1 Week To Go !

Post by: David Geddes, APEX 7 Expedition Leader

With less than one week until the start of the APEX 7 Expedition, we're excited to show everyone what we've been up to! The organising team and volunteers have been very busy! Over the past month, we've been occupied with baseline testing, ordering equipment, counting boxes, and endless meetings!

Baseline Testing

Over the past month, we've been hard at work with baseline testing. Baseline testing has involved bringing in all our volunteers to the Clinical Research Facility at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for the consenting process, as well as any specific research requirements. These research requirements have ranged from blood samples, skin testing, U-RHYTHM insertion, actigraphy measurements & lots of questionnaires! This has been a really great chance to meet all our volunteers and begin to get down to business with conducting all our exciting research!

Anya and David also had the chance to take a trip down to Bristol to visit our friends at the University of Bristol & Dynamic Therapeutics, who are helping with the APEX 7 HiCORT research project. Despite the incredibly delayed flights, we had an amazing time learning about the U-RHYTHM device, and wearing the devices ourselves!

Kit, kit, and more kit

Over the past month, the number of parcel deliveries to each committee's flat has increased exponentially! This equipment has been all of the consumables for our research, as well as medical kit, team clothing & lots of bubble wrap! I really feel for the delivery drivers having to climb up 4 flights of stairs with the hundreds of deliveries over the past month.

Team Clothing

APEX 7 have been lucky enough to be sponsored by Tiso for our expedition jackets. We're delighted with how these have turned out and can't wait to see how cosy they'll be up the mountain! We're also very fortunate to have received support from Workwear Express for our team jumpers. These should pair perfectly with the Tiso Jackets! Unfortunately we don't have a photo of any of our volunteers wearing a team jumper, so you'll have to settle for one our volunteers Alastair modelling our jackets...

We are incredibly excited to finally be here, after more than two years of planning, preparation, and anticipation! The countdown is over, and the APEX 7 expedition is just around the corner. We can’t wait to see all our volunteers on the expedition and share a life changing experience together. Get ready for an amazing adventure!

As always, if there are any questions or enquires, please email us at apex7@altitude.org!