Our Story
Inspire 22
The aim of the INSPIRE 22 Expedition is to explore the metabolic cost of sustained polar travel. The team is a mixed civilian / tri-service research team of guides, doctors and physiologists together with a a teacher and an engineer. They will be using proven-state-of-the-art techniques and wearable technologies to to increase our understanding of human metabolism in the austere environment which has potential 'translational' implications for patients.
In November 2022 a team of 10 will ski over 900km from ‘the Messner start’ on the coast of Antarctica across the polar plateau to the heart of the continent – the South Pole – at a height of 2835m above sea level. They will be hauling their supplies behind them for up to 55 days.
The journey from the Ross Ice Shelf on the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole was first completed on 14th December 1911 by Roald Amundsen’s team and shortly after this on 17th January 1912 by Captain Scott’s team. Scott’s team sadly died on the return journey from hypothermia and malnutrition.
Over a century later, the expedition to the South Pole remains an enormous challenge physically, mentally, and nutritionally. Whilst it has successfully been completed many times both by teams and solo expeditions, the number of medical research expeditions can be counted on one hand. Mike Stroud and Ran Fiennes completed the first unsupported Antarctic crossing in 1992/3 and Mike Stroud undertook his seminal work on the metabolic tariff of polar travel and the associated malnutrition.
More recently the Global Polar and Altitude Metabolic Research Registry (GPAMS) was set up at the Coventry National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Facility with support from the Royal Geographic Society and the Mount Everest Foundation. 14 subjects have now been studied including the SPEAR17 and Ice Maiden expeditions. Collaborative research teams from the Universities of Coventry, Warwick, Edinburgh and Leeds Becket and the military have now published 5 peer review papers further outlining the advances in our understanding resulting from the ongoing research.
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Exploring nutrition at the limits of endurance