung Christmas songs the whole way through. When 7:30 came along we were ready to serve on time!
Dinner went very smoothly, with lots of laughs and some flying food, it was a great chance to talk to everyone in a non-competitive way. Soon after everyone was split into different groups to take part in the quiz. This meant we got to socialize with some of the HSX members we otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to, while discovering how little we know about quiz sections like “World” or “London”.
Sunday
Up and ready the next day by 07:30, we were tired and adequately enthusiastic for PT. Several pushups and 1 kilometre later, we found ourselves chest deep in a freezing cold river, squatting and then wading under a bridge. That’s definitely one way to wake yourself up! On the, slightly squelchy, way back, we ran looking forward to a shower and bacon for breakfast.
10 am signalled the start of the forum where our team was up first to present Cambodia, we spoke about our previous training weekends, fundraising and what we are looking forward to do on the trip. The rest of the meeting went well, with a few jokes made from other members along the way, and it was great to see what everyone had done over the past year, and are planning for the coming year.
The weekend was a great experience as we got to know the members of HSX really well as well as getting to know about all the other crazy adventures HSX run, which we are looking forward to taking part in, in the future.
Becky and Cerys – HSX Cambodia Team
by Ian | Oct 27, 2015 | Antarctica 2018
Over the weekend Ollie and Chris took part in The Original Mountain Marathon (The OMM) a 2-day mountain event, combining endurance, navigation and mountain survival skills:
This year’s event was held in the Tweedmuir Hills in the Scottish Borders, and began with a torrential downpour, ensuring we were soaked from the start. To ensure that no team has an unfair advantage over fellow competitors, route maps are handed out on the start line, with each team being given a minute to plan their route to the first checkpoint. Competing in the C-Class this year, we had to visit a mix of compulsory checkpoints, before being given free rein to choose a series of optional points to really test our route planning skills. For much of Saturday the terrain under foot was terrible, consisting of shin deep heather, peat hags and ankle deep bogs; none of which are conducive with running!
After covering around 34km, and with darkness rapidly descending, we still had two checkpoints to find. We certainly hadn’t intended to be out for this long, but were happy to find them relatively easily before sprinting into the overnight camp. We were surprised at the number of head torches still out on the hills after-dark and thought that maybe we hadn’t done so bad after all! Having spent well over 10 hours out in the hills, we found ourselves sitting 39th out of 44 finishers; it was a good morale boost to know that 31 teams had already retired. At the overnight camp we soon discovered why two men really shouldn’t share a one-man tent (especially when one of them is over 6ft5!), however, enjoyed being warm and dry and sharing a ‘wee dram’ before bed.
06:00 seemed to roll around far too quickly, even with the extra hour gained from the clock change, and we were woken up in traditional OMM style – with a rendition of “Scotland the Brave” on the bagpipes! Having secured an early start time we were packed up and on the start line by 07:44. Mercifully, day 2 had been slightly shortened by the race organisers; in recognition that day 1 was much longer than it should have been due to land access issues. Starting with stiff legs, the organisers naturally eased us into the course by placing the first checkpoint of the day 250m uphill! We soon warmed up and found ourselves traipsing over an all too familiar mix of heather, peat and bog; just what our battered legs wanted! But before we knew it, we were visiting the penultimate checkpoint, meeting the first proper track of the weekend (thank God for engineering!) and were finally able to move quicker than a slow trudge! On our decent from Glenheurie Rig, we passed Chris Laws and Richard Batstone, who were also representing Team HSX, and successfully crossed the finish line at a jog after a 7 hour day.
One of the key points we took away from the weekend was the importance of accurate navigation. Rather than worrying about pace, good navigation can allow much more time and ground to be made up. For us, this meant we managed to find all of the checkpoints straightaway, whilst lots of other teams, having initially overtaken us, spent ages trying to find the markers and losing significant amounts of time (on day 1 we were 20 minutes out from checkpoint three when we passed one team still looking for the marker – a mistake which was likely to cost them around 30-40 minutes!).
