How hard is it to climb Mount Kilimanjaro?
| WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers... |
A phalanx of celebrities is climbing Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, for Comic Relief. But if Chris Moyles can make the ascent, is it really easy?
The most popular trail for climbing Africa's highest mountain is dismissively known as the "Coca Cola route". It has comfortable huts for tourists to sleep in, food and drink is for sale and the paths are thronged with climbers.
 | THE ANSWER  Kilimanjaro has very little "technical climbing" But altitude sickness is a major problem Walking very slowly, having acclimatisation periods and drinking lots of water are key |
But while it's fair to say that climbing the nearly 6,000m Kilimanjaro is not akin to climbing Everest or K2, it's still something to be approached with care.
Altitude is the key, says Simon Mtuy, who as well as leading trips up the mountain holds the record for the quickest ascent and descent, managing in eight-and-a-half hours what takes the tourists six days.
"It is a very high mountain. Normally people take five or six days. Travelling 1500-2000m in a day is a lot for one person who lives at sea level."
And the consequence of climbing too high, too quickly, is altitude sickness.
Climbers get headaches, suffer vomiting and struggle with their digestive system.
|  You have got to walk so incredibly slowly; imagine an arthritic 90-year-old walking backwards - that's probably too fast  Jon GarsideBritish Mountaineering Council |
Of those who make the trip with Mtuy, 60-70% suffer strong symptoms and everybody feels something.
The essence is not bounding ahead enthusiastically, says Jon Garside, training officer of the British Mountaineering Council, who led a party of teenagers up the mountain in 2002.
"It is nothing that a reasonably fit person shouldn't be able to do. The path is a pretty gentle gradient. It is not technically challenging.
"But you get very high very quickly. That affects the body. You have got to walk so incredibly slowly. Imagine an arthritic 90-year-old walking backwards - that's probably too fast.
 Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Kimberly Walsh, Ben Shephard, Ronan Keating, Denise van Outen, Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles and Gary Barlow are making the ascent |
"If you exert your body at altitude the body will find it really hard to get its breath back."
Some people take aspirin or diamox, a drug to treat the symptoms of altitude sickness, although this is not always recommended. People must always drink plenty of water.
"Chris Moyles is probably used to drinking lots of beer," says Mr Garside. "If he drinks water to the same amount he will be fine."
The Comic Relief party are doing the ascent and descent in eight days meaning they are likely to find it a bit easier than the tourists who try to do it in five and struggle to acclimatise.
| WHAT'S VITAL? Hiking boots Cold weather gear Large quantities of fluids Appropriate food |
On Kilimanjaro there's none of what mountaineers call "technical climbing" - moments where you find yourself rummaging for an ice axe as you cling on to an overhang. But despite this many of the tourists fail to complete the ascent.
Mr Mtuy runs expeditions using the Lemosho trail which take seven days up and four days down and says with this gentle programme he manages to achieve a 95% success rate.
And whichever route you're doing whether it's the touristy Marangu route, the more scenic Machame, the longer Lemosho or any of the others the key thing is mental strength.
| WHO, WHAT, WHY?  A regular part of the BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer some of the questions behind the headlines |
"No matter how strong you have to be prepared mentally," says Mr Mtuy.
"Sleeping on the ground for five or six days is hard. You need the determination. You have a head ache your body is aching, you are struggling."
And of course if you do make the ascent, as well as the layers of wildly differing vegetation you are guaranteed a spectacular view.
"It is really amazing when you get to the crater rim and you see this lunar landscape. It is a very beautiful mountain to climb," says Mr Garside.
How hard is it climb Mount Kilimanjaro?
How hard is it climb Mount Kilimanjaro?
| WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers... |
A phalanx of celebrities are climbing Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, for Comic Relief. But if Chris Moyles can make the ascent, is it really easy?
The most popular trail for climbing Africa's highest mountain is dismissively known as the "Coca Cola route". It has comfortable huts for tourists to sleep in, food and drink is for sale and the paths are thronged with climbers.
| THE ANSWER Kilimanjaro has very little "technical climbing" But altitude sickness is a major problem Walking very slowly, having acclimatisation periods and drinking lots of water are key |
But while it's fair to say that climbing the nearly 6,000m Kilimanjaro is not akin to climbing Everest or K2, it's still something to be approached with care.
Altitude is the key, says Simon Mtuy, who as well as leading trips up the mountain holds the record for the quickest ascent and descent, managing in eight-and-a-half hours what takes the tourists six days.
"It is a very high mountain. Normally people take five or six days. Travelling 1500-2000m in a day is a lot for one person who lives at sea level."
