Summit Oxygen system

When the Team enter the upper sections of the SE Ridge we will start to use supplementary oxygen to assist us with our progress, whilst Makalu has been climbed without the use of oxygen we feel, as a team, that the extended nature of the route and the high level bivouac at nearly 8000 metres - often referred to as the ‘Death Zone’ in the media, this makes the use of oxygen more of a necessity than on a normal ascent.

The Summit Oxygen system has been developed by Neil Greenwood, a serving Officer in the Royal Engineers and past member of the Joint Services Kangchenjunga Expedition. The system differs from other traditional oxygen delivery systems in two key areas, firstly the system allows for the use of a nasal canular rather than a bulky face mask, this thin silicon tube allows oxygen to feed directly into the nose allowing speech as well as eating and drinking to take place unhindered and importantly does not block the view of your feet whilst climbing.

The main advantage to the system however, is that it works on a pulse dose system that allows a measured short burst of oxygen to be delivered with each inhalation of air, rather than the constant flow of oxygen that other systems provide. The magic box of the pulse dose meter delivers the equivalent measure of oxygen per breath that would be received at lower altitudes; the rate of flow can be altered to match the rate of work on the mountain.

From a climbers point of view this gives a far greater endurance per oxygen cylinder, for example, during the 2008 expedition one cylinder lasted for 47 hours and I could still have slept on it at a low rate of flow for another night – this will allow for a summit bid using only one cylinder, whereas traditional systems would typically call for the use of 3 cylinders for a summit bid, all of which calls for more equipment to be hauled up the mountain.

For a small team with limited Sherpa support this system suits our needs ideally. Larger commercial expeditions may well still prefer a constant flow system and rely on their Sherpa’s to haul endless bottles of oxygen up to high camps to support the clients on the summit push. However, this style of climbing is far removed from what is being attempted by this team and was not considered as an option.