Overall we came 35th out of 39 finishers in C-Class, with a further 5 teams dropping out on day 2. We were both particularly proud of this result, considering that half the field retired. Although enjoyment of the OMM is always retrospective, for now it’s time to rest up and get ready for the Welsh 3,000’s this weekend… No rest for the wicked!
Please follow our progress here or via Facebook or Twitter!
by Ian | Jul 8, 2014 | Antarctica 2018, Expeditions, Training, Trip Report
Being able to rescue your team members from a crevasse is an essential skill that the team hope never to use in anger in the Antarctic. However, in the pursuit of learning such an important concept, the team ventured to the French Alps in July 2013 for two weeks of fresh alpine air. Not only was this the first taste of European Glaciers for many of the team, an attempt on the summit of Mont Blanc (4810m/15,780feet) was also expected, representing, for those not well versed in Himalayan trekking like Joe and Ollie, the tallest mountain they had ever attempted.
The team left the New Forest early on the morning of July 2nd,in order to catch a ferry across the channel and drive 800 miles to the picturesque town of Chamonix; the gateway to the Mont Blanc massif which contains over 100 mountains over 3000 metres. It is also home to some of Europe’s biggest glaciers including the Mer de Glace and the Bosson’s Glacier, which formed the central location for the team to practise their rescues skills. Crevasses are formed as a result of the movement and stress generated by the glacier as it winds its way down the valley. Ranging in any size, some are gaps less than a metre, easily navigable by foot, whilst others can be many metres metres wide and stretch the length of a football field.
The danger with crevasses comes when they have been covered over by snow left from the winter, becoming impossible to see to the untrained eye. Knowing how to get out is one thing, but avoiding them is arguably more skilful and so the team hired the expertise of a French Mountain Guide to give some instruction. He showed the team how to walk “roped together” on glaciated terrain to provide safety when in a group and gave us a useful rope setup we could use for hoisting someone out of crevasses using karabiners, ice screws and Tiblocs. 
Once all the necessary skills were practised, the next objective was the summit of Mont Blanc. The team chose this to give them a physical challenge that would put teamwork to the test, plus the gratification that comes with saying you have summited the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe! Although Mt Blanc is not extremely high, it was important for the team to acclimatize properly, as the risk of developing Acute Mountain sickness (AMS) is extremely high if not adapted to the altitude (symptoms range from dehydration, dizziness, headaches, and nausea). Slowly gaining altitude, whilst walking high during the day and sleeping lower at night allowed the team to acclimatise in the best way possible in a fairly short amount of time.
Setting up camp in the Vallée Blanche, both a mixture of nerves and excitement were felt by everyone. The team slept until 12am and after some food was eaten and harnesses and ropes were clumsily donned in the dark, lights far off in the distance showing the other climbers that were beginning the same task, the team set off on a slow plod up the snow slope of Mont Blanc du Tacul. Progress was slow, often walking 30 paces and stopping for a moment to catch breath back; it was going to be a long night.
On the slopes of Mont Maudit (the team were on the three monts route having to ascend the slopes of Mont Blanc du Tacul, Mont Maudit and finally Mont Blanc) a 50-metre, 80o technical snow climb required the team’s full attention in the dark; a slip here would have caused a 400-metre fall to the gullies below. The team made quick work of the climb and were soon left with the final 300-metre slog up to the summit dome. This seemed to take forever and was filled with false summits to make it even more mentally challenging for the team; a suspected side effect of the altitude and the desire to be on the summit. At 8:32am the team had summited Mt Blanc. Overwhelming joy, happiness and exhaustion lead to man hugs, selfies and watering eyes (the cold!?) at the top of Europe’s highest mountain. The team had done it.
Have you been to the Alps?
Share your stories with the team on our Facebook page or tweet us @hsxantarctica using #HSX2018.
