Fiennes, Ranulph

A similar suggestion is made for maintenance of the mental activities of Mike Stroud and Ranulph Fiennes during their long trans-Antarctic expedition when, at times, their blood glucose fell to about 1 mmol/L (Chapter 13). Unfortunately the blood level of ketone bodies was not measured during this trek. 

The heat production from strenuous muscle activity can maintain normal body temperature even in the harshest of environmental conditions Mike Stroud and Ranulph Fiennes, during their Transantarctic expedition, even without excessive amounts of clothing, generated sufficient heat from the muscular effort involved in walking and pulling their sledges, that normal body temperature was maintained (Stroud, 1997). 

Quantitative studies of energy metabolism and fuel utilisation in very prolonged physical activity were performed by Mike Stroud during his Antarctic expedition with Ranulph Fiennes in 1992. One part of the study was measurement of energy expenditure by the dual isotope techniques (Chapter 2). Calculated over the whole expedition, the average daily energy expenditure of Stroud and Fiennes was 29 MJ but on particularly arduous days it increased to... 

During the southern summer of 1992/93, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and I set out from the Atlantic coast of the Antarctic, aiming to perform the first crossing of the continent unaided by other men, animals or machines. Behind us we each towed sledges weighing 222 kg which contained 100 days of food, fuel and essential survival equipment. 

Information kindly provided by Ranulph Fiennes (personal communication). 

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