Project Pressure’s collaboration with Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation is continuing apace, with adventurer Carl Hancock visiting Snæfellsjökull and other glaciers in Iceland for us recently. Later this year, adventuring aid worker Ricky Munday will be travelling to South America to climb the three highest peaks on the continent and conduct some science along the way. We caught up with him to learn more…
Project Pressure: What are your expedition’s objectives?
Ricky Munday: This 38-day expedition is the latest leg in my long-term project to climb the 3 highest mountains on every continent – the Triple 7 Summits. This has never been completed. Along the way, we’ll be supporting ongoing scientific research on South America’s receding glaciers by collecting rock & ice samples for later analysis by world-class researchers, and creating a geo-tagged photographic record of glaciers for you guys. We’re also planning to raise a substantial sum of money to support cancer victims in the UK.
What kind of training are you doing?
I visited Scotland in April with one of the other team members to get some training in on the West Highland Way. We completed the 155km in 5 days, and were lucky to get fantastic weather – you can see some photos from that training here. We have just completed some training in Venezuela and in August we will climb Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe (Russia – 5,642m). The range of climates and ecosystems that we will visit over the course of the next seven months are incredible; from the rain-soaked forests and ancient rock formations of the Guiana Shield; to the glaciated peaks of the Caucasus Mountains; and finally to the dry deserts of the Altiplano.
What has been your best previous experience in the mountains previously?
My best experience in the mountains is always my last – in this case spending two days on the summit plateau of Roraima in the Gran Sabana of Venezuela (pictured below). We trekked to the Proa in the Guyana sector but unfortunately, it was cloudy and there were no views. It was deeply disappointing after three hard days’ trekking. As we were trekking back to our cave camp, the local guide noticed the cloud cover shifting. For just a few minutes we were treated to an awesome site over the rainforests of Guyana. Breathing fresh mountain air in a remote mountain range; watching the sun rise or set at a high elevation where few people have been; witnessing a cloud inversion over a Scottish glen – these are the experiences that touch my soul.
Why you think its important to contribute to science?
I believe that we all have a responsibility to contribute to a better understanding of our planet. In my case, becaue I have the privilege of visiting places that many people can only dream of, I feel compelled to support researchers who would other wise have no access to samples or data from those remote areas. Although I am a Chartered Accountant, my background is science: I originally studied Zoology and dreamed of being a field researcher. My job now is focused on supporting the most vulnerable people, but my own passion is understanding and protecting our planet.
We’ll keep you posted on Ricky’s expedition, and you can sponsor him via JustGiving and contribute to Project Pressure here.

We were delighted to receive an email from Steve Behaeghel and his wife Katrijn, who have just completed an expedition to Patagonia which you can read about on their impressive blog.
While there, they took pictures for Project Pressure and collected samples for other initiatives through Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation – an NGO which links explorers and adventurers with initiatives like ours which can benefit from contributions by the public.
“We spent the last four months exploring remote corners of Patagonia,” writes Steve, whose image shows “the Glaciar O’Higgins, which calves in the huge Lago O’Higgins from the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap. This viewpoint is reached by a remote trek in the southern tip of the Aysen region, in Chilean Patagonia. Only a few determined people a year reach this remote rocky outcrop mirador per year.”
“The first night we scrambled up in very windy weather to find the 60m high (sticking out of the water) 3km wide glacier without any icebergs. After a stormy night, and now with windstill, sunny conditions, we hiked up again, to be astonished with the view that a huge shelf at least one mile long that had calved off during the night – forming a huge amount of ice and bergs in the lake.”
“We’re heading into the Cordillera Blanca and Huayhuash the upcoming seven weeks, with a lot of data collecting in the pipeline. Saludos from Huaraz, Peru.”
–Steve and Katrijn, Patagonian Dreams

Following his Project Pressure talk, Klaus Thymann spoke to the Oxford Internet Institute’s David Sutcliffe about glaciers, data and crowdsourcing in detail. You can read more on the Institute’s Policy and Internet Blog.

Just confirmed our latest expedition – in June, Project Pressure will team up with Jorge Luis Ceballos of IDEAM to visit glaciers in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in Colombia, and then travel to Bolivia to document the Cordillera Real range.

Project Pressure’s recent expedition to Eastern Greenland gave us an aerial view of one of the most insidious problems in the fight against climate change: darkening ice.

As a look through our photographic gallery reveals, glaciers are often naturally dirtied and darkened, especially during the summer months when no new snow accumulates– but over time, small manmade particles can also land and make them darker. The result is that less sunlight is reflected, more solar energy is absorbed and more melting takes place: a dangerous feedback loop that could become a key tipping point as the world warms.
The problem is especially pronounced in the Arctic and in the Himalayas, where a combination of emissions from transport, cooking stoves, wildfires, land clearance, coal power plants other sources drifts north over the ice and snow. Though tiny, these black carbon particles are collectively a serious problem – reducing the reflectivity (or ‘albedo’) of vast white surfaces and so causing significant melting.
The good news is that black carbon also presents a serious opportunity to reduce overall warming and improve people’s health. Firstly, it’s responsible for as much as 25% of observed global warming* – so tackling such emissions could bring serious results. Secondly, it doesn’t last long in the atmosphere (generally settling after just a few weeks) so the effects of a reduction would soon kick in. Thirdly, reducing these toxic pollutants would have huge benefits for human health, meaning it’s not just an environmental issue.
In the Western world, diesel emissions have been sharply reduced – benefitting both people and the planet. As shipping increases with the retreat of Arctic ice, limiting these dark emissions will remain a challenge – but one with serious potential to limit climate change.
Text by Chris Hatherill for Project Pressure
* J. Hansen, et al., Efficacy of Climate Forcing, 110 J. GEOPHYS. RES. D18104, 1 (2005), available at http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2005/2005_Hansen_etal_2.pdf.

Project Pressure photographer and founder Klaus Thymann spoke recently at the Oxford Internet Institute event “Changing Behaviour: Participation, Influence and Impact” – alongside the BBC’s Holly Goodier and technology journalist Aleks Krotoski. His talk gives a good overview of the project and our interactive online platform, MELT.

Project Pressure photographer Klaus Thymann recently returned from our first expedition to New Zealand, where he photographed and data-logged glaciers in the Darran Mountains of Fiordland National Park (pictured). Working with glaciologist Dr Trevor Chinn, the team travelled by helicopter to enable them to visit Mount Tutoko, Mount Madeline, Mount Gunn and Mount Prembroke. This is one of the few places in the world where lush temperate rainforest and glacier-covered peaks exists in such close proximity, and we’ll bring you more photographs as soon as they’re processed and graded.

Images from Project Pressure are featured in the glossy section of latest issue of [i]House[/i] – the magazine for Soho House members worldwide. You can read it online (article is on page 36).

Jane Withers looks at Project Pressure and other water-related initiatives for DAMn° Magazine.

The recently published Inventory of Norwegian Glaciers features a number of Project Pressure images gathered during a combined field trip with editors/authors Liss Andreassen and Solvieg Winsvold. You can download a copy of this excellent report here.