In May of this year Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a research project coordinated by the UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme environment medicine (CASE), placed a research team on the summit of Mount Everest . Their goal was to make the first ever measurement of the level of oxygen in human blood at extreme altitudes. The experiments would help in their research into hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and human performance at extreme altitudes, whose symptoms under these conditions can be likened to those in critically ill patients. The lessons learned from these experiments could then be brought back and applied to the critically ill where hypoxia is a fundamental problem.
Doctors, experienced in climbing and some 200 volunteers took up the challenge and climbed via the South East Ridge of Everest setting up their laboratories at a Base Camp (5300m) and moving up to the summit at 8850m in stages. If the climb was not enough, they took with them tonnes of lab equipment and exercise bikes.

Dr. Max Jonas, a Consultant within the Intensive Care Unit of Southampton General Hospital was invited to join the team and immediately took up the challenge, establishing himself at Base Camp and assisting with the experiments. He and the other climbers were confronted with temperatures down to -40°C, high winds, storms, critically low oxygen levels and the potential of frostbite, exhaustion, hypothermia and high altitude illness (mountain sickness).
Max knew the environment would be at times unforgiving and wanted to remember at his low points that he was not only helping his patients back home but also supporting a local charity by being sponsored for his endeavours. Being a good friend of a Rainbow family Max decided that our children would be the lucky beneficiaries.