2004-07-28 - Another sunny day
According to the prestigious Oxford University, Dr Arkady Maximov, is considered to be one of the 500 most important scientists during the 20th Century. He is possibly the best polar scientist living today. During the planning stages, before leaving, I spent a fair amount of time researching the subject of cold and found, to my amassment, very little which could add something important to our knowledge regarding survival in cold climates. What I lacked the most was some clear insight into our globes true people of the polar areas. Dr Maximov has plenty of experience regarding long and thorough tests on chuckchis, Eskimos, inuits, yupiks and of course, like most western scientists, plenty of data on white Caucasians. His findings are somewhat astonishing in character for me as a layman. He reckons that putting on extra fat like we do, especially the way I have done, is unnecessary, dumb and even dangerous, since it puts extra pressure on the heart. For example, he has done plenty of tests on well trained athletes, both Caucasian and belong to one of the worlds polar people, where half of them haven’t put on any fat, and the other half extra fat, and he hasn’t found one single test showing that it would be better to put on extra fat to handle Expeditions in cold climates. On the contrary. Well, here I am, with 20 kg:s of overweight….I’ve even put on an additional 5 kg:s since arrival, since there’s been no time to exercise for at least a month. Johan the contrary, has lost 6 kg:s since his arrival!
A reality we noticed today when Arkady and his team of two incredibly staid helpers, did 1.5 hours of testing Johan’s ability to physically withstand cold. His results were all normal. Physically I haste to add. Dr Maximov deals with only physical tests. Anyhow, tomorrow, my turn. Maybe I will be sent home the same way as Titti, not with a leaking heart, but being too fat?
Finally we’ve found a transport to the mouth of the river. We think. I have a feeling this paddling bit will probably be the toughest part of the trip. I’ve kayaked a lot, but paddled only twice in a canoe. Is that enough to handle wild, unknown waters of the Kolyma? We’ll see.
Dr Arkady Maximov will try to meet us halfway and at the end of the trip to test us thoroughly. |
