Ejaad-Nama 0x14: Exploring Problems of High Altitude
Ejaad-Nama (Urdu: Letters of Invention). We talk about lemons, acid batteries, and anything in between.
Ejaad-Nama is the word from the Urdu language which means Letters of Invention. Ejaad-nama is about improving scientific literacy and normalizing it. It’s a step towards removing the barriers to learn science and develop further interest and excitement. You can subscribe here to get the regular update in your inbox:
Background
Earlier this month, Three Iconic mountaineers: Pakistan’s Muhammad Ali Sadpara, Iceland’s John Snorri, Chile's Juan Pablo Mohr went missing after trying to scale the mighty K2 in winter. An expedition one of its kind where temperatures could dip to lows of -80 degrees Celsius. After several search and rescue attempts, they were pronounced dead given that surviving in hostile conditions for an extended period of time is almost impossible for any human being. It is reported that they were likely able to summit the giant but the descent could have proved fatal. I do not know of any words that can capture the loss, but the world surely got poorer with their absence.
But what has that got to do with Ejaadnama?
While following the developments of these mountaineers, I started wondering what conditions would be at the peak of the mountain and the problems they pose.
To get the sense of complexity of climbing the titan that K2 is, Here is a nice virtual trek up the K2 in 8 minutes.
So what’s so different about high altitude?
It all comes down to air pressure. Air that we feel around us behaves like any other fluid. At sea level, all the air and its molecules above us exert pressure(or force due to gravity) on us or things around us. In fact, that’s exactly how air pressure is measured:
The pressure of the air is often measured in the unit of mm mercury rises in the tube at a particular level. At sea level, Mercury inside the tube rises to 760 mm. If we were to climb 8000m high, this reduces to 254mm. This is about 66% less air pressure than we are generally used to. Have you ever had your ear pop when the plane is taking off? It’s the air pressure inside your ear trying to equalize with the lower air pressure of the cabin.
The heat absorbed by the earth's surface warms the air closer to the surface. Heat usually flows upwards conventionally by air. Hence, the higher we go the lower the temperatures.
Impact to human body
The dry air consists of 21 % of oxygen. The composition of oxygen in the air remains constant. However, most of this oxygen is found in thicker high air pressure areas at sea level. As you go higher, the air gets thinner and so does the oxygen. That’s where the first difficulty lies: The low oxygen content requires a normal person to breathe faster and deeper than usual. This is in addition to extreme cold temperatures affecting the body.
The faster breathing creates a whole set of problems:
Your lungs and heart are always working faster. The dry air absorbs more moisture from your body resulting in dehydration.
Sleeplessness: Since your body needs to breathe faster which is not what the body can do when one is sleeping.
Loss of Cognition: the decision-making becomes slower and so does reaction time. The mood becomes more irritable and anxious.
Acclimatization of the body usually occurs in the longer term when the body gets used to air pressure. This is why usually people who live their life in the mountains are fitter and outperform those who are living at sea level.
Impact to Technology
The lack of air pressure also impacts the worldly things that we carry to the mountains. For example, During the ascent of the mountaineers, the Garmin GPS tracker that John Snorri was carrying also stopped working. This led to check the documentation of the device that John Snorri was carrying. The operating temperature range of the device seems to be around -20 degrees celsius. Since winter temperatures can reach lows of -40 degrees celsius, the device may not be the best one to carry.
The cold temperatures have the following impacts:
Batteries such as Li-on require chemical reactions between the cathode, anode, and electrolyte. The cold temperature can slow down this process. In the case of Li-on Batteries, the cold temperature increases the internal resistance of the cell. This reduces both the voltage and total capacity. Here is an interesting graph from a research paper on 18650 cells showing how the capacity of the battery is almost halved at -20 degrees. It can be assumed that John Snorri’s GPS device possibly was out of batteries very quickly and locating the team made it impossible.
The impact of batteries running out can be huge: Satellite phones and anything powered by batteries may render useless.
Mechanical devices such as Hard drives may stop working. This is because the air pressure is just too low to lift the writing head which ends up scratching the disk surface.
Due to very low air, the conventional way of heat dissipation usual in electronics is made difficult. This means: if you do have a working flashlight turned on at a high altitude, it will run very hot over time and damage the device.
After learning the extreme conditions the high altitude poses to everything human, I can only respect the level of courage and passion the mountaineer’s exhibit. These journeys require an unusual amount of bravery and only proves that humans can overcome all sort of challenges.
Behind the inspirational achievements of adventurers, there are the unsung heroes in the form of local guides, porters, and climbers without whom none of the privileged mountaineers could have achieved their dream. The local climbers usually remain unnamed and underpaid for their efforts.
You can read the stories of these mountain people written by Kamran on Bike here. If you are inspired, you can back fundraiser to support families of the deceased mountain guides, aspiring but underprivileged climbers, and local community members.
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