Researchers find retinal blood vessels leak at altitude, but downplay connection with altitude sickness

Lance Armstrong is not the only one.

The search-and-rescue team was able to recover some equipment from the exposed tail of the de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, including the cockpit voice recorder.

It's in the air but no one knows exactly what it is.

Heavily wounded and with no identity documents & no money the indigenous people in the Jungle washed off Davey’s dry blood, rubbed his back every time he was throwing up blood, prayed or chanted what felt like blessings and protection.

All the bullets are still in Davey’s body. Biggest concern to the doctors in Lima is the bullets in his lung and heart. But what happened when the solo Amazon navigator spent 4 hours in a river boat with multiple bullet wounds?

A surgery went bad and she ended up in a wheelchair. She lost more than her legs, Angela tells ExplorersWeb. It was hard to pick up the pieces but she plotted a new course to her destination. Watch her at the 2012 Paralympics.

He has bullets in his spine, face, neck, skull, arms, was left for dead, got up, ran for about 5 km to get help, saw people, tried to call for help but no sound came out because he had been shot in the neck. The people wanted money to help him; he had none.

The South African, Davey du Plessis, who is attempting to navigate the Amazon from source to sea on his own, has been shot in the jungle. The area is known for the operations by drug cartels.

8 years ago Andy Campbell lost the use of his legs in a mountaineering accident. This month he sets off on a 30,000 mile journey across 4 continents by off-road wheelchair, handcycle, paraglider, and kayak; feeding his desire for freedom and adventure.

Howard Fairbank and Imtiaaz (Imi) Moosa, who went totally blind 6 years ago, are on another river paddle quest; this time in Quetico Park, Canada.

Now to something extraordinary, even for the wild side of Himalaya.

"I urge everyone with Summit regulators to test them before committing to use high," Ted Atkins says.

Amputee Zsolt Eross is part of the Hungarian team on Annapurna.

A nutritional heads-up for Arctic skiers

Here goes an update on the current Everest supplementary oxygen situation.

Good news for high altitude climbers: exercise and low-oxygen environments make cells more resistant to injury and disease; and the effect lasts for months after the expedition.

There has been another incident with exploding oxygen writes Ted Atkins.

Ted Atkins makes the popular Topout masks for supplementary oxygen on Everest. Here a word from him regarding an accident last week.

Regenerative medicine is gaining ground with leaps and bounds. Simple organs are grown (or printed) in the labs. A video, showing a man who regrew his fingertip, could point to the future of frostbite recovery.

It was sudden and unexpected. Because many have asked, here go details on Vitaly Gorelik's fate on the Russian winter K2 attempt.

Season folding, pictures from Antarctica show evidence of a hard fight. Some will recover soon, some will have to live with their "souvenirs" for the rest of their lives. Lucky enough, modern logistics spared all skiers the high price paid one hundred years ago by the British pioneers.

In 2003, 24-years old Alan Lock began to rapidly lose his vision. Instead of crawling into a corner, the young UC Berkeley grad and Royal Navy Officer has already lived a lifetime. Next, he aims to be the first blind person to ski from the Coast to the South Pole.

The young adventurer watched a 250kg polar bear dragging one of his expedition leaders along by his head, before the animal reached for him with a blood covered nose and jaws locking over his head, crunching his skull. 16-year-old Patrick Flinders, has spoken out about his experience.

Thinking of "Touching The Void" Jeong-Heon Park lost his fingers to frostbite when saving his partner Gang-Sik Choi from a deep crevasse. Switching focus, in the next six months Park will paraglide the Himalayas using hot air balloon to reach altitudes up to 7000 meters.

"In summary, this trip reminded me of what I could do, and not what I was incapable of doing," said Imtiaz Moosa following a life changing canoe trip down the Yukon River. Adventurer Howard Fairbanks wrote how returning to the city changed everything though.

The face mask not only unlocked ExWeb stories this Everest season but could also help you summit with proper use. "I believe use of the mask is in fact most important during the early acclimatization stages for high altitude climbing," said Eric F. Meyer, M.D (K2, 2008).