And the consequence of climbing too high, too quickly, is altitude sickness.
Climbers get headaches, suffer vomiting and struggle with their digestive system.
| You have got to walk so incredibly slowly; imagine an arthritic 90-year-old walking backwards - that's probably too fast Jon GarsideBritish Mountaineering Council |
Of those who make the trip with Mtuy, 60-70% suffer strong symptoms and everybody feels something.
The essence is not bounding ahead enthusiastically, says Jon Garside, training officer of the British Mountaineering Council, who led a party of teenagers up the mountain in 2002.
"It is nothing that a reasonably fit person shouldn't be able to do. The path is a pretty gentle gradient. It is not technically challenging.
"But you get very high very quickly. That affects the body. You have got to walk so incredibly slowly. Imagine an arthritic 90-year-old walking backwards - that's probably too fast.
| Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Kimberly Walsh, Ben Shephard, Ronan Keating, Denise van Outen, Fearne Britton, Chris Moyles and Gary Barlow are making the ascent |
"If you exert your body at altitude the body will find it really hard to get its breath back."
Some people take aspirin or diamox, a drug to treat the symptoms of altitude sickness, although this is not always recommended. People must always drink plenty of water.
"Chris Moyles is probably used to drinking lots of beer," says Mr Garside. "If he drinks water to the same amount he will be fine."
The Comic Relief party are doing the ascent and descent in eight days meaning they are likely to find it a bit easier than the tourists who try to do it in five and struggle to acclimatise.
| WHAT'S VITAL? Heavy hiking boots Cold weather gear Large quantities of fluids Appropriate food |
On Kilimanjaro there's none of what mountaineers call "technical climbing" - moments where you find yourself rummaging for an ice axe as you cling on to an overhang. But despite this many of the tourists fail to complete the ascent.
Mr Mtuy runs expeditions using the Lemosho trail which take seven days up and four days down and says with this gentle programme he manages to achieve a 95% success rate.
And whichever route you're doing whether it's the touristy Marangu route, the more scenic Machame, the longer Lemosho or any of the others the key thing is mental strength.
| WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular part of the BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer some of the questions behind the headlines |
"No matter how strong you have to be prepared mentally," says Mr Mtuy.
"Sleeping on the ground for five or six days is hard. You need the determination. You have a head ache your body is aching, you are struggling."
And of course if you do make the ascent, as well as the layers of wildly differing vegetation you are guaranteed a spectacular view.
"It is really amazing when you get to the crater rim and you see this lunar landscape. It is a very beautiful mountain to climb," says Mr Garside.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Can people unlearn their naked shame?
Can people unlearn their naked shame?
| By Paul King |
It's a classic anxiety nightmare - you're standing in front of a room full of work colleagues, your boss is there, maybe even that new colleague you've been trying to impress. And you're stark naked. Ouch.
Why are we so ashamed of being seen naked? Is there something deep in human nature that finds naked skin abhorrent? Some prudishness inherited from our Victorian ancestors?
| FIND OUT MORE... Horizon's What's the Problem With Nudity? is on BBC Two at 2100 GMT on Tuesday, 3 March Or watch it later on the BBC iPlayer |
And how can you explain the rebels who shun convention to spend their weekends hanging out with similar-minded nudists, insisting nothing could be more normal?
Eight ordinary people - none of them nudists - were recently brought together for an experiment filmed by the BBC's Horizon programme, to test some of the scientific theories that explain why naked bodies make us so uncomfortable.
Among them were Phil, 39, from Birmingham and Kath, 40, from Dorset. Kath's greatest worry was that people would laugh at her. Some of the men in the group were more concerned about inappropriate excitement.
Man's nakedness
Phil was first to feel the cameras burning into his skin. A matter of hours after meeting the other volunteers, he found himself before a full-length mirror, instructed to remove all of his clothes. When he discovered the mirror was two-way and he was being watched, his red face, beating heart and soaring blood pressure told a story.
Performing the same task, Kath admitted she wanted "the floor to open up." When we are naked in public, most of us feel exposed.
| All around the world individuals feel great shame when they know that others know that they have failed to be adequately modest Prof Dan FesslerPsychologist |
And of course, a naked human is just that bit more naked that other primates. We have only minimal body hair, they have fur. Why?
It's one of the greatest mysteries in evolution, and even bothered Charles Darwin. One of the theories is that we lost our fur as a way of dealing with the heat of the sun. It's controversial, as most mammals use fur to protect them from the sun. But some anthropologists believe our ancestors' unique ability to sweat, along with their upright stance, meant we could cool quicker without fur - prompting the onset of human nudity.
