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Climbers on Alpine ridge rescued by text message

Rebecca Allison
Tuesday October 7, 2003
The Guardian

Two British climbers who were stranded on a Swiss mountain in a blizzard for
three days were rescued by helicopter yesterday after texting an SOS message
from a mobile phone to a friend in London.

Rachel Kelsey, 34, and her partner, Jeremy Colenso, 33, were plucked from a
snowy ridge and winched to safety by a mountain rescue team after surviving
two nights in sub-zero temperatures with little food or shelter.

The pair, who are both experienced climbers, had been huddled behind a large
boulder on an exposed, narrow, granite ledge since Saturday after bad weather
closed in as they abseiled from the summit of Piz Badile near Lake Como in the
Swiss Alps.

As half a metre of snow fell around them and a fierce electric storm began,
their descent had become impossible and they were forced to stop 3,000 metres
up and wait until the weather subsided or help could be summoned.

The alarm was raised by a London-based freelance photographer, Avery Cunliffe,
after he received a desperate text message from his friends at 5am on Saturday
morning asking for help and providing details of their whereabouts.

Mr Cunliffe, also a keen climber, immediately contacted the rescue services in
Geneva but bad weather prevented them from reaching the stranded couple until
8.15am yesterday.

Speaking after her ordeal Ms Kelsey, a qualified climbing instructor who lives
in Westminster, central London, said the situation had become critical by dawn
yesterday and the couple had feared they might not be able to survive another
night exposed to the extreme cold temperatures.

"It was about minus -15C for a lot of the time and incredibly damp with biting
winds and snow. We had rationed our food but that was running out and we had
eaten just two peanuts each in 12 hours," she said.

Ms Kelsey, who was born in South Africa, said she and Mr Colenso had prepared
meticulously for the expedition which was supposed to have taken around 18 hours.

"We had checked the weather forecast for a week before we set out and checked
it again at the base. It was very good. Unfortunately a severe storm came in
out of the blue as we were abseiling off the top.

"It was a huge electric storm - like nothing I have ever seen. The hair on our
arms was standing on end and as the lightning struck, our head-torches would
go off and then come back on again because of the close proximity.

"We were concerned because of the metal equipment and we were attached to
ropes which can act as conductors. It was frightening but we knew it was
serious and we had to concentrate on the job in hand or we would never get
down safely.

"The snow started falling to levels about half a metre thick and we couldn't
find the abseil points any longer. If you don't follow them exactly on their
descent you could end up in the glacier below.

"We reached the only place where you can shelter for the night behind a large
rock about half a metre wide by a metre high. We had a lightweight shelter for
protection and we dug away the snow for a bit more cover.

"We realised it was impossible to descend any further so I texted five friends
who I thought would be able to get in touch with Swiss mountain rescue - that
was about 1.30am in the morning. Then, about four hours later, Avery texted me
back saying: 'I'm on the case'.

"We started getting messages from the rescue team saying they could not take
off because the weather was so severe, but telling us to be strong. The
conditions were incredibly cold. Every 20 minutes for over 36 hours we rubbed
our fingers and toes for 15 minutes to make sure we didn't get frostbite. The
doctors were amazed at how unscathed we were when we finally got down.

"We have over 35 years' climbing experience between us. It was our preparation
and knowledge and experience that kept us alive. It could have been much worse.

"After the first night, we saw the rescue helicopter fly overhead, but they
sent us a message saying the conditions were too bad to come any closer. We
were very relieved that they knew where we were. But the next text said we
would have to wait another night and they would try again in the morning.

"By this point we knew if they didn't reach us then, we had little chance of
surviving. We didn't need to talk about it. You just need to look into
someone's eyes and you know they understand the seriousness of the situation
as well as you do. It was such a relief when they finally reached us."

Ms Kelsey said she and Mr Colenso were now looking forward to a hot bath and a
decent meal but they were first going to buy the rescue team a bottle of whisky.

adres: www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1057271,00.html

[Gość: Wojtek46_2]

Od razu dopisze drugi, o śnie:

Body suffers symptoms of age with too little sleep

Sarah Boseley, Health Correspondent
Friday October 22, 1999
The Guardian

Sacrificing sleep to longer working hours and nights on the town could bring
about changes in the body similar to ageing, according to new medical research.

A study of the effects on the body of the sort of sleep-debt that is
increasingly common at the end of the 20th century has had startling results.
Although the study was small - 11 young men aged between 18 and 27 took part -
it found "striking alterations" in the way their bodies functioned, according to
a report in this week's Lancet medical journal.

The Chicago-based scientists found that successive nights of four hours' sleep
took its toll on the metabolism and endocrine (hormonal) functioning of the
body. These alterations "mimic some of the hallmarks of ageing". The scientists
suggest that chronic sleep loss could increase the severity of age-related
diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

They also suggest that young, healthy adults may need more than the standard
night's sleep. Their volunteers biologically performed better when they had
slept for more than eight hours.

Karine Spiegel and colleagues from the department of medicine of the university
of Chicago write that it has become common for people to cut back on their
sleep. What is considered normal average sleep duration has decreased from about
nine hours a night in 1910 to about 7.5 hours now. Many shift workers sleep an
average of five hours a night on working days. Margaret Thatcher was famous for
firing on all cylinders after only five hours sleep a night.

It is generally held that sleeping less does you no harm, they say, as long as
you get the core four to five hours of non-REM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep.
There has been an assumption that sleep is intended to repair and refresh the
brain and no studies have previously looked specifically at the effect
sleep-deprivation has on the body.

The 11 young men slept eight hours a night for three nights, then four hours for
six nights and then spent 12 hours a night in bed for a further week to recover
from the sleep debt. The six nights of little sleep had a noticeable effect on
their bodies.

"Less than one week of sleep curtailment in healthy young people is associated
with striking alterations in metabolic and endocrine function," they say. Sleep
debt "could have long-term adverse effects on health". Basic metabolic
functions, such as processing and storing carbohydrates and regulating hormone
secretion, were affected.

Eve Van Cauter, who led the study, said: "We suspect that chronic sleep loss may
not only hasten the onset but could also increase the severity of age-related
ailments such as diabetes, hypertension high blood pressure, obesity and memory
loss."

Tests showed that the volunteers underwent profound alterations of glucose
metabolism during sleep deprivation, in some cases resembling patients with
type-2 diabetes. At the peak of sleep loss they took 40% longer than normal to
regulate their blood sugar levels after a high carbohydrate meal. Their ability
to secrete and respond to insulin fell by about 30%. A similar decrease in acute
insulin response is an early warning of diabetes.

Sleep deprivation altered the production and action of other hormones besides
insulin, dampening the secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormones and increasing
blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol, especially in the afternoon and
evening.

Raised cortisol levels in the evening are typical of much older people and
thought to be related to age-related health problems, such as insulin resistance
and memory impairment.

All these abnormalities faded away during the recovery period, when the
volunteers spent 12 hours in bed.

www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,260887,00.html
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