UKC

Hi everyone, 

I know lots of you have been on interesting expeditions, so hoping this might be of interest to the UK climbing forum. 

With a colleague, I have just started a new research project to try and understand peoples' experience of transitioning back from expedition environments. Anecdotally, we know that some people find the reintegration difficult and we would like to know more about what is going on. The longer-term aim of this programme of work is to produce some guidance for people going out into challenging and demanding expedition settings, such as those encountered on mountaineering and climbing expeditions. This guidance would be designed for both expedition participants and leaders.

For the current project, we are trying to recruit people who returned from an expedition in the past 12 months. We have kept our definition of expeditions quite inclusive and refer to any purposeful overseas self-supported journey between 2 or more locations lasting at least 7 days. The expedition has to have taken place abroad and participants should have been back in their home country for at least 2 weeks. If you would like to take part, you will be asked to complete an online survey. The survey takes around 20-30 minutes and includes a range of questions related to the expedition and what it was like during the first few weeks after returning home. 

Here is the link to the online questionnaire and a bit more information if this is something of interest: https://apps.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/surveys//TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=llKI38l... 

I would be very happy to provide a summary report upon completion of the project and also happy to answer any questions or queries about the work. 

Thanks for considering. 
All the very best, Nathan   

Looks like really interesting and useful research. I've filled out the survey and look forward to reading the summary report!

Done

The biggest problem reintegrating to normal life is cutlery based confusion. After weeks or months with just a spoon it's really difficult to return to knives and forks etc.

Toilets. Sit down, flushing toilets are what I appreciate the most after returning from expedition! Even more so than hot showers.

On a more serious note, this is an interesting area of research. When I've returned from big trips I've suffered from 'post trip blues', possibly a mild depression. Most of the people I know, who've gone off on big adventures, seem to have experienced something similar. 

I think it's a combination of having achieved an objective, sometimes having had sublime or surreal experiences on the trip and then having to return to what seems a rather pointless and boring every day life. 

Nathan, Could you please write an article for UKC, based on your findings? I'm sure many of us who 'lurk' on here would it find it interesting. 

The definition of expedition used in this article is maybe too loose. It's listed as "any purposeful overseas journey that required self-sufficient travel between 2 or more locations for at least 7 days."

By that logic spending the holidays in Chamonix counts, but my mindset when returning from that kind of trip is very different from my mindset after spending prolonged periods of time tent bound in a 3rd world country or the absolute middle of nowhere.

But zooming around Chamonix in a van and taking lifts up into the mountains probably doesn't count as 'self-sufficient travel'. That's what I'd assumed, anyway.

What about swanning around the Himalayas with your kit carried on a yak and every whim catered to by a team of sherpas?

If one of those whims happens to be a hot shower you'll be out of luck.