What credentials are expected to be held by an 'expedition medic'?

Hi all, What credentials are expected to be held by an 'expedition medic'? In general is it expected to have just done an expedition medicine course, or to hold that in addition to being a qualified doctor or paramedic? There are lots of different companies doing exped medic courses, but is there an industry standard?

All the best,

James

The Rockall Solo Expedition

The Rockall Solo Expedition Rockall Solo is a unique endurance expedition to be undertaken by Nick Hancock in order to raise funds for Help for Heroes.

Since the first recorded landing in 1811, only four people have spent more than one night on Rockall. Rockall is a very small rocky island lying approximately 300 km (186 miles) west of St Kilda, which itself is 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The outcrop measures just 25 metres (82ft) on its north-south axis by 22 metres (72ft) on its east-west axis. The summit is now just 18 metres (59ft) above sea level, having been officially 19.2 metres (63ft) ASL prior to the top being removed by the Royal Engineers for a navigation light in 1971. The only flattish area of Rockall, named in 1955 as Halls Ledge after the first recorded person to land there, is just 3.5 metres by 1.3 metres (11 foot by 4 foot). There are no plants on Rockall, and the only animals are resting birds. Greenpeace placed a solar powered beacon over the frame of the original navigation aid in 1997, and returned to upgrade the light in 1998. This was the only permanent mark of human occupation on Rockall until it too succumbed to the ravages of an Atlantic storm two years later.

The earliest recorded landing on Rockall was in 1811, by a Royal Navy officer called Basil Hall from the HMS Endymion. Hall observed that, the smallest point of a pencil could scarcely give it a place on any map which should not exaggerate its proportions. On 18th September 1955 at 1016 GMT Britain claimed Rockall, and in 1972 The Isle of Rockall Act was passed, which made the rock officially part of the District of Harris, Scotland. This represented the last territorial expansion of the British Empire. Rockall is today probably most famous for being an area of the BBCs Shipping Forecast. In 1985, a former SAS soldier, Tom McLean, lived on Rockall in a wooden shelter bolted to Halls Ledge, setting the record for the longest solo occupation of the islet at 40 days. Then, in 1997, several members of Greenpeace were landed by helicopter. They stayed in a kevlar re-enforced capsule for 42 days, setting a new longest occupation record, albeit by a group.

They were regularly resupplied and the team swapped over from a nearby vessel. Nicks original aim was to land at the end of May this year and attempt to live on Rockall in his bespoke shelter, for 60 days, thereby setting two new endurance records: the longest solo occupation of Rockall and the longest occupation of Rockall in history. Due to the harsh weather conditions and the ocean environment (waves regularly top Rockall even in the summer month) a bespoke rigid shelter is required. Having considered various options, Nick settled on converting a water bowser, made by Trailer Engineering, and now christened The RockPod. The bowser provided the required shape, size and rigidity for the shelter, whilst having the additional benefit of being designed to keep water in (so logic says it should keep water out!). Having been donated several yacht hatches by Lewmar, these were fitted with some issues due to their low tolerance to curves.

The pod is manufactured from 10mm thermal plastic, and some remoulding was required. The RockPod was subsequently insulated with expanding, fire retardant foam, and a floor fitted. The shelter will be tethered to Rockall using in-situ stainless steel ring bolts placed by Greenpeace, ratchet straps provided by Safety Lifting Gear, and 1 tonne lifting points bolted to the pod, which were donated by William Hackett. With the shelter designed and built, the next major issues were that of food and water. There are no fresh water sources on Rockall, and Nick considered taking desalination equipment (theres lots of sea water out there!). However, due to limited power options and the potential for breakdown, he has decided to take the majority of his freshwater requirement with him, with the remainder being supplied by rainwater collection. Again, various options were considered for food. Dehydrated rations would be light, a benefit for hauling up the rock, but would require extra fresh water to rehydrate. In addition, they rehydrate better when heated. Wet rations have the advantage of, well, being wet and can be eaten hot or cold, cutting fuel requirements.

