Kili Climber Training In Altitude Box...

Happy Christmas peeps... Anyway, an interesting story from Wales where a climber is attempting to pre-acclimatise for an ascent of Kilimanjaro by training in a sealed chamber which simulates the effects of altitude.

Rob Matthews of the University of Glamorgan will be training on a treadmill three times a week with oxygen levels eventually being reduced to around half of normal levels as he prepares to hike up Kili for charity.

The idea is that the sessions will help his body to adapt to working with the low levels of oxygen found as air pressure drops at altitude and minimse the risk of altitude sickness. AMS - Acute Mountain Sickness - is a particular problem on Kilimanjaro, where the standard five-day schedule allows insufficient acclimatisation time and results in a failure rate of approximately 60 per-cent.

Although this article claims that the project is a first, elite athletes and the odd mountaineer - including Briton, Stevie Haston - have been using altitude chambers for training purposes for some time.

The principle makes a lot of sense for those with insufficient time to acclimatise conventionally and could potentially make it possible to go higher, quicker, a particular bonus for those with limited time aiming at high mountains.