Altitude Training... at Sea Level

''Place this plastic mask against your face and try to relax,'' said Richard Pullan, the Director of the Altitude Centre in Covent Garden as he handed me a clear-plastic surgical mask. The mask was linked via an omnious thin tube to a greyish white box about two-foot square called a "hypoxicator", which micro-filters the air to reduce oxygen and remove impurities. ''It is the purest air in London,'' he promised, switching on a widescreen television directly in front of me and as I felt my heart start to race.... I felt as if I was part of a strange science experiment as two lines on the console in front of me plotted my pulse (a red line) and the percentage of oxygen in my blood (a blue line) on a graph. The blue one was dropping fast: 98 per cent, 97, 90, 85 … I stared at it anxiously as I tried to relax wondering if it had been a wise move to trust a relative stranger with control over one of  the most critical elements - oxygen- reqired to keep my body going...

The Second Step... in Scotland

Scotland has always conjured up images of horizontal rain, old castles, haggis, men in kilts... not to mention Braveheart, Mike Myers (part Canadian), and the lovely Ewan McGregor ('sigh!')...  Scotland now takes on a meaning much more significant than men in kilts and Scottish gastronomic tendencies.... The Glencoe Hills and Ben Nevis provide some of the best winter walking and climbing conditions in Britain suitable for the beginner and the expert alike. It is the perfect training ground for Everest and there are many people who say that if you can survive the conditions in Scotland then Everest will be a 'walk in the park' (errrmmm... well, maybe not a walk in the park but it will be a good training ground..!!).