Fresh food, apart from an initial small supply, has been disregarded due to bulk and the lack of refrigeration facilities, even though its likely to be pretty cold for most of Nicks time on the rock. Power, which will be used to charge a satellite phone, VHF radio, and a laptop, will be provided by a combination of solar panels and a micro-wind generator, provided by Ampair, with storage provided by a portable battery pack. Nick is also considering taking a small recreational petrol generator for emergency use. The electronic equipment will not only allow Nick to blog and Tweet, thereby bringing his expedition to the wider world, but will also enable to him to stay sane with electronic books and music (theres not much else to do on Rockall!). In order to keep himself busy during the 60 days alone, Nick has also devised a number of scientific projects to undertake whilst on Rockall. These include obtaining rock samples from both Rockall and the nearby Hasselwood Rock for study by the British Geological Survey; establishing the true orientation of Rockall, which to date has only been estimated; conducting a GNSS survey of the rock; and collecting any insect and algal samples he is able to identify for future study by the Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding (the boat charter alone is 13,500) the main expedition has been postponed for a year until 2013.

However, Nick is still heading out to Rockall at the end of this month on a reconnaissance trip, The Rockall Jubilee Expedition, and will attempt to land and hopefully, weather dependant, spend a night on the rock in order to test his clothing and some of his kit. Nick also hopes to raise a flag in honour of HM The Queen during the Silver Jubilee weekend, and will be accompanied by BBC Radio Scotland, who will be broadcasting a programme about the expedition on Monday 4th June.

You can find out more about the Jubilee expedition, follow Nick on this expedition and the future 60 day attempt, and sponsor him in support of Help for Heroes at www.rockallsolo.com ."

Tunisia - Cave Rescue Training 2012 Report

Successfully finished the mission of the 6 - Bulgarian cavers team in Tunisia. Group which was composed of representatives of Sofia caving clubs Academic, Vertilend, Keving, Helicitit and Black Peak: Alexei Zhalov - Head; Gyorev Vanyo, Kamen Bonev, Constantin Stoilov, Nikolai Kamenov and Svetlomir Stanchev from the SC Prista - Ruse carried out the 6-day course for initial training for cave rescue techniques. From the Tunisian side event was organized by the Association Sport for All and the Speleological Association of Zaghouan.

Its realisation was supported by speleo equipment and financially by the Fund Euro Speleo Projects of the European Federation of Speleology a result of prepared and submitted by the SCVertilend- Sofia project. In the training took part 3 cavers from Algeria, 2 Iranians, 4 cavers from Morocco and 12 from the host country or a total of 21 persons. The practical exercises was held in a labyrinth of abandoned mine ores at the foot of the Zaghouan Mt. (1295 m above the sea) rising above the town. The natural range enable the participants to learn and practice techniques for dealing with stretcher transportation in a cave, rigging , the hauling up of the stretcher in vertical sections of pulley and counterweight system, building and running a trolley, haul down the stretcher etc.

Someone managed to master most of the above methods and others of them, but in the end everyone left the course with more knowledge and skills certified for participation in courses, but not that he is a qualified Cave rescuer . The course enabled the Bulgarian cave rescuers to share their experiences in cave rescue. During his stay in Tunisia the Bulgarian cavers penetrated in 4 caves in Jebel Serge Massif (1375 m above the sea) located about 150 km southwest of Tunis.

Larger than they are Rhar Jebel Serge or mainsail de la pass which is the deepest cave in Tunisia (displacement of 305,8 m (+139.3; -166.5) and a length of 2.5 km) and fantastic water cave Rhar d'Ain et Dab which is 2.7 km long. During the stay was collected zoological material from outside, and in particular cave invertebrate fauna. Undoubtedly made one of the secondary, but important destinations of the Bulgarian mission - to lay the foundations for fruitful cooperation with cavers from North Africa and Southwest Asia. We believe that our mission in Tunisia was very useful and successful and we hope it can be appreciated at home and abroad.

The group due to their and our foreign colleagues sincere and heartfelt thanks to Nicola Landzhev and his company Landjoff for his exceptional assistance to having made especially for this training cave rescue stretcher - something without which the training would be impossible.

Exploring the Yukon: 24th May to 3rd Aug 2011

Tom, Teo and I set ourselves the goal of paddling 3000 km down the Yukon River last summer. This unguided and unsupported adventure across North America took us 6 weeks and through some of the world's most beautiful and scarcely populated wilderness areas.

Our total lack of kayak/canoe experience made it that much more exciting (daft). Highly recommended!

Visit the website: http://www.exploringtheyukon.com/