A diabetic & former British Royal Air Force jet pilot, Douglas Cairns, flew from Alaska to the Magnetic and Geographic North Poles in a light twin-engine, piston powered aircraft. After circling 90 deg N, he flew to Barneo and landed on the ice runway where they fixed two problems on the plane.

Currently Wendy is out on the Arctic Ocean, running beside a dogsled. Her ability to run long distances though, was born out of a challenge she set for herself after being diagnosed with MS. She tells ExWeb about changing her initial negative emotions into big challenges.

When first diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998, Wendy was crushed. But she was also determined to see how hard and how far she could push back at her diagnosis. She started running marathons and climbing mountains, and will now attempt a Last Degree dog sled expedition to the North Pole.

There are lessons in the text that nature renders wrote Robert Service in his classic poem "The Call of the Wild." The team at Alaska Crossings take this literally, helping 'lost' youths cope with abuse by exposing them to a Wild of a purer kind.

In spite of the approaching winter, Pakistan is far from being quiet. Four expeditions are preparing to attempt the country's 8000ers during the cold season, while local mountaineers attend a Mountain Guidind course launched by the Pakistan Alpine Club.

150 years ago, villages in the Alps patiently waited out winters, hoping to work as porters during the summer. Hervé Barmasse has launched the "Pakistan Winter Sport" project to provide Shimshal a similar future as local mountain guides for both men and women alike.

The Icelandic drivers from Arctic Trucks were called in to rescue a man who fell in a crevasse. He was a worker at the luxury camp White Desert who went for a walk. After several attempts by White Desert the Icelandic team was called in to save the man who could not have survived much longer in the cold.

Today Megan tells ExWeb more about the influence off the Antarctic crevasse fall on her South Pole ski as well as about her recent experience on K2. She also compared the mountains and poles: very civilized, a "gentleman's" sport and dangerous vs. grueling endeavor, no break, no rest, just give

While climbing Everest Meagan’s interest in skiing to the South Pole was triggered. Out on her own from the Hercules Inlet start, she fell in a crevasse. After her rescue, she decided to carry on from Patriot Hills, very scared and drawing motivation from within herself to keep going every day, she told

While enjoying the first mixed-climbing trips of the season in the Wyoming mountains, climber and snowboarder Stephen Koch got involved in a rescue at the Valhalata Traverse, on the backside of the Tetons. Injured mate Michelle has summed up the adventure in a video.

At the end of April Ben Davenport plans to depart on a journey with a 4x4 vehicle through 37 countries from (Cape) Cornwall to Cape Horn. Born with the rare condition, Noonan Syndrome, Ben plans to show that one doesn't have to be perfect to have a dream and go for it.

"One day I awoke with numbness in half of my body overnight, and my whole world came crashing down around me." Lori took to the mountains and finally stood on a stormy Everest summit, ten years after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. One by one, the 7 Summits had taught her how to be brave.

Fast, strong, and determined, Kazakh climbers are outstanding on high altitude. Currently, the men are doing three daily ascents in preps for the upcoming Lhotse attempt. Here the workout tips - do try them at home - from Vassiliy Pivtsov and Kazakhstan Armys Sports Club team coach Iljinsky.

A market leader with over seventy employees across North America, conducting operations and training on seven continents; Remote Medical will be main contributor on the medical section of ExplorersWeb (BaseCampMD), now expanding from Everest to the rest of the world.

I want my arrival to be a celebration of the past 25 years, Geoff stated in his blog before arriving in Tortola, British Virgin Islands on 7 January.Geoff, his carer Susana, and a photographer Digby, successfully crossed the Atlantic. They left from Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands in December 2009.