They reckon that evolutionary step towards nudity had huge implications for the human race. With a souped-up cooling system, our ancestors could afford to develop ever-bigger brains - leading to culture, tools, fire, and language.
Red for 'no-go'
"Really, without losing hair, without our sweatiness, we wouldn't have been able to evolve the big brains that characterise us today," says anthropologist Professor Nina Jablonski of Penn State University. "Essentially, being hairless was the key to much of human evolution."
So there's reason to believe our nudity arose out of practical need, but that doesn't answer why we're so ashamed by it.
 Attitudes towards nakedness may be the result of the need for long-term pair bonding |
But it seems this shame can be unlearned - witness, for example, the work of artist Spencer Tunnick, who frequently corrals hundreds of volunteers to strip off en mass in public places for his photographs.
After a series of experiments, Phil and Kath, who had been so self-conscious at the start, each came face-to-face with a newly stripped fellow volunteer. They were invited to paint the body in front of them, colour coding every patch of skin to show how uncomfortable they felt touching that part of the body - red for no-go; yellow for squirming and green for fine.
Phil drew the line at colouring his subject's genitals, but Kath had lost all her inhibitions. Within moments she'd painted her subject completely green. Every inch.
Learned shame
It was an example of how flexible our attitudes to nudity are. And it explains how nudists can carry on as normal when they're surrounded by naked people. Over a couple of days, the volunteers had unlearned many of the social conventions that normally govern their life, and reached a new consensus that permitted them to be naked in each other's company.
It chimes with the psychologists' theory that we are not born with a shame of nudity. Instead we learn it, as an important behavioural code that allows us to operate in human society.
 Some people may even find this image uncomfortable to view |
With the long immature period of a young human, mum and dad need to form a stable pair bond to do the looking after. But humans are more social than any other primate, living and moving in large social groups.
Psychologist Professor Dan Fessler, of the University of California, Los Angeles, says our gregariousness "poses a challenge... because those groups of course provide a source of temptation. Potentially both sexes can benefit by cheating on their partners."
That's where our shame of nudity comes in. Over thousands of generations, we've learned that showing off a naked body sends out sexual signals that threaten the security of mating pairs. And we've chosen to agree that that is a bad thing.
Shame is the ideal emotion to enforce that code of conduct. Because it feels unpleasant, we avoid it at all costs. And because it's such a visible emotion, everyone around gets a clear message that you know you've messed up.
Social contract
"All around the world individuals feel great shame when they know that others know that they have failed to be adequately modest," Prof Fessler says. "Essentially, they're signalling to those around them 'I understand what the social norm is and I understand that you know that I have failed in this regard, so please don't hurt me.'
"Nudity is a threat to the basic social contract. They have exposed their body and their sexual selves in a way that presents an opportunity for sexual behaviour outside of the principal union."
But as this code of conduct is something we learn, rather than are born with, we can re-learn it, if common consensus allows. As Phil reflected: "One thing I think I'll take away is how easy it was to bond with complete strangers in what should really be an artificial environment and one that by all society's standards we should feel uncomfortable with."
Would all this knowledge prepare Phil and Kath to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour back in the real world? As the weekend drew to a close, they were presented their final, surprise challenge.
They are invited to walk naked in the street to waiting taxis, which they do. They have overcome a significant bit of socialisation.
Send us your comments using the form below.
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Can you rebrand a bad memory?
Can you rebrand a bad memory?
| By Craig Smith |
What has Abu Ghraib got in common with the Millennium Dome? They've both been shut down only to reopen under new names. But the rebranding trick is a hard one to pull off, especially when bad memories are fresh.
Sellafield, Altria, Sea River Mediterranean, Xe - the rebranding club recently gained a new member in the guise of Baghdad Central Prison.
That most of these names will be unfamiliar illustrates the difficulty, or futility, of attempting to wipe clean the slate of history with a mere name change.
Even with the benefit of five decades passing, the British nuclear reactor formerly known as Windscale looms large in the public consciousness for the disaster that occurred there in October 1957 when a fire led to a radioactive leak.
| Abu Ghraib should be knocked down, turned into a community centre, a park area or even a parking lot. Anything but a prison Joel BiswasFuturebrand |
What chance then for Altria, formerly Philip Morris, to shed its associations with tobacco, or the oil tanker Exxon Valdez to put ecological disaster behind it with a pleasure cruiser-type moniker such as Sea River Mediterranean?
