INSPIRE 22 Team Takes Off to Ski Across Antarctica

Photo Credit: Dimitri Lisitsyn

A team of civilians, Tri-service doctors, guides and physiologists are all set to explore the metabolic cost of sustained polar travel. INSPIRE 22’s team of 10 will ski from the edge of the Antarctic land mass to the South Pole this November. The team is using proven state-of-art techniques and wearable technologies to better understand how human metabolism performs in austere environments.

The team will make the journey from ‘the Messner start’ on the coast of Antarctica across the polar plateau to the heart of the continent - the South Pole.

The data and findings from this one-of-a-kind research expedition will have translational implications on the knowledge of human health in extreme environments. This one-of-a-kind opportunity will allow us to test how we can use technology to track biomarkers and make innovation in health and medicine available to more people, and ultimately use the learning to better manage critically unwell patients.

As human beings we have evolved to adapt and inhabit almost any land-based environment on earth, and this adaptability is key to our survival and success as a species. However, all species require nutrition to maintain the complex body chemistry necessary for survival. Measuring the energy of that complex body chemistry, usually termed metabolic energy, is the focus of the team’s research.

With goals firmly set and months of planning and training being brought to life, INSPIRE 22’s team is ready to take on the mammoth challenge of skiing nearly 1100 kms, 2835 meters above sea level, in altitudes of up to 4,000 m, with temperatures dropping to as low as -50°C. They will also need to haul their own supplies weighing up to 90 kgs for 55 days. This expedition is not for the faint hearted! But it is precisely these extraordinary conditions that will enable the team to investigate the response of the human body when it must survive extreme changes in its environment. 

Measuring the complex body chemistry and how it will change during and after the expedition has required meticulous effort from the team even before the expedition started. 

The team will closely be looking at the food they take in as fuel and the ways in which they utilize different components of their food (carbohydrate, fat and protein - called substrate utilization) for life and activity.

During the expedition, the team will constantly be monitoring stress levels, metabolism, sleep, exercise performance and how they use energy before, during and after the expedition. The team will be taking metabolic measurements in Antarctica immediately prior to and after completing the expedition to investigate the effects of acclimatization and de-acclimatization for the first time. In addition, indirect measurements of metabolism, including sweat and cortisol will be obtained throughout the expedition from newly designed body-worn sensors. 

Polar expeditions place a huge demand on the metabolism as the body tries to supply the right nutrients for performance. The research team measured key biomarkers before departure and will do the same after the expedition is complete using ‘’whole body calorimetry’’. Team members spent 36 hours living and sleeping in gas-tight rooms where metabolism was monitored under conditions of normal and low oxygen across a range of temperatures. To not miss any short-lived adaptations, metabolism measurements will also be taken immediately before and after the expedition. 

Polar expeditions require a combination of aerobic endurance and muscle strength. Another key part of the team’s research will focus on fitness and performance looking at VO2 max. The INSPIRE 22 team will test limits and fitness as they pull their supplies weighing upto 90 kgs over difficult terrain over many hours and consecutive days. To prepare for this they trained in a variety of ways including running on a steadily increasing treadmill until exhaustion whilst wearing a mask to measure breathing, heart rate and blood biomarkers. 

Bone health is especially important for an injury-free expedition. Polar travel uses a large amount of energy. If positive energy balance is not maintained, the body starts to break down the skeleton in an attempt to get more fuel. In addition, repeated forces involved with pulling a sled can put pressure on the bones and the joints which can lead to overuse injury and increase the risk of stress fractures. To prevent this from happening, the team has trained by progressively loading the bones and joints prior to the expedition and by planning to maintain a good diet with enough energy whilst on ice. 

The team has also measured bone density using a whole body DXA scanner before they leave for Antarctica and will do so again when they get back. This will help the team understand how sustained endurance exercise in extreme environments affects bone health and if there are strategies we can identify to improve in the future. 

It will be important for the team to focus on eating enough and getting the right nutrition. They will try to avoid being in a caloric deficit at all costs. The team expects to burn anywhere between 5000 to 7000 calories per day. For reference that is up to 27 big Macs or 30 tubs of Ben and Jerries ice cream a day. Let that sink in! A combination of environmental factors with sub zero temperatures and prolonged exertion pulling a heavy pulk will contribute to this. Getting enough energy and right nutrition will be key to prevent injury or illness. The team has also undertaken an ice testing to assess body fat before leaving for the expedition. 

Over the last year, INSPIRE 22’s team has worked incredibly hard to come together in their unified aspiration to push themselves above and beyond their biophysical, nutritional and mental limits to make this not just a great adventure, but also a successful medical research expedition. Following the seminal footsteps of Mike Stroud whose team undertook the study of the metabolic tariff of polar travel and the associated malnutrition in 1912, INSPIRE 22’s team is all set to make history over a century later.

The challenges of undertaking an expedition like this are enormous even today, but we now have many more means to better investigate the effects of acclimatization and de-acclimatization on human metabolism. Although it must be mentioned that Antarctica is not only challenging for explorers but also electronic measurement systems. Consider this - despite technological advancements, most modern devices that we use comfortably everyday would simply stop working forever when exposed to such extreme temperatures. Even the instrumentation used for this expedition has been specially designed for extreme environments. 

This expedition is the embodiment of the spirit of Project 150 - reaching for 150% of your potential mentally, biophysically, emotionally, with meaning and purpose, driving forward the self and one’s tribe. We wish the INSPIRE 22 team a very, very successful journey!