"Too young! Mid-life crisis! Too old!" Some scientists have found that due to routine most people stop to think outside the box by age 40 (some even at 30). They also quit sports about that time and by 60+ most retire altogether.Act your age, we are told, but recent records (junior and

Twenty-five years ago Geoff's sailing career was cut short by a life changing accident which left him paralysed from the chest down. But, he remained passionate about sailing and continued to live his passion.He is now heading back to the Atlantic Ocean which he had crossed three times as a

(ThePoles.com) Karen Darke fell off a cliff and became paralysed from the chest down. That was the beginning of an extraordinary new adventure life she stated. Her latest plan is to sit-ski from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole in 2011. Fell off a cliffLuckily I've got an adventurous gene, as

It has been a while since Jesper Melin Ganc-Petersen and Erik Bruun Jørgensen updated their Danish website - until this morning with news about Jesperâs serious medical condition and an impressive evacuation operation. The evacuation was no easy task and in the process the rescue plane h

Mountain guide Federico Campanini, 31, and one of his clients (Elena Senin, 38) perished on Aconcagua around January 8 after their group summited via the normal route. On descent, the mountaineers lost their way in a sudden storm and mistakenly descended the technical Polish route. Federico

(TheOceans.net) According to Erdenâs latest report he was within 24 hours of landing his boat at Dreger Harbor. He said he worked hard and slept a total of 5 hours two nights ago and 4 hours the last night. Medical conditionIntense heat and lots of sunshine caused sunburn on his skin. Erden explained

22-year old Sarah McNair Landryâs team, with cancer survivor, Thomas Davenport, arrived at the South Pole. Sarah and Tom plan to kite back. Eric Larsen and his team also arrived at the Pole; and team-mate Jeremy Rogers plans to kite back with "a Norwegian who has made the trip before."

Investigating mountaineering history facts (beyond western media spin) it becomes clear the Polish were underdogs in the climbing cold war of the 80s, and it made them tough. They made their own climbing gear from junkyard scraps and became the world's hardest climbers. One

What is an expedition success? The summit, yes. But it's also to come down in one piece; return a fellow climber to his family; come home smarter and with a story that will inspire others. Yet how do you do that? Easy, explained John F. Kennedy: "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shini

Thomas Davenport of Maryland, US, will ski to the pole and kite back to the coast. His will be one of the most hardcore Antarctica expeditions this year; yet Thomas is adding another stake to the challenge. He will travel with parts of his colon removed, after being diagnosed with cancer in

With shattered tools, K2 climbers are headed up the Cesen and Abruzzi ridges on the mountaineers' mountain. Meanwhile, Danijela Jovanovic is on her own, magnificent summit push. Her broken gear not torn by storms or faded by the sun - but left-over cards she was dealt at birth.

After summit this Sunday, Santiago Quintero was reportedly helped down with signs of AMS to high camp by German Ralf Dujmovits. In camp 3, an Argentinean fellow climber took over, administrating medicals and supplementary oxygen. Meanwhile, two Sherpas were sent up by two Brazilian

Erik Monasterio is a Bolivian/New Zealand medical doctor and mountaineer. He specializes in Forensic Psychiatry and also has a research background as a Senior Clinical Lecturer with the University of Otago, Medical School. "I have been mountaineering for over 17 years and have climbed in

A few weeks back, New Scientist reported that neurologists at the University Hospital in Zaragoza, Spain, recently performed an MRI on a number of high altitude climbers. You might recall ExWeb's interview with the climbing doctor Jose Ramon Morandeira - Head of Research at Zaragozaâs

Dreaming is the best remedy against aging," says one. "What you think you can do, you will always do," says another. Preaching the same gospel, there's 60 years between the two prophets. DreamsAmerican Noah McKelvin, 15, has climbed a number of fourteeners as a preparation to bag all

A dangerous study is spreading like a wildfire in global news right now. Its conclusion, "On Everest, youth and vigor trump age and experience."The study is based on a total of three (!) 60+ climbers, dying on Everest since 1922. Parts of the study claims there's a 25% risk of dying

(MountEverest.net) Norwegian climber Cato Pedersen has confirmed his plans to attempt Mount Everest this spring. In an email to ExplorersWeb he writes, "I lost my left and half the right arm in an accident in 1973. Since then I have been fighting with the belief that I would 'handle what happens

When 5-time Everest summiteer Luis Benitez shared his favorite stops around the world a few weeks back, he mentioned one of the "Seven Summits" - Elbrus in Kazakhstan - for the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the beaches in Turkey where "looking back eastward on a non hazy day you can see the