Morocco Mountain Medicine Expedition - for medics

Full programme Saturday to Friday 25 September - 1 October 2010

NEW! Trek & climb Mt. Toubkal only Monday to Friday 27 Sept - 1 October - all welcome

Read a BMJ review

"Excellent course - perfectly pitched for all."  Dr Aj Eusuf, '08 delegate

I had a fantastic time on the Morocco trip; it was a truly inspiring medical course which has made me totally rethink my career! Will be recommending it to everyone! Thanks again.
Alex Kennedy, '08 delegate

Mountain Medicine & Skills - Climb Toubkal - Lead a Team

This expedition uniquely combines the essentials of expedition and mountain medicine with highly practical mountain skills training and culminates with an ascent of Jbel Toubkal (4167m), the highest mountain in North Africa and an overnight visit to Marrakech.  

No previous expedition or climbing experience required but you need to be moderately fit.

Dates: Saturday - Friday 25 Sept - 1 Oct 2010 (trek only 28 Sept - 1 Oct)

How much? £550 paid to WMT to book + a local in country payment of 250 Euros THIS IS THE 2009 PRICE - 2010 rates pending confirmation

Trek only phase: £225 paid to WMT to book + 200 Euro local payment in 2009 - 2010 rates pending confirmation

Who for? this is essential training for doctors, nurses and medical students interested in expedition medicine and becoming an expedition medic

Venue: Kasbah du Toubkal, Imlil, Morocco (1.5 hours from Marrakech)

Event Overview

Imlil, just 60km from Marrakech, is at the foot of Jbel Toubkal. The Kasbah is a fabulous auberge (hostel) and hotel. Visit this link for more photos and some fantastic 360 degree images. The food is fantastic and the Berber hospitality is warm and genuine. This is a comfortable base where we'll prepare for the ascent of Toubkal which takes two days to ascend. There are lectures and practical outdoor training sessions in and around the Kasbah in preparation for the 3 day trek up and down Toubkal. It's a beautiful but fairly tough trek but doesn't involve ropes. After the climb we head straight to Marrakech for the final night, a final dinner together and where a visit to the souk (market) is a must. Most people extend their stay for the weekend.

Logistics

• held over 6 nights and 7 days
• shared/dorm style accommodation divided between the Kasbah (3 nights) and a mountain refuge (2 nights) with a final hotel night in Marrakesh. No camping.
• the final night will be spent in Marrakesh to sightsee and shop!
• arrive Marrakesh airport anytime on Saturday (by 6pm latest) to catch our transfer bus to the Kasbah
• depart any time on Friday or stay the weekend and do your own thing
• see below for airline links for cheap UK - Morocco flights

When you book we'll send you a comprehesive pre-expedition welcome note with more detail and a kit list (you just need clothes, walking shoes, backpack and a torch for the mountain).

The content will be covered in a flexible way at the Kasbah and on the mountain climb and will include:

• Lectures
• Tutorials & discussion groups
• Team challenges
• Practical tuition

Expedition Content

Planning and Pre-expedition considerations

• Travellers with special needs 
• Don’t get sued – legal liability & insurance
• Immunisations & anti-malarials
• Choosing a medical kit
• Water purification

Mountain Medicine

• Altitude illness                                                            
• Avalanche dangers                                                              
• Hypothermia & cold injury

 Managing Injuries in the Field

• Incident management – more than just medicine
• Trauma on expeditions
• Moving & straightening the injured
• Practical fracture management, improvised stretchers & collars

Mountain Skills

• Travelling light: kit selection, packing & waterproofing
• Use of radios in an emergency
• Navigation essentials: reading the terrain, use of map & compass
• Ropes/anchors & security on steep ground techniques
• Using GPS
• Safe river crossings

Other important topics

• Human dynamics on expedition               
• Joining an expedition – being the right stuff and what next?                        
• Everyone will get the opportunity to lead a team under real expedition conditions on the mountain.

2010 Faculty: to be confirmed. Here's who's been involved in previous Morocco expeditions:

Dr Jon Dallimore MSc MBBS (London) MCEM MRCGP DCH DRCOG Dip. Mountain Med.
Jon has spent more than two years in the field on 25 expeditions as doctor and/or leader. These expeditions have varied from the jungles of Sulawesi, Belize, Thailand and Ecuador to the deserts of Sinai, Namibia and Kenya and to the high mountains of East Africa, the Arctic and the Himalayas. Jon completed the UIAA Diploma in Mountain Medicine in September 2004 and is now a UK executive faculty member. Jon has an MSc in travel medicine, is a member of the RGS medical cell and a contributing author and co-editor for the new Oxford Handbook of Wilderness and Expedition Medicine (in press). In addition to his WMT commitments, Jon has developed a portfolio medical career, working as a staff grade doctor in the Emergency Department at Bristol Royal Infirmary, as a part-time GP and as an advisor to five expedition companies. Jon is also a lecturer at Bristol University and advises medical students on their overseas electives and is an ALS and ATLS instructor. Jon is an International Mountain Leader and a member of the Alpine Club.