Iraq, and the US's presence there, has opened up a new chapter in such "rebranding" exercises. The reputation of Blackwater, the security contractor operating in the country under a US State Department contract, was already badly damaged by the time of a 2007 shooting involving Blackwater guards that left a dozen Iraqi civilians dead.
Earlier this month it renamed its group companies Xe (pronounced "zee") is an attempt to limit its losses to the State Department contract that once represented a third of its annual revenue.
Saddam past
Abu Ghraib prison will find it less easy to eradicate an ugly past. It gained notoriety in 2004 when the world witnessed shocking images of prisoner abuse at the hands of their US military captors - an episode that former US President George Bush described as the low point of his tenancy at the White House.
Before the arrival of the Americans, the prison had held inmates and enemies of Saddam Hussein in their tens of thousands.
 This is the most vivid association with Abu Ghraib prison |
The Iraqi officials now running the prison are at pains to point out that Baghdad Central Prison is a very different institution to the one the Americans eventually shut down in 2006. It now houses a modern medical centre, mosque, hair salon and recreational area for visiting families. The authorities have capped the number of inmates it will hold at 14,000.
Such efforts to improve the "product" are understandable, commendable even, yet its "repackaging" faces one, seemingly insurmountable, hurdle. Whatever name the prison goes by, it still sits squarely in that district between Baghdad and Fallujah called, well, Abu Ghraib.
And while marketing gurus can do what they like with a company or institution, they have little sway over the renaming of an entire neighbourhood.
 This is the new Baghdad Central Prison |
"This isn't so much an attempt at commercial rebranding as an attempt at reconstructive surgery, changing one's identity and trying to live under an assumed name," says Joel Biswas, senior strategy consultant at branding agency Futurebrand. "The only problem is that Abu Ghraib can't actually physically relocate."
In fact, the rebranding is an insult to the Iraqi people and a major black eye for the branding industry, says Mr Biswas.
"Abu Ghraib should be knocked down, turned into a community centre, a park area or even a parking lot. Anything but a prison."
Whether or not the branding industry suffers by the efforts of Baghdad Central Prison or vice versa, the fact is that its management faces the same difficult decision as any crisis-hit organization - whether to keep, change or cull the brand.
In 1982, the US's leading over-the-counter medicine, Tylenol, was rocked by the so-called Tylenol Murders, when capsules on shelves were laced with cyanide, killing seven customers. Although the deaths were all in the Chicago area, the effect was felt nationwide and few believed the brand could survive the disaster.
Owner Johnson & Johnson responded swiftly, launching a then unprecedented mass recall, public information campaign and relaunch. Within a year, not only had the household name survived, it had regained its market share and more than restored public trust.
Dome crisis
What Johnson & Johnson realised is that the residual value of a well-known brand is greater than the damage that can be done to it by even the worst of crises, assuming you respond to the problem ethically and effectively. It is a fine line, however, and the trick is in being able to spot the difference between a brand survivor and one that is in its death throes.
Though little else was wounded in its making than a few political egos, by the time the Millennium Dome opened for business on 1 January 2000, it was already a brand suffering a catastrophic crisis of reputation.
Over budget and overhyped, the exhibition that the structure housed attracted just over half the number of visitors forecast. A year later the venue was closed and struggled for purpose for six years until it was reopened as "the O2" in June 2007.
Although it had shed the Millennium Dome name and had benefited from a
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Can a fleece ever be fashionable?
Can a fleece ever be fashionable?
| By Megan Lane and Tom Geoghegan BBC News Magazine |
They wore leggings and stompy heels. We, however, stood out in a red fleece. A bobbly, basic, and decidedly unironic fleece. Its one possible claim to fashion fame is that it looked a little like the red fleece Rageh Omar wore in his "Scud Stud" days of reporting from Baghdad.
|  Fleeces and sportswear are extremely fashionable now. We just watched the Christopher Shannon show and he used it (pictured above). Anything can be fashionable, it's how you wear it. This fleece is very basic but you could wear it as a dress, over leggings and big heels TopMan stylist Mary Mullally, 31 |
Despite its near total absence from the catwalks of this week's London Fashion Week, the fashionistas who populate this biannual style bash couldn't help but cosy up to this ever so humble garment. Perhaps it's the chance to wrap up warm...
Polarfleece first went on sale in 1979, trademarked by New Hampshire's Malden Mills. Made from polyester microfibre, it drew moisture away from the skin, freeing ramblers and climbers from the prickly discomfort of waterlogged woolly jumpers. Today polar fleece is a generic term for the fabric, rather than a brand, and is the nation's outerwear of choice, whether for pottering in the garden or out on a bracing walk.
It is practical. Cheap. Lightweight. It's dry almost as soon as it emerges from the washing machine, and is made from the plastic bottles we toss into recycling bins. It adds warmth, but is less bulky than a coat.
But stylish it is not - a fact conceded by those whose dress sense is carefully scrutinised.
|  The gratifying thing about a fleece - aside from the warmth - is that it simply never has to look good Emily Maitlis |
"The gratifying thing about a fleece - aside from the warmth - is that it never has to look good," says BBC newsreader Emily Maitlis, whose favourite off-camera outfit is a fleece with jeans and ballet pumps. "It is a declaration you simply don't mind. Hence the joy. Anything aesthetic is an unaccustomed bonus."
Unaccustomed indeed. For despite its slimming shades of grey, navy or black, the fleece is boxy of silhouette and zips tend to woggle unflatteringly over one's torso.
Fashion staple
But don't yet rule it out as a style statement, says Professor Penny Martin, of the London College of Fashion.
|  Fleeces have an unfashionable reputation because they're fluffy. But fleeces are stylish. I love this one, I love the colour. It's better zipped down, and with a few layers, maybe with a scarf to bring it up Model Dominique Hollington, 19 |
"The fleece jacket has been designed with practicality in mind, but with a tweak of the proportions, perhaps across the hip, and a rethink on the fastenings, I can imagine it being used by a menswear designer.
"After all, where did jeans come from? Nineteenth century workwear, given a little bit of a twist in the 1950s to become a contemporary choice."
As if to prove the point, on Wednesday, the last day of London Fashion Week, designer Christopher Shannon used fleece in his sportswear-themed collection.
Professor Martin says an unfashionable fabric will suddenly hit the catwalk and then be picked up by the High Street when an entrepreneurial manufacturer targets an up and coming designer, offering sponsorship to use their cloth.
"It's not going to happen that we all suddenly decide it'll be nice to be warm and the fleece will become fashionable. That's not how it works."
Club attire
As is so often the case these days, the High Street is there first. Retailers of "yoof" favourites such as wet-look leggings and tube dresses - American Apparel and Uniqlo in particular - already sell tight, bright incarnations of the fleece, the perfect top layer for their clubby, casual, urban wares.
|  I wouldn't mind a fleece, it's good for outside when you're cold. In a few years it will be in fashion again, but with more seams and in different colours. It could work if it was wide or slim. Also some better quality zips - metal instead of plastic Vibeka Kaae, 26, design assistant |
Which is apt, as what originally helped propel the fleece out of its outdoorsy niche was the acid house scene, says Rosemary Harden, curator of the Fashion Museum in Bath.
Clubbers dressed for comfort in trainers, backpacks, baggy T-shirts and trousers - and donned fleeces to head home in the thin light of dawn.
"There was the mountaineering Berghaus crowd, obviously, but fleeces were being worn in clubs in the 1980s and made by brands such as Duffer of St George. That propelled them into the mainstream, and then, awful awful, the fleece became the sort of thing your mum would wear."
Those who once threw shapes on the dancefloor now indulge in pastimes such as rambling and gardening. And what do they wear? Fleece jackets. Fleece hats. Fleece scarves. Fleece gloves. No wonder outdoor shops proliferate on High Streets and shopping centres up and down this land.
|  This needs accessorising, maybe cut the sleeves off. I do own one, which I wear when it's very cold. It's a fashion staple. You might think people here would slag it off but fashion people aren't like that. I like this fleece. Top-notch, 10 out of 10 Model Jono Namara, 21 |
The Ramblers' Association Walk magazine is almost entirely illustrated with people in fleeces, young and old.
The fleece has helped lure us outside in our leisure time, says Minnie Burlton, the magazine's gear editor.
"Its warmth to weight ratio has simplified packing for a weekend away walking. Once you'd need loads of cotton and wool layers, now you just need a fleece and an outer layer to keep the wind out."
And gone are the days of pulling on still-sodden socks and jumpers the day after a drenching.
"If your fleece gets wet, it will dry if you put it on a hanger behind the door. So if you go on a walking holiday to the Lake District, for instance, you can stay at a B&B. A walkers' lodge with a drying room is no longer essential."
The fleece jacket has also helped democratise the school uniform, offering a more casual choice for head teachers keen to foster collegiate pride and nip competitive dressing in the bud, without asking parents to shell out for blazers and ties.
From baby blankets to kit for polar expeditions, the fleece keeps us snuggly.
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.