Dr Rob Casserley MBBS MRCS
Rob is best known for his amazing Everest achievements. He has summited 5 times, including twice in one week in ’07, in a unique capacity of medic, cameraman (for Sir Ranulph Fiennes) and high altitude guide, although he rather self deprecatingly calls himself a “high altitude tea boy”! Rob has also climbed McKinley a few times, Elbrus in Russia, Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu and various peaks in South America not to mention attempts on Aconcagua and Lhotse. Medically, Rob is now pursuing a GP career to make time for his adventurous pursuits which include plans to row the Atlantic, run the Marathon des Sables and return to Everest (again!) in 2010 to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Nick Mason MB ChB FRCA
Nick is also a photographer and mountaineer based in Cardiff, UK. In addition to being a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Nick has spent over a decade researching into the effects of the lack of oxygen at high altitude on the human body. This work has taken him to the mountains of Nepal, Central Asia, North America and the French Alps.

Nick is a member of faculty of the UK Diploma in Mountain Medicine and regularly teaches high altitude physiology and medicine on the diploma. Along with his wife, Emma, he is a representative for the International Porter Protection Group that works to improve the well being of mountain porters throughout the world, and has twice worked at the IPPG rescue post at Machermo in the Gokyo Valley of Nepal.

As long has he has been going into the mountains Nick has taken a camera with him but in recent years landscape and travel photography have become a passion in their own right. The quality of Nick’s work has recently been recognised by his appointment as one of Olympus Camera’s Top Photographers. Examples of his work can be seen on his Summit Photographs website at: www.summitphotographs.com.

James Moore RN Bsc (Hons) Dip TN Dip TM (A)MFTM FRGS
James is a Matron/Emergency Nurse Practitioner at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. He is an APLS & ALS instructor. He has worked as an expedition medic in locations such as Borneo, the Sinai, North and Central Africa and South America. In addition to this he was part of a small relief operation in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami Disaster 2004 and more recently has provided medical cover for the BBC's Extreme Dreams Expedition, filmed in Papua New Guinea with Ben Fogle. He has qualifications in Tropical and Travel Medicine which has led him to lecture for Wilderness Medical Training and consult for numerous expedition companies. He is also a contributor to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine. James is WMT's most active associate and in '08 alone he has delivered private programmes for Hull and Leicester Universities, Cicada Films and was most recently on the faculty delivering WMT's summer Chamonix conference. James is now stepping back from hospital work to develop a new business, Travel Health Consultancy.

Summary of important details:

Dates: 25 September - 1 October 2010

Fee: to be confirmed

• Lecture programme, materials, field manual & tuition
• Jbel Toubkal mountain climb
• Marrakesh airport group transfers to the mountain venue
• Transfer to Marrakech after the climb
• Full board accommodation (shared and mountain refuge) including all soft drinks at the Kasbah
• Marrakech hotel and final group dinner
• Anything not expressly mentioned is excluded

The trek only phase fee includes: airport transfers (27 Sept only), one night Kasbah du Toubkal dinner, bed, breakfast, mountain guiding, all other meals to breakfast on Friday 1st October, 2 night's mountain refuge accommodation and one night Marrakesh hotel. £225 + 200 Euro local payment

The fees excludes personal insurance to include trekking to 4200m (mandatory), flights (arrive Saturday by 6pm), personal equipment (full advice provided), gratuities and items of a personal nature like extra snacks/drinks and bottled water on the mountain. VAT does not apply. Transfer supplements apply if you do not arrive when group transfers are organised for the main parties on the day(s) stated.

Travel advice: check out these links for flights to Marrakech

Atlas Blue - from Gatwick

Easyjet - from Gatwick and Manchester

Royal Air Maroc - Heathrow

Ryanair - from Luton

Note: British passport holders do not need a visa, just a passport with at least 6 months validity remaining. Other nationalities should check on Moroccan visa requirements.

Why not stay on for the weekend and visit the beach, a few hours away?